Holiday moviegoing may begin in earnest on Christmas, but we can’t ignore that there 95% of K-12 schools are off today — and colleges too. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, after coming in lower than expected at $60.1M on opening weekend, will continue its rally at the box office with around $9M today at 3,761 locations for a running total of $69.1M. The pic’s upcoming 5-day outlook from Christmas Wednesday through Sunday looks to be north of $50M.
The Jeff Fowler-directed threequel starring Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz will be off today by some 41% from its $15.3M Sunday.
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, after a very low $35.4M opening, will see another $5M today. That’s down 51% from Sunday’s $10.2M. The four-day on Mufasa is $40.4M. The Barry Jenkins-directed prequel should see around $40M-$45M in the 5-day Christmas run, followed by Moana 2 with $20M-$22M.
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Universal’s Wicked is eyeing around $4M today after a $14.1M fifth weekend, -38%, at 3,296 theaters. The Jon M. Chu-directed feature take on the Broadway musical — the highest ever for the genre — will have a domestic cume by Tuesday of $388.5M. The movie is bound to cross $400M by the end of the holiday weekend.
Competition abounds on Wednesday with four wide adult-leaning, auteurish theatrical releases — three of ’em R-rated: Focus Features’ Robert Eggers-directed horror movie Nosferatu (2,600 locations, 7 p.m. Christmas Eve previews); Searchlight’s James Mangold young Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro (2,500 theaters, previews 2 p.m. Christmas Eve), A24’s spicy-naughty Babygirl from Halina Reijn starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson (2,000 theaters, no previews). There’s also Amazon MGM Studios’ Rachel Morrison-led PG-13 boxing movie The Fire Inside (2000 theaters, 2 p.m. Christmas Eve previews). More on those separately.