‘Mufasa’ Reigns King At Box Office With $24.5 Million Domestically

The first weekend of 2025 is now underway at the box office, with multiple holiday holdover titles reigning as top contenders. So far, Mufasa: The Lion King has come out on top as the king of the box office. 

Mufasa: The Lion King serves as a prequel to the 2019 remake of The Lion King, detailing how Mufasa and Scar grew up together as brothers but also how they grew apart from one another. Barry Jenkins takes up helming the new film, with a script done by Jeff Nathanson. 

Mufasa is eyeing a total of $24.5 million to take home in the first weekend of 2025, after pulling in $7.6 million on Friday. 

Variety notes that this is the first time it’s been able to completely overtake Sonic The Hedgehog 3, as it fell behind it on opening weekend, and still struggled to top it entirely over the holidays. 

Despite Mufasa’s lead, however, Sonic is still keeping up the pace right behind it. With a $6.9 million total at Friday’s end, its three-day period is sizing up to be just shy of $21 million, staying hot on Mufasa’s paws. 

Sonic 3 brings the titular hedgehog back with his friends to stop Doctor Robtnik once more, joined this time by Shadow the Hedgehog, who puts everything Sonic ever held dear in his life into jeopardy. 

Moana 2, in its sixth week of distribution, is still putting up strong numbers. It’s looking to make over $13 million through the weekend, pushing its domestic total to $425 million, while its worldwide total nudges ever closer to breaking $1 billion. 

The top five is rounded out by Nosferatu with $13.1 million, and Wicked with just over $10 million. 

The top ten domestic titles at the weekend box office, courtesy of Deadline:

1. Mufasa (Disney) 3-Day $24.5M/ Total $169.2M/ Wk 3
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Paramount) 3-Day $20.7M/ Total $187M/ Wk 3 
3. Moana 2 (Disney) 3-Day $13.2M/ Total $425.9M/ Wk 6
4. Nosferatu (Focus) 3-Day $13.1M/ Total $69.3M/ Wk 2
5. Wicked (Universal) 3-Day $10.2M/ Total $450.7M/ Wk 7
6. A Complete Unknown (Searchlight) 3-Day $8.3M/ Total $41.9M/ Wk 2
7. Babygirl (A24) 3-Day $4.6M/ Total $16.2M/ Wk 2
8. Gladiator II (Paramount) 3-Day $2.65M/ Total $168.8M/ Wk 7
9. Homestead (Angel Studios) 3-Day $1.9M/ Total $17.2M/ Wk 3
10. The Fire Inside (Amazon) 3-Day $1.23M/ Total $7.1M/ Wk 2