The box office has been relatively sleepy, at least in terms of new releases, over the last few weeks, with Kraven the Hunter, Y2K, and the animated Lord of the Rings prequel all crashing and burning at the box office. The silver lining was that Wicked and Moana 2 have proven to be blockbusters, while Gladiator II has done better than expected in both North America and abroad.

This weekend sees the release of two major family films which will likely be battling it out at the box office. Paramount Pictures will be opening Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (read our review) while Disney will be opening their Lion King prequel, Mufasa. Even though 2019’s The Lion King was made over $1.5 billion, the sequel is expected to have a muted opening. I’m expecting in the neighbourhood of $50 million, which will put it on the lower end of Disney movies...