Movies and games are practically an essential part of the majority of a kid’s childhood. They both add to the sense of wonder most kids have at a young age. Another big part of many kids’ childhood was movie nights with family and friends, making memories by watching movies, playing board games, or maybe video games. Most movie nights probably consisted of lots of Disney when little kids were involved, maybe The Lion King. For video games, maybe a friend got really into the Sonic the Hedgehog video games.
As many people know, Disney has created a live-action version of The Lion King. Following that, as a prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King was released in theatres on December 20, 2024. Similarly, the popular SEGA video game series Sonic the Hedgehog has been adapted into a movie series. The first was released on February 14, 2020, the second on April 8, 2022, and the third was released on December 20, 2024, which happens to be the same date the Mufasa movie was released. Due to being released on the same day, drama has begun to form between the two movies.
So far since opening weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has made over 360 million dollars at the global box office, with Mufasa making 539.6 million dollars at the global box office. During the movie’s opening weekend, however, Sonic 3 actually outperformed Mufasa. According to News and Sentinel, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3 debuted with $62 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates…. Mufasa, however, was humbled in its opening weekend, with its $35 million in domestic ticket sales…” Many people believe the reason for all the drama between the two movies is Sonic 3 performed better than Mufasa on their opening weekend.
Sonic 3 has been shown on sites like Rotten Tomatoes to be better received than Mufasa, with the former having a rating of 98% and the latter having a 59%. One fan of Sonic 3 says “I think the Sonic movie is wonderful. I’ve really lived and learned, and it really had me hanging on the edge of tomorrow. It was a wonderful story and was true to the game it was based on.”
On X(Formerly Twitter), Disney made a post claiming Mufasa was the number-one movie in the world, beating Sonic 3. Fans were quick to add context stating “For Domestic Box Office. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 claimed the #1 spot for the December 20-22 weekend. However in the International Box Office, “Mufasa” took #1, mainly because Sonic 3 hasn’t opened in all International Markets yet.” According to an article from “That Park Place” users on social media are claiming Disney is manipulating the box office to make reviews of Mufasa seem only positive, along with hiding and deleting reviews that are negative in regards to the movie. A different article from That Park Place also states that Disney is pushing theatres to show Mufasa over Sonic 3, claiming Sonic 3 is only showing in eight more theatres after opening weekend while Disney got at least a hundred more theatres to show their movie. In regards to these claims, a ninth-grade student states “It’s just capitalism at this point. As per usual, the big guy with power uses it to push stuff. To phrase it politely, Disney should stop being so pushy and lying to their audience.”
There are dozens of articles on plenty of different sites stating contradicting things about the movies. The fact is that Sonic 3 is doing better domestically than Mufasa, the latter is doing better internationally, and the idea that Disney is pushing back Sonic 3 has shown to be the most prominent when looking on the internet. Many articles are saying the issues between the two movies will only worsen once Sonic 3 is released internationally. Since Sonic 3 has yet to be released internationally though, all people can do now is wait to see what happens next.
