Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King is not as regal as hoped in its global debut. The cume through three days of international box office play is $33M, which, with the domestic outlook, portends a $125M worldwide start through Sunday. That’s far off pre-weekend projections of a $180M worldwide debut.
Domestically, as Anthony has detailed, is leaning hard into Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. That movie doesn’t begin rollout internationally until next weekend, so Mufasa has offshore markets to itself this session.
But the lion is not roaring from the get-go offshore, and there is still a lot of family play to go around (ie Dis’ own Moana 2 as well as Wicked). Nevertheless, holiday distractions are an overall factor and the hope is for more traction as time frees up.
The current through-Friday of $33M is 28% ahead of last year’s Christmas release, Wonka; and on par with Disney’s Aladdin (which ended up with magic carpet legs) on a like-for-like basis.
Mufasa so far has opened as the No. 1 non-local movie in all markets (it’s notably being beat by the second frame of a Korean movie in that market).
The top starts on the prequel through Friday are Mexico ($3.3M), France ($3M) and UK/Brazil/Germany at $2M apiece. China looks set for $8M through Sunday; not a patch on the previous Lion King, but perhaps enough to win the weekend there.
Social scores are solid in many markets and there is runway ahead.
We’ll have a full update on Sunday.