Sonic and Mufasa’s Weird Conspiracy Theory Explained

The above tweet from Frack’s Sonic Deals claims that the LonelyGoomba account was found to be missing “Sonic 3” daily numbers. Indeed, the account in question indicated no registered numbers on Twitter saying, “Sonic 3 isn’t even listed in the daily box office anymore. Disney is clearly paying a website to sabotage Sonic 3 to make Mufasa look better.” However, a little further down in the responses, the account also said: “(I’m kidding about Disney bribing them).”

(Just kidding about Disney buying them off)

— LonelyGoomba (@LonelyGoomba) January 1, 2025

Despite this, other users’ responses said, “There’s some truth to your joke” or “You’re probably not wrong, to be honest. It’s Disney.” Despite the joke, people were willing to believe that Disney would somehow interfere with the daily reporting of the box office. For what purpose, I should ask? As of this writing, Mufasa has grossed $342.5 million worldwide, while Sonic 3 has grossed $210.5 million. Domestically, Sonic 3 is slightly ahead of Mufasa, but not far.

“There’s no conspiracy because both movies are doing relatively well,” said Scott Mendelsohn, a leading industry box office analyst who runs The Outside Scoop on Substacktold /Film. “Mufasa: The Lion King has grossed slightly more in its last few business days, but both films are doing as well (if not better) than their expectations and budgets required.”

Although Mufasa has a bigger budget ($200 million versus Sonic 3’s $120 million), in terms of raw numbers, Disney’s Lion King prequel sold more tickets worldwide. What motivation does Disney have to mess with these numbers? “Disney isn’t bribing Box Office Mojo and The Numbers to hide the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 numbers because neither movie has anything to hide,” Mendelsohn added.

of course The 2019 remake of The Lion King grossed a staggering $1.66 billion worldwidebecoming one of the largest films in history. So, on some level, the performance of this new film so far can be seen as a relative disappointment. But for a company as big as Disney, that’s hardly enough to justify any intervention of this kind. Yet, for whatever reason, people were ready and willing to believe it. Was it motivated by hardcore Sonic fandom? Was it hatred of Disney? In any case, it is inappropriate and unreasonable.