Having staged something of a comeback during the Christmas week — a historically lucrative period at the box office — Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King passed a couple of important milestones both domestically and worldwide this weekend. The big-budget tent-pole, which serves as both a sequel and prequel to the 2019 remake of The Lion King, underperformed in its opening weekend, but was the top choice for family audiences during the extended Christmas frame, out-performing direct competition in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Moana 2.
With $113 million domestically and another $214 million from overseas markets, Mufasahas now passed the $300 million mark worldwide. The film’s exact global haul now stands at a solid $303 million. That being said, it’s pacing far behind its predecessor, which made around $450 million worldwide in its first weekend alone. Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie eventually grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide. Mufasa is directed by the Oscar-winning Barry Jenkins, who didn’t seem very pleased with his experience, according to a Vulture profile. He’s best known for directing the character-driven dramas Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.
Mufasa is his worst-rated project, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 55%. This is only marginally better than the 51% RT score of the 2019 film, but way below the 93% score of the animated original. In his review, Collider’s Aidan Kelley described it as an improvement over its predecessor, and wrote that “fans of the franchise and younger generations will find a lot to like” about the movie. Mufasa features Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as the titular character, and the villainous Taka.
'Mufasa: The Lion King' Has Quite the Cliff To Climb
Produced on a reported budget of over $200 million, the movie still has a lot of work to do before it can be counted as a success. It’s still too soon to put it in the same category as Joker: Folie à Deux, which grossed a little over $200 million worldwide just five years after the first Joker cracked $1 billion worldwide; it’s also possibly too soon to compare it to fellow Disney sequel Alice: Through the Looking Glass, which made $300 million worldwide even though the first Alice In Wonderland grossed $1 billion.
You can watch Mufasa in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored.
Image via Disney
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