Lion King Box Office Blast: How Did Mufasa’s Debut Perform?

Opening Day Figures in France for Wednesday, December 18, 2024

1 – Mufasa: The Lion King: 142,674 admissions

2 – Behind Bars: 38,023 admissions (including 6,692 in previews)

3 – Sarah Bernhardt, the Divine: 32,806 admissions (including 15,743 in previews)

4 – Kraven The Hunter: 20,398 admissions

5 – Oh, Canada: 5,791 admissions (including 1,880 in previews)

6 – A Family Christmas: 5,426 admissions (including 3,302 in previews)

7 – Everybody Loves Touda: 3,953 admissions (including 1,879 in previews)

8 – The Leading Role: 3,423 admissions (including 2,375 in previews)

9 – The Wall: 1,364 admissions (including 874 in previews)

10 – 2046 (re-release): 824 admissions

11 – In the Heart of Volcanoes: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft: 459 admissions

12 – Wedding Tale: 203 admissions (including 143 in previews)

13 – A Universal Language: 127 admissions

14 – My Beautiful Fir!: 56 admissions

Key Takeaways

The holiday season brings a fresh batch of movies and several family-friendly or youth-oriented offerings. Mufasa: The Lion King is certainly the highlight of the week, riding on the success of its predecessors (with 10 million admissions for the animated version, and the live-action version). Can Mufasa aim as high? The film racked up 142,674 admissions on its first day alone (without previews).

This is a promising start, albeit lower than The Lion King 2019, which had 630,478 admissions on its first day. Mufasa is expected to draw family crowds during the vacation period. However, it faces competition from Vaiana 2, also distributed by Disney, which continues to perform well.

In second place, the French comedy Behind Bars captivated nearly 40,000 viewers. This is less than SEGPA (62,664 admissions for its first day) and SEGPA on Ski (148,199 admissions). Like Mufasa, admissions are expected to increase with the start of school holidays. If you enjoyed The SEGPA, this new comedy phenomenon is definitely for you!

Taking third place, another French film, the biopic Sarah Bernhardt, the Divine accumulated 32,806 admissions (including 15,743 in previews). This is a better start than La Petite Vadrouille, released last summer with Sandrine Kiberlain.

Lastly, Kraven The Hunter lands in fourth place, having already struggled in the United States. The Marvel film only garnered 20,398 admissions (without previews). “Less thrilling than Blue Beetle with its 47,000 admissions last August, or Madame Web (41,000 admissions) earlier this year, the Spider-man adversary attracted a modest average of 14 viewers per session, compared to about twenty for these predecessors“, noted our colleagues at Boxoffice Pro.

Figures: CBO Box-office