Disney slammed for claiming Mufasa is number one Christmas movie over Sonic 3
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The fight for top spot at the box office is always closely fought between movies, but the Christmas period proved extra scrappy with both Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 claiming victory. It appears there must be a blatant error from one studio there, and only $900,000 (£714K) actually separated the two titles at the American box office over the weekend.
![[Undated film still from Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Pictured: Jim Carrey as Ivo Robotnik and Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz). See PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Reviews. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Reviews. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ Film Reviews.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234101743-cc9c.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Technically it was Sonic 3 that edged ahead by a blue hair over Mufasa with $38million (£30,171,181) to its $37.1m (£29,456,601), raked in from tickets purchased over the usual weekend period of Friday to Sunday, December 27-29. When the official Walt Disney Studios account then shared its celebration on Sunday night that Mufasa was ‘now the #1 movie in America, and the #1 movie in the world, two weeks in a row’, many fans immediately slammed Disney for telling porkies.
![[A grab from X showing the community note on Walt Disney Studio's tweet correcting its claim that Mufasa was the number one film at the US box office. It was later removed.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image-1da8.png?w=646)
There were cries of ‘blatant lie’ and ‘wrong’ in the comments, not helped along by the post initially receiving a community note that linked to the US box office chart on IMDb and read: ‘That’s not true. Sonic 3 is still the #1 movie in America.’.
However, it actually is true – as is the fact that Sonic reigns supreme as well. But how can that be so?. As Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday, the studios can look at two sets of numbers: The five-day earnings, dating from and including the 25th, and also the usual three-day weekend earnings.
