With the four-day holiday frame bookended by Valentine’s Day on one end and President’s Day on the other, there was certainly room for a breakout hit at the domestic box office this weekend – and Sonic the Hedgehog delivered on that promise with a sensational debut.
Paramount’s adaptation of the nearly 30-year-old video game franchise sped to an estimated $57 million over the three-day period and a studio-projected $68 million through Monday from 4,167 locations, resulting in the second-largest opening of the year to date and the largest-ever debut for a video game adaptation, narrowly besting last year’s Detective Pikachu ($54.36 million). The result is well above the low $40 million range the studio projected heading into the weekend.
Sonic’s breakout performance can be chalked up to a number of factors. For starters, the time was ripe for a family-friendly release after the relatively mild reception for Dolittle last month and titles like Jumanji: The Next Level and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker beginning to fade. The long-awaited adaptation also held strong (perhaps nostalgic) appeal for adult audiences who fondly remember the video game, while the presence of Jim Carrey in his classic Ace Ventura mode also helped to lure in the older crowd. First slated to hit theaters last November, Sonic the Hedgehog’s release was pushed back after fans criticized the appearance of the title character in the first trailer. Smartly, the studio took the controversy to heart and ordered a full redesign that hewed more closely to Sonic’s appearance in the video games, a move that garnered praise and no doubt helped to boost audience turnout this weekend.
Though reviews for Sonic were mixed, it narrowly finished in “Fresh” territory on Rotten Tomatoes, which may also have buttressed turnout somewhat. More importantly, audiences appear to be enjoying the film, which garnered an “A” Cinemascore from opening day crowds and currently boasts a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 95% from over 4,000 ratings. With a two-week window before Disney/Pixar’s highly anticipated animated fantasy Onward hits theaters, Sonic is looking at a healthy run ahead.
More to come…
The post Studio Weekend Box Office Report: <em>Sonic the Hedgehog</em>, <em>Birds of Prey</em>, <em>The Photograph</em>, <em>Fantasy Island</em>, <em>Downhill</em> appeared first on Boxoffice.
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