The Lion King beats Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at the box office

The box office race between Disney’s prequel film “Mufasa: The Lion King” and Paramount’s sequel “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” has only just begun, but it’s not too early to determine a winner. As the expected weekend for both films approaches, “Sonic 3” takes first place with revenues amounting to $70.5 million, and “Mufasa” comes in second place by a large margin, achieving $35 million each. Winding.

The gap is further widened by the fact that “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” was produced on a relatively conservative budget of $122 million, while “Mufasa: The Lion King” cost more than $200 million. Directed by Barry Jenkins, the Disney film follows the success of Jon Favreau’s 2019 “live-action” remake of “The Lion King,” which retold the classic animated story using near-realistic lions. Although 2019’s The Lion King was a huge hit at the box office — grossing $191 million in its opening weekend, and more than $1.66 billion globally by the end of its theatrical run — Reviews were very mixed The film failed to leave much of a cultural impact. It’s no surprise that Mufasa didn’t live up to the mark Already low expectations for a $55-65 million opening.

Paramount learned a lesson early on with the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie franchise that “realistic” looking animation isn’t necessarily better. The backlash to the initial trailer for the first film in the series was so extreme that it led to… Rushed redesign of Sonic To make him resemble his cartoonish appearance in video games. Since that early rush, the films have generated steady income, and “Sonic 3” is slightly behind the $72.1 million opening weekend of 2022’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”