After a string of pricey duds with
Gemini Man, Terminator: Dark Fate, and
Rhythm Section, Paramount gets back on track with its net $87M production of
Sonic the Hedgehog. This film's 4-day projections have just boomed over the weekend, from $55M+ on midday Friday, to $64M+ yesterday morning to around
$68M per Paramount this AM (that's also where the industry average is; some even believe the blue critter can run up to $70M+). After a strong $20.6M Saturday, a 2% dip from Friday's $21M, for a 3-day of
$57M,
Sonic the Hedgehog has feasibly beat the 3-day start of Legendary/Warner Bros.'
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu ($54.3M) to become the best opening for a videogame feature adaptation of all-time. On a 4-day basis,
Sonic is also faster than
Detective Pikachu which earned $58M over a non-holiday period last May.
All in, worldwide for
Sonic the Hedgehog is
$100M which is fantastic, but not a record debut for a videogame pic;
Pikachu's technical global start (with domestic) being
$157.3M, while Legendary/Universal's
Warcraft was around $119.1M, not counting its pre-box office run in China.
Talk about a turnaround year for Paramount, and
Sonic is just the beginning with
A Quiet Place II (March 20),
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (May 22),
Top Gun Maverick (June 26) yet to come.
Video game fare has always been ambitious to adapt to the big screen, the exhibit A example of risk and failure being Cinergi's 1993
Super Mario Brothers (distributed via Disney at the time!) which cost a then-exorbitant $48M and only grossed a near $21M domestic.
