‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ Headed To $9M Monday, With ‘Mufasa’ At $5M & ‘Wicked’ $4M – Monday Box Office

Holiday moviegoing may begin in earnest on Christmas, but we can’t ignore that there 95% of K-12 schools are off today — and colleges too. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3after coming in lower than expected at $60.1M on opening weekend, will continue its rally at the box office with around $9M today at 3,761 locations for a running total of $69.1M. Pic’s upcoming 5-day outlook from Christmas Wednesday through Sunday looks to be north of $50M.

The Jeff Fowler directed, Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz-starring threequel will be off today some -41% from its $15.3M Sunday.

Disney’s Mufasaafter a very low $35.4M opening, will see another $5M today. That’s down -51% from Sunday’s $10.2M. The four-day on Mufasa is $40.4M. The Barry Jenkins-directed prequel should see around $40M-$45M in the 5-day Christmas run followed by Moana 2 with $20M-$22M.

Universal’s Wicked is eyeing around $4M today after a $14.1M fifth weekend, -38%, at 3,296 theaters. The Jon M. Chu-directed feature take on the Broadway musical –the highest ever for the genre– will have a domestic cume by tomorrow of $388.5M. The movie is bound to cross $400M by the end of the holiday weekend.

Competition abounds on Wednesday with four wide adult-leaning, auteurish, theatrical releases; three of ’em R-rated: Focus Features’ Robert Eggers-directed horror movie, Nosferatu (2,600 locations, 7 p.m. Christmas Eve previews); Searchlight’s James Mangold Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro (2,500 theaters, previews Christmas Eve at 2 p.m.), A24’s spicy naughty Babygirl from Halina Reijn starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson (2,000 theaters, no previews) and Amazon MGM Studios Rachel Morrison PG-13 boxing movie The Fire Inside (2000 theaters, 2 p.m. Christmas Eve previews). More on those separately.