The International Box Office is Booming: A Great Way to Open 2025

With just a few weeks of January 2025 behind us, we have had no significant new year releases, and 2024 holdovers are mostly buoying the box office. Yet, despite the lack of flashy new “product” to push in front of movie goers, the early January box office is still benefiting from 2024’s strong end, with some notable top performers. To share the happy news, we have Brandon Blake, the entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A.

Plenty to Celebrate

For nostalgic millennials and their little ones, a lot was riding on Disney’s live-action rework of the cult classic Lion King. Nor have their live-action remakes been particularly successful to date. Mufasa: The Lion King seems to have shrugged off that curse. It stands as 2025’s 9th-best release (8th on the offshore ranks). To date, it’s pulled in a total of $539.7M, with $350.9M from non-domestic markets. It’s still riding on a credible 48% drop and managed to add $28.9M to that total over the last weekend. Its best performances have been in France, the UK, Mexico, Germany, and Italy.

Brandon Blake

Nor is it cinema attendees’ only choice, either-- not even among the nostalgia-fueled childhood memories category. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, despite relying both on a heavily 90s vibe and being the third release from the franchise in recent years, shows no sign of stopping its box office domination. It pulled in $20.3M over its 62 markets this weekend, with a 55% drop. It now stands at $384.8M globally, with $180.3M coming from non-domestic markets. Unlike Mufasa: The Lion King, it also shows a greater variance in top markets. While the UK came in at the top, and France came third, its Top 5 list is rounded out with Mexico, Australia, and Brazil— quite a different range of appeal.

Let’s not forget the powerhouse of Moana 2, either. Now fast approaching $1B ($554.9M of which was international), it managed to rack up another $11.1M weekend, which is pretty amazing for a film this late in its release cycle. If it hits that $1B mark (currently at $989.8M, so why not?) Disney will be able to claim a three-for-three on 2024 movies that reached a billion, the only studio to have such luck in 2024.

Now running on a 58% drop, it’s holding strong in China, Argentina, Spain, and Australia. It’s also now Brazil and France’s 2nd-highest-grossing animated release, and the highest-grossing for Disney ever in 16 countries and the entire Lat-Am region.

Smaller Budget, Not Smaller Impact

While we may have seen the biggest numbers from these reworks of childhood (for most of us) classics, the small and medium movie market also turned in a more than credible weekend.

Nosferatu continues to perform well above its weight class, with openings in Lebanon and India this weekend. Now playing in 63 territories, it’s brought in $13.7M, leaving it with a global total of $135.8M and offshore takings of $54M. Its key territories have been the UK (and Ireland), Italy, Mexico, Australia, and Germany—so, ironically, it's a bit of a blend between Sonic 3 and Mufasa.

Wicked may not have been exactly a small-budget release, but it was the underdog in the successful race to box office totals at the end of 2024. Despite now being available on PVOD, it managed $5.6M over 81 offshore markets, leaving it at $697.6M ($238.7M non-domestic). It still has its Japanese release to come.

With some strong performances from indies and award darlings (hello, Conclave) and plenty of strong holdovers, we’ve seen a successful start to 2025 indeed. Let’s hope that momentum continues throughout the year.