The First impressions about the ‘Mufasa box office: the lion king’the prequel to the success of 2019, they were not too flattering: it seemed a puncture that confirmed, after the stumbling blocks of ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Pinocchio’, that the remakes in real image of Disney classics (although it enters that pack, ‘mufasa’ is rather realistic CGI) had lost their good star. However, it has ended up becoming an indisputable success for the company, and all thanks to a strategy that seemed like the past: persistence in the billboards.
An upperbow box office. ‘Mufasa’ had to see them in theaters with A very powerful rival: ‘Sonic 3’which has ended up raising almost 500 million dollars, becoming the second most popular adaptation of a video game in history and the best entry of the franchise, which has the future more than insured. ‘Sonic 3’ (to which more competition was added: ‘Wicked’ and Disney’s own ‘Vaiana 2’) worked like a cannon from the first moment, and although ‘MUFASA’ led the most watched tops, its 35 million dollars in the first weekend left it well below the 200 with which the first installment started. Erta 30% less than what Disney expected.
Taking impulse. The alarms lit in Disney: Had they squeezed the franchise while exhausting it? Let’s not forget that the musical of the original film is one of the most popular in history, and the presence of Simba and company in attraction parks is inescapable. However, ‘Mufasa’ would soon take the expected route, closing a very good year for Disney, which came from sweeping the United States with a demolish thanksgiving weekend thanks to ‘Vaiana 2‘, and to beat records with’Upside down 2‘ and ‘Deadpool and Wolverine‘. However, mouth mouth made its effect and spent five weeks at number 1, entering 2025 with 600 million dollars of collection. And all thanks to a strategic decision.
Contrary to the expected. That strategic decision was not to release ‘MUFASA’ in Disney+ for Christmas, possibly a decision that had more than one executive in suspense, especially taking into account the lazy start of the film at the box office. But if I had gone to Disney+, I would not have had those five glorious weeks sweeping cinemas. Finally, the film has raised 712.9 million dollars, becoming the seventh highest grossing film of 2024 … and of course, it has ended in Disney+, where it has been since mid -February.
After Christmas, perfect storm. After the avalanche of Christmas premieres, Mufasa benefited so much from the premiere of films not addressed to the children’s public (‘Werewolf‘, for example), as of the Violization in Tik Tok songs Composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. But above, all, of a certain recovery of the confidence in the rooms not as a procedure before the arrival of the films to streamingbut as a space in which the premieres can perform as they did years ago.
Let us forget pandemic. We leave behind one of the greatest stigmas in the pandemic: that we would not recover the figures for assistance to cinemas prior to COVID. In Europein 2023 the assistance rose 18% and in the United States, in 2024 the 8,750 million dollars collected are below the more than 11,000 pre-pondemic levels, but It is clear that the industry continues to approach With a firm step. And the confidence of the industry in the rooms with trajectories such as ‘MUFASA’ only reinforce that impression.
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