Movie Monday: ‘Sonic’ Booms at the Box Office, Best TV Shows to Binge Watch

On the last weekend of 2024, as we’re all looking back on the year that was, the top of the box office was dominated by familiar faces. And even the one newcomer in the top five has, in a manner of speaking, been around for a while.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 spent its second straight weekend at the top of the charts, zipping to an estimated $38 million in North America. Not too shabby for a blue hedgehog. Sonic 3 has now earned nearly $137.6 million stateside and $211.6 million worldwide.

But while Sonic might’ve won the weekend’s box-office crown, Mufasa: The Lion King has plenty to roar about, too. Sure, Mufasa finished second to Sonic over the standard three-day weekend. But Sonic 3 lost about 37% of its audience, weekend-over-weekend. Mufasa actually earned more this weekend ($37.1 million) than it did the weekend before ($35.4 million)—a nice cinematic feat indeed.

And if you look at last week as a whole—when a whole bunch of people were out of school, off work and, apparently, going to the movies—Mufasa did even better, earning $76.4 million to Sonic 3’s $60.1 million. Mufasa has now earned $113.5 million in North America and $328 million worldwide.

In its debut, the vampire movie remake Nosferatu fell like a shadow over the top five, earning around $21.6 million stateside—far more than was expected. And let’s consider the earnings of its silent-era forebear. The original 1922 Nosferatu (which wasn’t released in the States until 1929) has earned $45,595 during its 102-year history, according to Box Office Mojo. That’s barely enough for Count Orlok to pay his Transylvanian property taxes.

Wicked: Part 1 and Moana 2 continue to perform in lockstep, with the two movies always within a place of one another. Wicked flew into fourth place with $19.5 million, pushing its overall domestic gross to $424.2 million. Moana 2 closed out the weekend’s top five with $18.2 million, which raised its own overall stateside earnings to $394.6 million.

A few other newcomers to mention: The Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown finished just outside the top five: Its weekend take of $11.6 million rolled this cinematic stone into sixth place. But for an art-house Oscarbait flick, that’s practically knocking on heaven’s door.

Nicole Kidman’s erotic thriller Babygirl landed with a thud in seventh place, while The Fire Inside—an inspirational (albeit issue-laden) sports drama—punched its way to a $2 million, 10^th-place finish.

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