![Mufasa: The Lion King [Disney] | Sonic the Hedgehog 3 [Paramount Pictures]](https://www.beta.animationmagazine.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Mufasa_Sonic-3-1.jpg "Mufasa_Sonic 3")
Two furry faves proved box office heroes on New Year’s Day, powering the first box-office receipts of 2025 to an estimated $42.9 million — the best post-COVID holiday return yet and 33% over Jan. 1 of 2024.
Continuing their battle over the top spot from Christmas, Disney’s photoreal CG prequel Mufasa: The Lion King won out with $10.3M from 4,100 theaters on the first day of the year, beating out Paramount’s hybrid threequel Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with $8.95M (3,769 theaters). The big cat has edged past the Blue Blur’s launch lead of the last two weekend frames, scoring No. 1 for six days in a row after Christmas.
Thanksgiving leftovers also remained popular with NYD movie-goers. Disney’s animated adventure Moana 2 came in at in at No. 3 for NYD with $5.1M (3,410 theaters), while the VFX magic-packed Wicked conjured up $4.6M (3,177 theaters) to secure the No. 5 spot, behind newcomer Nosferatu.
Cumulatively as of Jan. 1, Mufasa has grossed $138.5M domestically (two weeks) / $352.8M worldwide, Sonic 3 has $145.5M (two weeks) / $219.5M, Moana 2 has $409.1M (five weeks) / $905.7M and Wicked has $437.5M (six weeks) / $648.4M,
