CG Critters Battle for the Box Office Led by ‘Sonic’ & ‘Mufasa’

With 95% of schools out for the holiday break, family-friendly fare takes over the box office this weekend. Battling for the top spots are two CGI-fueled spectacles, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Paramount Pictures) and Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) — although both have had lower than hoped for debuts.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which introduces fan-favorite character Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves) and is directed once again by Jeff Fowler, pulled in $62 million from 3,761 theaters over the weekend to open at No. 1, and is expected to pull around $9M today (Monday). The five-day forecast from Christmas (Wednesday) to Sunday is pegged at $50M.

Photoreal prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, helmed by Oscar-winning Moonlight director Barry Jenkins with a voice cast led by Aaron Pierre as the big cat himself, did not so much roar into its opening weekend but did purr into second place with $35.4M, expecting another $5M today. The pic should pull another $40-45M in the five-day holiday period.

Packed with CG-powered magic, Universal’s musical Wicked came in third with $14.1M in its fifth weekend. Directed by John Chu, the Wizard of Oz spin off is the highest grossing Broadway musical adaptation in box office history, and is expected to surpass $400M by the end of the holiday week.

Disney’s fully-animated sequel Moana 2 kept up its family and fan appeal, sailing in at No. 4 with a $13.1M fourth weekend. Still in 3,600 theaters at home, the 3D musical adventure helmed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) has sailed to a domestic cume of $359M ($790M worldwide).

Also repping animation, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Warner Bros./New Line) fell to No. 8 with $1.27M in its second weekend ($7.37M domestic total). Latvian indie Flow (Janus/Sideshow) climbed back up a couple spots to No. 13 with $234.7K ($1.78M domestic total). And DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot (Universal) remains a family-friendly fave after 13 weeks, boosting back up to the rankings to No. 20 this weekend with $51K ($143.1M domestic total).

[Sources: Deadline, BoxOfficeMojo]