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Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
Robert Eggers has himself a big ol’ box office hit on his hands. The filmmaker’s long-awaited remake of Nosferatu arrived over Christmas and absolutely crushed it. Though it wasn’t your typical holiday season flick, it resonated with the intended audience all the same and Focus Features came out looking real smart for locking in that release window. With very little by way of new competition in theaters to kick off 2025, the film continued its great run and crossed a major milestone.
With a $13.2 million second weekend domestically, coupled with a healthy international rollout, Nosferatu officially crossed the $100 million mark globally over the weekend. That number includes $69.4 million from North American audiences to go with $30.9 million overseas thus far for a grand total of $100.3 million and counting. That makes this Eggers’ biggest hit to date, in terms of raw dollars anyway. The Witch was quite cheap to produce, which allowed it to be a big hit. This one, however, carries a healthy $50 million budget.
Be that as it may, Focus is well on the way to recouping that money. Especially since there is no indication that this movie is going to run out of gas any time soon. Nosferatu dropped just 39% compared to last weekend, in part because it’s pretty much the only horror movie in theaters right now. The only other competition is the re-release of David Fincher’s Seven, but that’s currently playing on just 200 screens. In short, this movie has a lot of gas left in the tank.
Elsewhere, Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King ($23.8 million) overtook Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ($21.2 million) over the weekend. Both films were in their third weekends of release, with Sonic winning the first two weekends. However, the family-friendly appeal of Mufasa has helped it grow exceptionally long legs. It’s a situation where both films are winners though, as both are making boat loads of cash.
Rounding out the top five for the weekend were Moana 2 ($12.4 million), which is rapidly coming up on the $1 billion mark worldwide, and Wicked ($10.2 million), which is about to cross the $700 million mark, just as awards season is getting underway.
Looking at the landscape, it’s a lot of family-friendly films dominating the charts right now. That is almost certainly what has helped Nosferatu thrive, as it’s working as the perfect bit of counter-programming. That’s why it doesn’t matter one bit that the film hasn’t been charting above number three so far in its run. It’s all relative. Being number one is nice, but when you’re movie costs $200 million to make, the pressure is on. Focus, meanwhile, will be popping champagne over this one.
Looking ahead, this upcoming weekend will see Den of Thieves 2: Pantera as the big new release, with the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man expanding nationwide. Horror fans will have to wait until January 17 for something new to grace the silver screen as Blumhouse’s Wolf Man arrives on that date. That one figures to give the box office a shot of life in the arm and very well could be the first out-and-out hit of 2025. We shall see.
You can check out the full list of the top ten movies at the box office for the weekend of January 3, 2025, below. For more, check out our list of the best upcoming 4K and Blu-ray releases.
- Mufasa: The Lion King – $23.8 million (weekend three)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – $21.2 million (weekend three)
- Nosferatu – $13.2 million (weekend two)
- Moana 2 – $12.4 million (weekend six)
- Wicked $10.2 million – (weekend seven)
- A Complete Unknown – $8 million (weekend two)
- Babygirl – $4.4 million (weekend two)
- Gladiator II – $2.6 million (weekend seven)
- Homestead – $2.1 million (weekend three)
- The Fire Inside – $1.2 million (weekend two)
