In a similar vain to Mattel and Warner Bros.’s Barbie movie finding itself in an interesting competition against Universal’s Oppenheimer last year, Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 have become this year’s Barbenheimer. While Sonic 3 fared fantastic, with solid reviews to boot, that seems to be not enough for the staying power of a Disney flick.
Mufasa: The Lion King has beaten out Paramount’s game flick at the North American box office, according to Variety. Sonic had a strong start during the traditional debut, but once the holidays truly rolled around, Disney’s live action prequel took center stage after fumbling at the starting line. It didn’t help that critics weren’t too thrilled for a new live action Disney flick, even if it had purpose of establishing a backstory. Theatergoers, however, have enjoyed the film enough for it to pick up the pace.
As of writing, the film nabbed $111 million at the North American box office, with $328 million topping it off globally across nine days. If its momentum continues, we could have another Inside Out 2 or Moana 2 on our hands, both of which are found great success in theaters, which also translated well on Disney Plus.
Sonic 3 is no slouch either, though, just because it’s losing the race, it still generated a domestic sum of $137.5ย million, topped off with $211 million globally to date. Meanwhile, unlike Mufasa: The Lion King, it doesn’t have nearly the same allure as Disney flicks, but it’s still a household IP, tied to Sonic and all. It’s also on track to beat out its two precursors — its 2020 original and 2022 sequel, both of which were box office success stories.
