Sonic 3 overtakes Mufasa and tops the North American box office

Mix avalee. Mix Monday 23rd December 2024 11:04 AM REPORT

The third film adaptation of Sega's video game had one of the best starts in recent years in December, well ahead of Disney's animated film.

Sonic 3, the movie got off to a great start in the United States. The third part of the saga, adapted from the eponymous Sega video game, hit the top of the North American box office upon its release this weekend. Paramount's film thus exceeds predictions – estimated at $55 million in revenue – by collecting $62 million according to estimates, Sunday, from the specialist firm Exhibitor Relations. It's better than the first opus, Sonic, the movie (2020), and its $58 million in first weekend revenue.

This December release is one of the best in recent years, according to film industry experts. In terms of total revenue, the third installment of the series featuring the blue hedgehog will « far exceed » Sonic 2 and its $405 million raised in 2022, according to David Gross, an industry expert. « We saw a window on the market in December and we said to ourselves that we could exploit it to promote the film »for his part explained to Variety Chris Aronson, Paramount's president of domestic distribution.

Also read
The editorial by Françoise Dargent: “The triumphant year of French cinema”

In this hybrid film with animated and human characters, Jim Carrey plays mad scientist Ivo Robotnik, with Ben Schwartz and Keanu Reeves lending their voices to Sonic and his rival Shadow, respectively. Sonic 3, the movie was released on Friday December 20 in the United States and will be released in France on Wednesday December 25. A great Christmas gift for fans of the franchise.

Mufasa far behind

Quite far behind the blue hedgehog, we find the latest Disney animated film, Mufasa : the Roi Lion . With its 35 million dollars collected between December 20 and 23, the prelude to the famous Lion King (1994) got off to a worse start than expected (50 million estimated revenues), according to David Gross. The film about Simba's father, with the voices of Aaron Pierre, Seth Rogen, Beyoncé and Donald Glover, cost more than $200 million to produce and $100 million to promote, according to Variety. But his terrible start should however be compensated by probable international success and Mufasa could also count on school holidays to make the cinemas roar.

Third place at the box office is occupied by the Wicked from Universal Studios. This big screen adaptation of a famous Broadway musical, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, grossed an additional $13.5 million, surpassing $570 million in worldwide revenue since its release. Vaiana 2 still in the lead last weekend, fell to fourth place with $13.1 million in revenue. The latest Disney cartoon, which marks the return of the Polynesian heroine, has however already earned nearly 800 million dollars worldwide. For its release, the post-apocalyptic thriller Homestead, starring Neal McDonough and Dawn Olivieri in the story of a family who flees the chaos of a nuclear attack to find refuge in the fortress home of an eccentric survivalist, takes fifth place at the North American box office with 6 .1 million dollars in revenue.