Mufasa is now in theaters, but the new Disney film didn’t exactly roar at the box office!
Disney usually has some good stuff coming to theaters for the Christmas season, as it is one of the hotter periods for the box office. Thus, hopes were high for Mufasa. Directed by the acclaimed Barry Jenkins, this is a prequel to 2019’s live-action The Lion King, showing how a young Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) joins the royal family and his bond with brother Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who becomes Scar.
Disney promoted the film well, with a huge rollout in 4100 theaters, including 400 IMAX screens. However, per The Hollywood Reporter, the movie opened with a weaker-than-expected $35 million rather than the $50-60 million hoped for.
It came second to Sonic 3, which outdid expectations with a $62 million opening, the biggest for a PG-rated Christmas release since 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia. Also, Mufasa opened internationally to a lower-than-anticipated $87.2 million.
There are a few things to take into account for the movie underpeforming. For one, Saturday, December 21st was a very busy day for sports. The NFL had two Saturday games, both of which (Chiefs vs Texans and Steelers vs Ravens) had major playoff implications and thus big audiences.
Speaking of, college football had the opening rounds of the expanded College Football Championship Playoffs for some top battles. Combine that with the pre-Christmas travel and last-minute holiday shopping, and it’s understandable the box office was lower, not just for Mufasa but for other films.
That still seems like a bad opening for Mufasa, especially when its budget was reported at $200 million. The mixed reviews (it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 56%) are hurting even if audiences are more excited about it. It can also be fatigue from so many live-action adaptations and the belief this will be on Disney+ in a couple of months anyway.
This doesn’t mean it’s time to bury the film totally. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Disney sources who think the movie can build its box office over the holidays when more kids are out of school and weekdays are more like weekends. They argue that Sonic 3 is aimted towards male audiences while Mufasa skewers females. They also believe the more prestige showings in IMAX and 3-D can aid in the profits.
It wouldn’t be the first time a movie has a poor opening only to succeed down the road. Disney knows that with 2023’s Elemental, which had the worst opening for a Pixar movie, only to end up grossing half a billion dollars. Disney also still has Moana 2, which built its box office up to just under $800 million worldwide and is likely to hit the $1 billion mark.
This means Disney will finish 2024 with $5 billion in ticket sales, the first studio to do that since 2019. Again, Mufasa would need to build more of an audience to be a hit or even break even, yet there is a chance it can become a sleeper with more support from good word of mouth. Yet it has to be a blow to Disney that this much-anticipated prequel couldn’t rule the top of the box office.
Mufasa is now playing in theaters.