‘Mufasa’ Roars On New Year’s Day; ‘Nosferatu’ Already Record For Robert Eggers; ‘A Complete Unknown’ Searchlight’s Best Since Disney-Fox Merger – Box Office Update

New Year’s Day 2025 rang in an estimated $42.9M for all movies, the best result for the holiday post-Covid. New Year’s Day 2022 grossed $40.2M, led by Spider-Man: No Way Home ($23.1M).

January 1 did 33% more than the first day of 2024 — a great new beginning to a box office year that is expected to clear $9 billion. This New Year’s Day also was up 38% over New Year’s Eve’s business.

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Another day, another day that Mufasa: The Lion King beat Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for No. 1, $10.3M to $8.95M. While the Paramount/Sega toon feature won the last two weekends, the Disney prequel has won six days at the daily box office since Christmas.

While Thanksgiving holdovers Moana 2 and Wicked continue to play solid with $5.1M and $4.6M, respectively, the other big headline this season is the resurgence of auteur-driven adult fare, read Focus Features’ Nosferatu and Searchlight’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Nosferatu at $53M and counting easily is director Robert Eggers’ highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, flying past his 2022’s Viking epic The Northman ($34.2M). On Wednesday, the vampire movie starring Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard and Aaron-Taylor Johnson sucked up $4.96M. The movie easily is cracking its way into Focus Features’ top movies of all time.

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Meanwhile, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown stands at $31.7M and counting after a New Year’s Day take of $3.1M. By this weekend, the Timothée Chalamet title will become the highest-grossing Searchlight movie after the 2019 Disney-Fox merger, surpassing the domestic take of 2022’s The Menu ($38.5M). What’s impressive about Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown is that they’re making massive momentum at the box office sans any juice from Oscar nominations. Nosferatu will pass the entire domestic take of Focus Features’ Oscar winner The Darkest Hour ($56.4M) by Friday, while A Complete Unknown will fly past the entire Stateside cumes of Searchlight Oscar winners The Favourite ($34.3M), Poor Things ($34.5M) and Jojo Rabbit ($33.3M).

As we reported Wednesday, the 2024 box office ended with $8.72 billion, -3% from 2023’s $9 billion tally.

There aren’t any new wide releases from either studio or arthouse labels. This coming weekend is one of three without wide entries in 2025, along with October 31 and December 12.

Here is the New Year’s Day top 10:

1. Mufasa: The Lion King (Dis) 4,100 theaters Wed $10.3M (+43% from New Year’s Eve) Total $138.5M /Wk 2

2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,769 theaters, Wed $8.95M (+23%), Total $160.4M/Wk 2

3. Moana 2 (Dis) 3410 theaters, Wed $5.1M (+29%) Total $409.2M/Wk 5

4. Nosferatu (Foc) 2,992 theaters, Wed $4.96M (+70%), Total $53M/Wk 1

5. Wicked (Uni) 3,177 theaters, Wed $4.63M (+26%) Total $437.5M/Wk 6

6. A Complete Unknown (Sea) 2,835 theaters, Wed $3.1M (+14%) Total $31.7M/Wk 1

7. Babygirl (A24) 2,115 theaters, Wed $1.4M (+83%), Total $10.5M/Wk 1

8. Gladiator II (Par) 1,865 theaters, Wed $1.04M (+50%) Total $165.5M/Wk 6

9. Homestead (Angel) 1,769 theaters, Wed $952K (+46%), Total $14.9M/Wk 2

10. The Fire Inside (Amz) 2006 theaters, Wed $592k (+37%), Total $5.6M/Wk 1

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