Despite being poised to lose its box office crown to Den of Thieves 2: Pantera this weekend, Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King celebrated a major victory on Friday. The movie has passed a highly coveted global box office milestone, cementing itself as one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2024. Serving as both a prequel and sequel to the 2019 remake of The Lion King, Mufasa is currently the ninth-biggest film of last year; it played an important role in pushing Disney's cumulative haul for 2024 past the $5 billion mark worldwide.
With around $180 million domestically and around $320 million from overseas markets, Mufasa has now passed the $500 million mark worldwide, according to Deadline. The film achieved this feat in just over 20 days of release, and after a rather weak debut. It made less than $40 million domestically in its first three days of release, but staged an impressive comeback in the subsequent weeks. In fact, Mufasa claimed the number one spot on the weekend charts only in its third frame, after finishing second behind Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on two occasions. Movies released during the lucrative Christmas period typically tend to have long legs, and Mufasa is performing along the lines of 2023's Wonka, which ended its run with over $600 million globally.
But even if Mufasa is able to match this total, it'll still fall considerably short of Jon Favreau's 2019 remake. That movie concluded its global run with over $1.6 billion, despite mixed reviews. Directed by the Oscar-winning Barry Jenkins, Mufasa fared only marginally better on this front, earning a 56% rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. But the film's audience score on the platform stands at a far more positive 89%, which explains the consistent business that it has been doing in the last three weeks.
'Mufasa' Is Enjoying a Conventional Theatrical Window, Without Being Rushed Onto PVOD
Mufasa is now less than $40 million shy of passing Kung Fu Panda 4 at the global box office, after which it'll set its sights on toppling Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Only six films in 2024 were able to pass the $600 million milestone globally, and three of them were distributed by Disney. As we speak, Moana 2 is passing the $1 billion mark globally, becoming the third Disney film of 2024 to do so, after Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Produced on a reported budget of over $200 million, Mufasa is playing in theaters. 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.
Director Barry Jenkins
Runtime 118 minutes
English (US) ·