Sonic the Hedgehog outpaces Detective Pikachu to set new box office record for a video-game movie

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie topped the North American box office on its opening weekend with $57 million in takings over its first three days, and an estimated $68 million for the long holiday weekend in the US. That’s a new record for a video game adaptation, breezing past the $54.3 million three day record set by Detective Pikachu last year.

It’s also performed fairly well internationally, with $43 million from its first 40 markets to help it pass $100 million through Monday. Mexico was the second biggest country for the film ($6.7m) and the UK in third ($6.2m).

Whether it’s all the Valentine’s Day ‘dinner and a movie’ dates, the above Super Bowl advert, the brand recognition and nostalgia for Sonic the Hedgehog, or the hopes that this could be a Cats-like car crash of a film, the film has turned out to be a success against all the odds. It’s surpassed Paramount’s expectations and already pushed past the film’s budget.

It wasn’t that long ago that Sonic was all set to be a movie disaster to rival Super Mario Bros. After a first trailer was released in May, there was a huge fan backlash against the original design of Sonic, which was meant to be “realistic”. Thankfully for the film, the film was delayed so that Sonic could be redesigned, this being revealed in November. Alongside the VFX team Sonic Mania Adventures director Tyson Hesse was brought in to bring the character’s design closer to the games.

The film was originally going to be produced by Sony by they sold the rights to Paramount. It stars James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, a former SFPD officer who has moved to Green Hills, Motana, who encounters the blue speedster, who is voiced by Ben Schwartz. Jim Carrey will be playing the villain Dr Ivo Robotnic and seems to be giving it full 1990’s Jim Carrey, which could be good. The cast also includes Tika Sumpter as Dr. Annie Wachowski, Neal McDonough as Major Bennington, and Adam Pally.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

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1 Comment

  1. I took my kids (6 & 3) to see it this weekend and it’s a really good fun kids movie.
    7/10 I’d give it, my son of 6 said 6 billion out of 10 :-D

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