“Den of Thieves” sequel steals the top spot from “Mufasa” at the weekend box office

It's the circle of life: Mufasa would have to abdicate the throne at some point.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has overtaken Mufasa: The Lion King at the top of this weekend's domestic box office, grossing $15.5 million over Mufasa's $13.2 million. Lionsgate's sequel to the 2018 actioner, starring Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr., debuted at No. 1, finally settling the weeks-long battle between the Lion King live-action prequel and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the top spot.

The two family-oriented flicks did face mild competition from Robert Eggers' lush historical horror Nosferatu, which premiered on Christmas Day. But by and large, the box office story of the past month has been the lion versus the hedgehog — until this weekend.

Related: Mufasa: The Lion King proves its apex predator status, defeats Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at weekend box office

Like Mufasa, the third installment in the live-action/animated Sonic franchise is in its fourth week of release. The latter film grossed $11 million this weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic gross to $204.5 million and giving it a solid edge over the former, which taps out this weekend domestically at a cumulative $188.7 million.

Nosferatu held firm in the fourth spot, adding $6.8 million to its U.S. earnings, now at $81.8 million. That's especially impressive given that the film derives its narrative from a 19th-century epistolary novel and its aesthetics from a landmark bit of silent-cinema expressionism — a far cry from shootouts and singing baby animals.

This weekend's domestic box office is rounded out by Moana 2 at No. 5 with $6.5 million, and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and behemoth Broadway adaption Wicked vying for the sixth spot at $5 million a piece. While Timothée Chalamet has only been playing for his supper for three weeks, Wicked is in its eighth week of release, blowing the rest of the leaderboard out of the water with a staggering $459 million cumulative domestic earnings.

A24's modestly scaled erotic drama Babygirl, which screened in half the theaters as Sonic and Mufasa, took the eighth spot, followed by the Telugu romance Game Changer and Pamela Anderson comeback-vehicle The Last Showgirl, both in their first week of release.

Related: Mufasa: The Lion King review: Disney's live-action prequel is a rather uninspiring thing

The picture at the global box office features all the same players, but tells quite a different story. Mufasa easily maintains its seat on the worldwide throne with a $41 million weekend gross, followed by Sonic with $31 million, Nosferatu with $20.5, and finally Den of Thieves, which just misses the top three with a $19.7 weekend gross.

Moana 2, Wicked, and Babygirl make appearances on the global chart, at fifth, sixth, and ninth place respectively, and three new films make the global top 10.

Related: How Sonic 3 went bigger with Shadow's origin story and 2 Jim Carreys: 'Everything is pumped up' (exclusive)

Coming in seventh at the global box office this weekend is the Mandarin-language abduction thriller Octupus with Broken Arms. The new film starring Chinese sensations Liya Tong and Duan Yihong currently leads that country's domestic box office.

At eighth and tenth are Big World, a surreal Chinese docufiction from director Yang Lina, and Honey Money Phony, also from China, a romcom that also marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Biao Su.

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What will lead at next weekend's box office is anyone's guess, as the upcoming slate of Friday premieres doesn't contain any obvious tentpoles of the Mufasa or Sonic stripe. But does it potentially harbor a Den of Thieves 2, which few box office prognosticators predicted would win the top spot?

Premiering Friday, Jan. 17 are Wolf Man, the new Blumhouse pic from Invisible Man's Leigh Whannell, One of Them Days, a raucous buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and the musician SZA, and awards-oriented dramas I'm Still Here and Sing Sing.

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