It's the circle of life: Mufasa must abdicate the throne sooner or later.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has overtaken Mufasa: The Lion King on the high of this weekend's home field workplace, grossing $15.5 million over Mufasa's $13.2 million. Lionsgate's sequel to the 2018 actioner, starring Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr., debuted at No. 1, lastly settling the weeks-long battle between the Lion King live-action prequel and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the highest spot.

The 2 family-oriented flicks did face gentle competitors from Robert Eggers' lush historic horror Nosferatu, which premiered on Christmas Day. However by and enormous, the field workplace story of the previous month has been the lion versus the hedgehog — till this weekend.

Mufasa: The Lion King proves its apex predator status, defeats Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at weekend box office

Like Mufasa, the third installment within the live-action/animated Sonic franchise is in its fourth week of launch. The latter movie grossed $11 million this weekend, bringing its cumulative home gross to $204.5 million and giving it a strong edge over the previous, which faucets out this weekend domestically at a cumulative $188.7 million.

Nosferatu held agency within the fourth spot, including $6.8 million to its U.S. earnings, now at $81.8 million. That's particularly spectacular provided that the movie derives its narrative from a Nineteenth-century epistolary novel and its aesthetics from a landmark little bit of silent-cinema expressionism — a far cry from shootouts and singing child animals.

This weekend's home field workplace is rounded out by Moana 2 at No. 5 with $6.5 million, and the Bob Dylan biopic A Full Unknown and behemoth Broadway adaption Wicked vying for the sixth spot at $5 million a chunk. Whereas Timothée Chalamet has solely been enjoying for his supper for 3 weeks, Depraved is in its eighth week of launch, blowing the remainder of the leaderboard out of the water with a staggering $459 million cumulative home earnings.

A24's modestly scaled erotic drama Babygirl, which screened in half the theaters as Sonic and Mufasa, took the eighth spot, adopted by the Telugu romance Recreation Changer and Pamela Anderson comeback-vehicle The Last Showgirl, each of their first week of launch.

Mufasa: The Lion King review: Disney's live-action prequel is a rather uninspiring thing

The image on the world field workplace options all the identical gamers, however tells fairly a special story. Mufasa simply maintains its seat on the worldwide throne with a $41 million weekend gross, adopted by Sonic with $31 million, Nosferatu with $20.5, and eventually Den of Thieves, which simply misses the highest three with a $19.7 weekend gross.

Moana 2, Depraved, and Babygirl make appearances on the worldwide chart, at fifth, sixth, and ninth place respectively, and three new movies make the worldwide high 10.

How Sonic 3 went bigger with Shadow's origin story and 2 Jim Carreys: 'Everything is pumped up' (exclusive)

Coming in seventh on the world field workplace this weekend is the Mandarin-language abduction thriller Octupus with Damaged Arms. The brand new movie starring Chinese language sensations Liya Tong and Duan Yihong at present leads that nation's home field workplace.

At eighth and tenth are Large World, a surreal Chinese language docufiction from director Yang Lina, and Honey Cash Phony, additionally from China, a romcom that additionally marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Biao Su.

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What is going to lead at subsequent weekend's field workplace is anybody's guess, because the upcoming slate of Friday premieres doesn't include any apparent tentpoles of the Mufasa or Sonic stripe. However does it doubtlessly harbor a Den of Thieves 2, which few field workplace prognosticators predicted would win the highest spot?

Premiering Friday, Jan. 17 are Wolf Man, the brand new Blumhouse pic from Invisible Man's Leigh Whannell, One among Them Days, a raucous buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and the musician SZA, and awards-oriented dramas I'm Nonetheless Right here and Sing Sing.

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