Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King is just not as regal as hoped in its international debut. The cume by three days of worldwide field workplace play is $33M, which, with the home outlook, portends a $125M worldwide begin by Sunday. That’s far off pre-weekend projections of a $180M worldwide debut.
Domestically, as Anthony has detailed, is leaning arduous into Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. That film doesn’t start rollout internationally till subsequent weekend, so Mufasa has offshore markets to itself this session.
However the lion is just not roaring from the get-go offshore, and there’s nonetheless a variety of household play to go round (ie Dis’ personal Moana 2 in addition to Depraved). Nonetheless, vacation distractions are an general issue and the hope is for extra traction as time frees up.
The present through-Friday of $33M is 28% forward of final yr’s Christmas launch, Wonka; and on par with Disney’s Aladdin (which ended up with magic carpet legs) on a like-for-like foundation.
Mufasa to this point has opened because the No. 1 non-local film in all markets (it’s notably being beat by the second body of a Korean film in that market).
The highest begins on the prequel by Friday are Mexico ($3.3M), France ($3M) and UK/Brazil/Germany at $2M apiece. China appears to be like set for $8M by Sunday; not a patch on the earlier Lion King, however maybe sufficient to win the weekend there.
Social scores are strong in lots of markets and there’s runway forward.
We’ll have a full replace on Sunday.
