Christmas moviegoers visited the Pride Lands, propelling Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King” to the top of the box office. The family friendly adventure was the holiday’s highest-grossing release, earning $14.

Disney’s Mufasa opened far less than its predecessor and ranked below Paramount’s Sonic 3 at the US Box office.

Paramount/Original Film’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” has taken the No. 1 spot at the pre-Christmas box office over Disney’s “Mufasa” by a much wider margin than projected, earning an estimated $62 million opening from 3,761 locations compared to $35 million from 4,100 locations for the “Lion King” prequel.

Mufasa” has reigned supreme at the global box office, but the “Lion King” prequel is lacking the bite of Disney’s prior live-action adaptations. The movie, a prequel to director Jon Favreau’s 2019 photorealistic “The Lion King” remake,

: Update for more analysis ….Mufasa may have entered this holiday season as a lamb, but he remembered who he was on Christmas Day, as Disney’s lion prequel rebounded at the box office with $14.7M to Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s $10.

The holiday box office has been known to deliver a twist or two, and it happened again on Christmas Day as Disney's "Mufasa" is rebounding from a weak $35 million opening weekend to take the No. 1 spot on the Wednesday charts from Paramount's "Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

While the Christmas Eve box office at $25M was off -19% from Monday’s $30.9M gross, the good news is that the off-moviegoing day was ahead of last year’s (which fell on a Sunday — the worst scenario possible for the industry) $18.

In the holiday season battle of big-budget family movies, Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” sped past the Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” to take the top spot at the box office.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3” outpaced the box office competition on Christmas Eve. The film unwrapped $7.5 million on Tuesday from 3,700 North American theaters. “Sonic 3” is projected to bring in $50 million between Wednesday and Sunday.