Mufasa gets blown up by Sonic 3 for its box office start

Mufasa et Sonic 3 arrive in American cinemas, and The Lion King is on a poor track to win the face-to-face between Disney and Paramount.

THE duel of the end of the year in cinemas is that of Mufasa : The Roi Lion et Sonic 3 – the movie. On the one hand, we have the lukewarm prequel to the 2019 film, directed by Barry Jenkins. On the other, the lukewarm sequel to video game adaptations Sonicdirected by Jeff Fowler. Footbath juice VS pee cappuccino: while the two films have just been released in the United States, little update on their start.

Mufasa: the lion (king) died tonight

The big winner of the duel is Sonic 3who would have collected in the 62 million dollars at its launch in 3,761 dark rooms. This is a little below its predecessor (72 million), but well above the first part of the saga (58 million) and better than industry forecasts (55-60 million). Despite its budget significantly higher than that of the previous opuses (122 million against 95 and 90 million), Sonic 3 should be a small success if it follows the trajectory of 2 (190 million at the domestic box office and 405 million worldwide).

The Lion Kingfor its part, would have amassed around 35 million in revenue in three days, in 4,100 cinemas, or barely more than half of the figures of Sonic 3. We are very (very) far from the start of the 2019 remake, which was around $191 million, without taking into account inflation. The launch of Mufasa is more comparable to that of Robot sauvage (35 million), released this year.

The parallel is not very flattering, since The Wild Robot was produced for $78 million (JP box-office), collected 143 million at the domestic box office and 324 million worldwide. According to Deadline, Mufasa : The Roi Lion would have cost over $200 million, not counting the roughly $100 million in marketing. If the Disney film follows the example of DreamWorks, it will be a flop.

As a reminder, Mufasa has been available in our French cinemas since December 18. Sonic 3 – the movie will disembark this Wednesday 25 in our dark rooms.