Christmas Weekend Box Office

【Title/标题】
‘Sonic 3' and ‘Mufasa’ battle for No. 1 at the holiday box office

【Source/来源】
Media Outlet/媒体：AP News
Written by/作者：Lindsey Bahr

【Transcript/文稿】
Two family films dominated the holiday box office this week, with “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” winning the three-day weekend over “Mufasa” by a blue hair.

Paramount’s Sonic movie earned $38 million, while “Mufasa” brought in $37.1 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. On a normal weekend counting Friday, Saturday and Sunday ticket purchases, the winner would be somewhat clear. But when the Christmas holiday falls on a Wednesday as it did this year, the studios look at two sets of numbers: The five-day earnings and the three-day weekend earnings. With the five-day tally, The Walt Disney Co.'s “Mufasa” had the edge, bringing in $63.8 million.

It all adds up to a rather robust theatrical landscape, helped by the continued success of “Wicked” and “Moana 2,” which are on their sixth and fifth weekends, respectively.

The vampire horror “Nosferatu” also debuted fairly triumphantly. Robert Eggers’ modern reimagining of a 1922 silent film starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp rose to the top of a starry batch of Christmas Day newcomers, which included the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” with Timothée Chalamet; the erotic drama “Babygirl” with Nicole Kidman; and “The Fire Inside,” about boxer Claressa Shields.