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FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: It’s a better first weekend of the year than last year with Disney’s Mufasa and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continuing their tussle into their third frames, $23M-$24M to $20M. In regards to 3-day weekends, this is the first No. 1 win for Mufasa. Sonic 3 won the first two 3-day weekends of its release, however, Mufasa was the No. 1 movie for the 5-day Dec. 25-29 period with $60.9M.
The top five movies are set to gross close to $78M which is $22M more than last year’s top five pic’s tally of $56M, meaning we’re in slightly better shape, and that’s without any new big titles.
Mufasa is in play at 3,925 theaters, and will hit $168.7M at the high end by Sunday. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is booked at 3,746 sites and will reach a running total of $186.3M by Sunday, just $4.5M from becoming the highest grossing title in the SEGA franchise, besting Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s $190.8M.
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In third place is Focus Features’ second weekend of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu at 3,132 theaters with a $12.3M 3-day, -43%, for a running cume by Sunday of $68.5M. And that total is without any Golden Globe noms this weekend. However, the Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson movie is up for four Critics Choice Awards.
Fourth is Disney’s sixth weekend of Moana 2 with $12M, -37%, for a running total of $424.7M at 3,345 locations. Worldwide the movie is getting closer to overtaking the Despicable Me 4 global total of $969M, as well as reaching the $1 billion mark. The sequel is up for Best Animated Motion Picture at the Golden Globes this Sunday.
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Fifth is Universal’s seventh weekend of Wicked at 3,287 theaters with a 3-day of $9.5M, -52%, for a running cume of $450M by Sunday. The Jon M. Chu directed title dropped on PVOD on Dec. 31. Wicked is up for four Golden Globes this Sunday including Best Musical/Comedy Feature, Best Actress Comedy/Musical Cynthia Erivo, Best Supporting Actress Ariana Grande and Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.
In sixth is Searchlight’s James Mangold directed Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, with a second weekend of $7.5M, -36% at 2,835 with a running total by Sunday of $41.2M, which will make it the highest grossing Searchlight title post Disney-Fox 2019 merger, surpassing The Menu ($38.5M).
As we previously reported, this weekend, in addition to Oct. 31 and Dec. 12, is one of three weekends in 2025 sans wide releases.
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Last year, the top three movies were Warner Bros’ Wonka ($14M fourth weekend), Universal/Blumhouse’s Nightswim ($11.7M opening) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ($10.6M).