Experts were right and wrong aboutSonicthe Hedgehog 3andMufasa: The Lion King.
Ahead of release,projectionshad peggedSonicat $60 million domestic andMufasaat $50M. Sure enough, the Blue Blur came in with a solid$62M. ButMufasa? The prequel drew only$35M.
There are issues with both numbers.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Speeds Out to the Best Reviews of the Franchise on Rotten Tomatoes
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has debuted with the best reviews of the franchise so far on Rotten Tomatoes.
WhySonic 3’s Weekend Box Office Is Slightly Frustrating
TheThursday previewsforSonic 3were $6.5 million, which was the highest of the trilogy. It beatSonic 2by only $250K but was still ahead. That had raised expectations that maybe the threequel would become the franchise’s box office king.
But each day brought in a little less and a little less. Let’s review the totals for all three films in the franchise (in chronological order).
Deadlinehad some notes:
Per Paramount, families repped 46% of their crowd through two days which is why business was lighter on Saturday…. By comparison,Sonic the Hedgehog 2opened on July 03, 2025 and brought in 59% families. Confidence prevails in business from Christmas Day onward.
As exciting as opening weekend numbers are, total box office is what ultimately matters. You have to imagine families that would typically see a film opening weekend have end of year obligations or travel that might have interfered in theater-going. It’s still possible forSonic 3to win the race against its peers. (And forSonic 4to take the crown in 2027).
WhyMufasa’s Weekend Box Office Is Frustrating
Oh man. The domestic opening weekend for 2019’sThe Lion Kinglive-action remake was $191.1 million. That bears repeating:$191.1 million.
The silver lining seems to be “it could have been worse.” But not by much. It’s an 82% drop.
Let’s take a look at the day-by-day comparison:
There’s just nothing positive about this number. Granted, we do have the rest of the holiday season. Maybe word of mouth is strong and drives families to the theater throughout the holidays and into the new year?
Unfortunately, the global total also stalled. Let’s play a game. Do you think the global box office drop is lower, equal or higher than the domestic one of 82%?
Mufasa’s global weekend was $87 million. Which feels a lot better than the domestic number of $35M. But how does it compare toThe Lion King? The predecessor raked in $269 million. Again, just in the opening weekend.
It’s a 68% drop, so slightly better than the domestic fall.
Disney will probably go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how they fumbled one of their biggest properties so badly.
