‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ Crosses $70M In Four Days – Monday Box Office Update

TUESDAY AM UPDATE: Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cleared $10M on the first full day of kids and colleges students off from school. This brings the 4-Day on the Jeff Fowler directed threequel to $70.1M, which was the 3-day estimate on the movie back on Friday. So, it just took another day to get to that threshold. It doesn’t mean that holiday moviegoing is in danger. All studios can’t wait for Wednesday when many will be free of holiday distractions, so that they can head to the movies. Today, Christmas Eve business for the top 10 movies can be off as much -20% to -40% from yesterday.

Note, Universal’s Wicked is barreling toward $400M at the domestic box office this week and when it crosses, it will become one of six Universal movies to hit that threshold after Jurassic World ($653.4M), Super Mario Bros Movie ($574.9M), E.T. the Extra Terrestrial ($439.4M), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($417.7M) and Jurassic Park ($407.1M). The Cynthia Erivo-Ariana Grande starring, highest grossing Broadway musical stateside ever made $4.6M yesterday, -11%.

The top 5 as of yesterday is as follows:

1.) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,761 theaters, Mon $10M (-35% from Sunday), Total $70.1M/Wk 1

2.) Mufasa (Dis) 4,100 theaters, Mon $7M (-31%), Total $42.4M/Wk 1

3.) Wicked (Uni) 3,296 theaters, Mon $4.6M, Total $389.2M/Wk 5

4.) Moana 2 (Dis) 3,600 theaters, Mon. $4M (-13%), Total $363.2M/Wk 4

5.) Gladiator 2 (Par) 2,397 theaters, Mon $1.16M (-26%), Total $155.2M/Wk 5

MONDAY UPDATE: Holiday moviegoing may begin in earnest on Christmas, but we can’t ignore that there 95% of K-12 schools are off today — and colleges too. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, after coming in lower than expected at $60.1M on opening weekend, will continue its rally at the box office with around $9M today at 3,761 locations for a running total of $69.1M. The pic’s upcoming 5-day outlook from Christmas Wednesday through Sunday looks to be north of $50M.

The Jeff Fowler-directed threequel starring Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz will be off today by some 41% from its $15.3M Sunday.

Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, after a very low $35.4M opening, will see another $7M today. That’s down 32% from Sunday’s $10.2M. The four-day on Mufasa is $42.4M. The Barry Jenkins-directed prequel should see around $40M-$45M in the 5-day Christmas run, followed by Moana 2 with $20M-$22M.

Universal’s Wicked is eyeing around $4M today after a $14.1M fifth weekend, -38%, at 3,296 theaters. The Jon M. Chu-directed feature take on the Broadway musical — the highest ever for the genre — will have a domestic cume by Tuesday of $388.5M. The movie is bound to cross $400M by the end of the holiday weekend.

Moana 2 is doing $4M on Monday.

Competition abounds on Wednesday with four wide adult-leaning, auteurish theatrical releases — three of ’em R-rated: Focus Features’ Robert Eggers-directed horror movie Nosferatu (2,600 locations, 7 p.m. Christmas Eve previews); Searchlight’s James Mangold young Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro (2,500 theaters, previews 2 p.m. Christmas Eve), A24’s spicy-naughty Babygirl from Halina Reijn starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson (2,000 theaters, no previews). There’s also Amazon MGM Studios’ Rachel Morrison-led PG-13 boxing movie The Fire Inside (2000 theaters, 2 p.m. Christmas Eve previews). More on those separately.