US box office: Sonic 3 still stronger than Mufasa, Wicked overtakes Mamma Mia

The musical starring Ariana Grande becomes the biggest success of a Broadway adaptation. (Source: Le Film Français)

Mufasa: The Lion King And Sonic 3 continue to compete for first place at the North American box officethis weekend. Which one is in the lead? Actually, it depends on how you calculate it, with each of these family films having grossed around $60 million in the five days since Christmas.

Paramount's was slightly ahead during the traditional weekend, taking in $38 million between Friday and Sunday and $59.8 million since Wednesday, December 25 – in 3,769 theaters; while the Disney blockbuster took first place if we take into account its receipts over five days ($37.1 million between Friday and Sunday; $63.9 million since Christmas, from 4,100 theaters in total.

Extremely close scores, therefore, for these two family productions which were able to find their audience in the middle of the end-of-year holiday season. This is also the case of Wickedproduced by Universal, which, although it no longer appears on the podium in its sixth week of operation, has achieved a feat at the global box office: the musical comedy by Jon M. Chu officially became this weekend the Broadway adaptation that grossed the most money in worldwide box office history, surpassing Mamma Mia! (2008).

Wicked generated precisely $634 million in revenue worldwide in a month and a half, while Mama Mia earned $611 million (in non-inflation adjusted dollars) over the course of its operation. Worn in particular by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the film grossed $424 million domestically, doubling a few weeks ago, Grease ($188.62 million grossed in 1978) as the biggest Broadway adaptation at the American box office.

These figures are good news for Universal, which is due to release the second part of this big-budget musical comedy soon, Wicked: For Good. This record is also encouraging after the recent trend of stage-to-screen remakes which went more or less unnoticed (The Color Purple, West Side Story, In the Heights…).

Two newcomers in this ranking are doing well: the new Nosferatu by Robert Eggers, produced by Focus Features, and the Bob Dylan biopic, A complete strangerby James Mangold for Searchlight. Well received by critics, they both exceeded box office experts' predictions.

Starring Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok, Nosferatu debuted in third place with $21.1 million for the traditional weekend and $40.3 million for its first five days of operation, from nearly 3,000 screens. The studio said 40 percent of moviegoers purchased their tickets the day before release, which explains why the horror film nearly doubled its $25 million opening forecast. This R-rated gothic tale (not recommended for under 17s unaccompanied by an adult) cost around $50 million to produce. He should therefore quickly repay his budget.

To compare, here are the previous starts of films by the same director in the United States: The Witch won 8.8 million dollars at start-up in February 2016, The Lighthouse : $427,800 in limited release on 8 screens, in October 2019; And The Northman : $12.3 million, in April 2022.

A Complete Unknownwith Timothée Chalamet in the role of the composer of “Blowin' in the Wind”starts in sixth place with $11.6 million over the weekend and $23.2 million over the first five days, which is also higher than forecasts. For Searchlight, this is the second best start in the studio's history behind Notorious in 2009 ($20.4 million over the traditional weekend). This R-rated musical biopic cost more than $70 million, so its success will be long-term, but given the popularity of its main actor since the success of Wonka and of Dune 2this film dedicated to the early career of Bob Dylan should also be covered by its costs. Especially since musical biopics from Hollywood generally work well, Bob Marley: One Love has Elvis passing through Bohemian Rhapsody.

Here is the American ranking for the weekend from Friday December 27 to Sunday December 29, 2024: