The Lion King has overtaken Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at the box office

The box office race between Disney’s prequel Mufasa: The Lion King and Paramount’s sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has just begun, but it’s too early to call the winner. With opening weekend estimates for both films, Sonic 3 is in first place with a $70.5 million debut, while Mufasa is a close second with $35 million for Wrapping.

The gap is further widened by the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was made on a relatively conservative budget of $122 million, while Mufasa: The Lion King cost north of $200 million. The Disney film, directed by Barry Jenkins, went into production following the success of Jon Favreau’s 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King, which retold the story of the classic animated film using near-photorealistic lions. Although 2019’s The Lion King was a box office hit, grossing $191 million in its opening weekend and over $1.66 billion worldwide by the end of its theatrical run, reviews were very mixed and the film left no significant cultural impact. No wonder “Mufas” didn’t make it already low projections for an opening of $55-65 million.

Paramount learned an early lesson from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise that more “realistic” animation isn’t necessarily better. Reaction to the initial trailer for the first film in the series was so strong that it led to a a hasty Sonic redesign to make him look more like his cartoonish appearance in the video games. Still, the movies have been steady at the box office since that early spike, with Sonic 3 just barely behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , which earned $72.1 million in its 2022 opening weekend.