The prequel to (The) Lion King of Disney, Mufasa : The Roi Lioncrashes for its start at the American box office, only obtaining second place among launches with 35 million dollars in revenue (in 4,100 cinemas), far behind the 50 million dollars expected before its release. For comparison, The Lion King of Jon Favreau had raked in $191 million in three days across the Atlantic. Moreover, Mufasa faces severe competition from Sonic 3 : The Movie which grossed $62 million in three days (in 3,700 theaters).
Mufasa: The Lion King gets off to a start well below that of its predecessor
While the first French figures remained correct, this is clearly a very bad start for the film. Barry Jenkins which cost over $200 million to produce and around $100 million to promote worldwide. Despite mixed reviews, the film has several potential strengths, including a solid “A-” rating on the reference site CinemaScore from the public and the fact that December releases are not known for strong launches but, if word of mouth is favorable, can sustain into January and beyond.
This was the case of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle of Sonyfor example, which had an initial score of $36 million in 2017 but ended up grossing a whopping $404 million in the United States and $962 million worldwide. However, it would be surprising if Mufasa : The Roi Lion reaches the same heights at the box office, but this musical and family film has a better chance of breaking through abroad.
In the world, it's not better unfortunately
On the international box office side, Mufasa : The Roi Lion made a start around $87.2 million, for a worldwide total of $122.2 million. The Lion King of Jon Favreau had, for comparison, made a stunning $531 million debut in the summer of 2019 (it had benefited from its Chinese release in addition to that in the United States) and ultimately generated $1.66 billion at the worldwide box office. It is ranked 10th in the list of films with the most revenue worldwide (without taking into account inflation).
Mufasa : The Roi Lion still has a chance to bounce back during the Christmas holidays. Otherwise, it would be an obvious sign of weariness on the part of the public towards remakes and other films derived from animated universes Disney. The next film in this series is none other than Snow White and its fate is already practically sealed for various reasons. The remakes of (The) Jungle Bookof (The) Lion Kingd’Aladdinof Beauty and the Beast orAlice in Wonderland were huge commercial successes. The most recent ones like Mulan, Dumbo et The Little Mermaid did not completely convince or did not meet expectations in theaters.
Does Mufasa's start portend a bitter failure?
Disney has other tricks up his sleeve because if Snow White crashes in March, the remake of Lilo & Stitch is probably guaranteed to work. Rehabilitations with high potential will come in the coming years such as Rapunzel, Vaiana, The Legend of the End of the World et Hercule. Others like Bambi or LIt's Aristochats will perhaps follow the same trajectory as Mufasa : The Roi Lionusing the same visual process of animation in computer-generated images of animals.
In any case, the game is not yet over for Mufasa because the prequels and sequels of franchises of this type very often start slowly then rise (at least a little) gradually. This was the case of Maleficent: The Power of Evil which finished just shy of $500 million at the worldwide box office. Others like Alice Through the Looking Glass were less fortunate, not even exceeding $300 million.
Barry Jenkinsthe Oscar-winning director of “ Moonlight » et If Beale Street Could Talkdirected the film and the music is by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Le casting vocal original se compose d’Aaron Pierre et Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the roles of Mufasa and Scar, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Mads Mikkelsen et Blue Ivy Carter.
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