‘Sonic 3’ narrowly squeaked by ‘Mufasa’ as family friendly films ruled the weekend box office. They finished at number 1 and 2 with $38M and $37M, respectively. However, the five-day totals, including crucial Christmas Day numbers, had ‘Mufasa’ prevailing over ‘Sonic.’
Despite that, are we just going to pretend that ‘Mufasa’ isn’t this massive failure for Disney? 2019’s “The Lion King” had an opening global weekend of $440M. After two weeks, and during the Christmas surge, ‘Mufasa’ is only at $315M. Jenkins’ longtime producer Adele Romanski recently let it slip that the film’s budget might have been as high as $250M.
However, the big story this weekend has got to be “Nosferatu.” It amassed $40M in its first five days, and is already Robert Eggers' highest grossing film in North America. “Nosferatu” has already done more than 50% of The Northman's entire worldwide gross, and it didn't cost as much ($50M budget).
Meanwhile, James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown” earned $23M over its first five days, making it Searchlight's second highest debut ever. It helps that the film is actually really good, and Bob Dylan himself has given his blessing. Having Timothee Chalamet as your lead doesn’t hurt either.
Nicole Kidman’s steamy “Babygirl” made a disappointing $4.4M. Ever since its Venice premiere, this film has been slowly losing steam, and that’s despite strong reviews, A24’s backing and persistent Oscar buzz for Kidman’s incredible performance. I would imagine we’ll be seeing this one on VOD very soon, especially as Oscar nominations near.
We should also mention that “Wicked” is still out there, playing in 3100 theaters, having so far made $425M, but for some reason, will be made available on VOD in two days’ time. Exhibitors can’t be too happy about that. The musical made $19M over the 5-day weekend — that’s too high for a film that will soon be made readily available for home viewing.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.