Box Office Report for the Week Of December 29

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now at the final weekend of 2024. And what a year it has been for movies. Some people will say that 2024 has been an “especially terrible year for cinema.” I don’t particularly believe this statement to be true for this year, or any year, really, because great movies are released every year. You just need to look for them. In the independent sphere, it’s been an absolutely spectacular year, particularly in microbudget action filmmaking, with Yugo Sakamoto delivering two bangers with his Baby Assassins franchise.

For Hollywood, in particular, it’s not been a great year. I’m not necessarily talking about the quality of films, which fluctuates week-to-week, but cinemas still have a long way to go in convincing audiences to return to their venues to see the biggest movies. Of course, we’ve had some monster hits, including Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, and, most recently, Wicked, but the effects of the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike were felt all year round.

Still, the Christmas Corridor is proving, once again, to be the most fruitful period for cinemas, with Mufasa: The Lion King improving upon its dismal opening with a 5% increase over the holidays and a $37.1 million tally. It’s not spectacular, but it seems to be well-positioned as a counterprogramming success for the box office monster that is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which raked in $38 million during the Christmas period and finished at #1.

The last remaining movies of the year were also released this weekend, with Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu being the most successful of the bunch, with a $21 million tally for its opening weekend, probably a Focus Features record for its first days in cinemas. It was also the first film from the independent division of NBC Universal to be released in select IMAX theatres, which likely benefitted strong returns from audiences (my local IMAX venues are still playing Mufasa, which I hope will make room for Nosferatu come next week).

In the smaller-scale offerings, James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown also benefitted from a one-night-only IMAX early access screening a week before the film’s release, leading to strong word of mouth and a very impressive $11 million tally in its opening weekend. The movie will likely leg out much stronger since there is significant Oscar buzz for both Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton, who were both nominated for Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards.

For Halina Reijn‘s Babygirl, the movie went on to make $4.3 million, while Rachel Morrison‘s feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (whose script was written by Barry Jenkins, to anyone wanting to do a double feature with this one and Mufasa) finished tenth with a $2.0 million tally.

Next week, there are no new releases (minus Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl on Netflix, and Gilles Lellouche‘s L’Amour Ouf, for anyone living in my neck of the woods) as studios are letting audiences experience the last of the 2024 films, with more titles set to expand in the coming weeks, such as Maura Delpero‘s Vermiglio, Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist, Pedro Almodóvar‘s The Room Next Door, Walter Salles‘ I’m Still Here, and Mike Leigh‘s Hard Truths among others. These titles are Award heavyweights and have already been nominated for one (or more) significant prizes.

Whatever you choose to see in the last remaining days of 2024, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to anyone who has read my weekly box office reports for another trip around this planet on Awards Radar.

Of course, a very happy new year to all of you. Health, love, and happiness are primordial, but let’s also hope for an EVEN BETTER 365 days of incredible cinema awaiting us on the other side of 2025. There are many uncertainties in the world we live in today, yet one thing’s for sure: good movies exist, and they will continue to enchant, thrill, and excite us for a very long time.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Paramount): $38M (-37%) – 3,769 theatres
2. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney): $37.1M (+5%) – 4,100 theatres
3. Nosferatu (Universal): $21.1M – 2,992 theatres
4. Wicked (Universal): $19.4M (+37%) – 3,177 theatres
5. Moana 2 (Disney): $18.2M (+38%) – 3,410 theatres
6. A Complete Unknown (Disney): $11.6M – 2,835 theatres
7. Babygirl (A24): $4.3M – 2,115 theatres
8. Gladiator II (Paramount): $4.1M (-9%) – 1,865 theatres
9. Homestead (Angel Studios): $3.1M (-47%) – 1,769 theatres
10. The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios): $2.0M – 2,006 theatres

Source: Comscore