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It was a truly massive holiday at the box office. Not only did both Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King crush it in their second weekends, but a slew of new releases also entered the fold to help give theaters something to be thankful for this holiday season. In particular, director Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu absolutely killed it over Christmas, crushing expectations and setting records along the way.
This long-awaited new take on the vampire mythos pulled in a whopping $40.3 million during the full holiday stretch. Nosferatu – and all of the other newcomers – hit theaters on Wednesday to get in on the Christmas crowd. Across the standard Friday to Sunday stretch, the film earned $21.15 million, which was well above expectations. It had previously been pegged to pull in around $25 million for the entire frame and nearly doubled that. Even against a $50 million budget, this is an excellent start.
Nosferatu was aided greatly by very positive reviews. It now ranks as one of the best starts ever for a Focus Feature release. It is also the biggest ever start for a horror movie over Christmas, overtaking Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty, which opened to $11.6 million in 1998. It’s also already Eggers’ biggest movie ever at the domestic box office and will soon overtake The Northman ($69.4 million) to become his biggest globally. It’s also interesting because the last several high-profile vampire movies to hit theaters, including Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Abigail, all disappointed greatly at the box office. Eggers cracked the code, it seems.
It had been a dry month or so for horror movies theatrically. Following the damn fine run by A24’s highly acclaimed Heretic in November, it was more or less tumbleweeds so far as genre fare is concerned. Terrified 3 had largely run out of steam. There just wasn’t much out there. It didn’t help that Werewolves, Get Away, Y2K and Nightbitch all bombed to kick off December. So it wasn’t entirely for a lack of trying on Hollywood’s part.
Overall, it was a big year for horror at the box office, with films like Godzilla x Kong and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice doing blockbuster numbers. Though the list of the biggest horror movies of 2024 is dominated by franchises. That being the case, even though this is a remake and a known name, it’s nice to see something that isn’t a sequel or a prequel doing such big business.
Elsewhere, Sonic 3 and Mufasa were in a shockingly tight race. Over the full holiday frame, Sonic pulled in $59.8 million while Disney’s Lion King prequel tallied $63.9 million. However, over the standard weekend, Sonic won out with $38 million while Mufasa pulled in $37.1 million. Ultimately, both movies were big winners for Paramount and Disney, respectfully. They certainly had the family element heading into the holidays.
The weekend’s other newcomers included the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown ($11.6 million), A24’s Babygirl ($4.4 million) and Amazon’s A Fire Inside ($2 million). None of them outright flopped and, as a result, it was a wildly healthy holiday for theaters, which should help carry the load as dryer times are just around the corner.
Looking ahead, the new year is just around the corner, which will bring with it a pretty dry January. The likes of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and Flight Risk will need to keep theaters afloat. That being the case, all of the holdovers that have been dominating the charts figure to continue their solid runs well into 2025, Nosferatu included. It will be the only real horror game in town until Wolf Man in mid-January. After that, the sci-fi thriller Companion arrives at the end of the month.
You can check out the full list of the top ten movies at the box office for the weekend of December 27, 2024, below. For more, check out our interview with Bill Skarsgard about his take on Count Orlok in Nosferatu.
- Sonic the Hedgehog – $38 million (second weekend)
- Mufasa: The Lion King – $37.1 million (second weekend)
- Nosferatu – $21.15 million (first weekend)
- Wicked – $19.45 million (sixth weekend)
- Moana 2 – $18.2 million (fifth weekend)
- A Complete Unknown – $11.6 million (first weekend)
- Babygirl – $4.4 million (first weekend)
- Gladiator II – $4.15 million (sixth weekend)
- Homestead – $3.2 million (second weekend)
- The Fire Inside – $2 million (first weekend)
