In taking the No. 1 spot, Paramount’s kid-friendly film towered over Sony’s Marvel adaptation “Morbius” and Universal’s Michael Bay action-adventure “Ambulance”, which debuted to a disappointing US$8 million.
Ticket sales for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” set a new high watermark for video-game adaptations, supplanting the opening weekend record established by its predecessor, 2020’s “Sonic the Hedgehog”.
The first movie collected US$58 million in its first three days of release and ended the President’s Day holiday weekend with a mighty US$70 million.
“This is an outstanding opening,” says David A Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “With solid reviews and very good audience scores, ‘Sonic’ is going to have a strong run.”
Jeff Fowler returned to direct “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” after steering the original film to US$319 million globally and setting a record for the highest-grossing video game adaptation in North America.
Ben Schwartz returned to voice the speedy blue creature with a knack for busting bad guys, and Jim Carrey reprised his role as mad scientist Doctor Robotnik, a combo that has proven to be a hit among moviegoers. “Sonic 2” landed an “A” CinemaScore from audiences.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” cost US$90 million, far more than the US$40 million Bay and Universal shelled out for “Ambulance”. That’s a relatively cheap price tag for “Ambulance,” which is heavy in explosives and special effects.
However, the US$40 million figure does not include the many millions spent on marketing and other efforts necessary to spread the word about the movie’s release.
The lacklustre start for fourth-placed “Ambulance” is yet another sign of consumer’s changing tastes. The kind of adrenalised, physics-defying mojo that turned Bay’s past films like “Armageddon” and “Pearl Harbor” into zeitgeist-y hits don’t always work these days. In the current cinematic environment, fewer genres seem to be resonating with ticket buyers.
Last weekend’s box office leader, Sony’s vampire flick “Morbius”, placed a very distant second this weekend, taking in US$10.2 million, a steep drop from last weekend’s US$39.1 million. Jared Leto stars as a Nobel Prize-winner turned blood sucker in an adaptation from Marvel comics.
In third was another Paramount film, action romance “The Lost City”, at US$9.2 million. Sandra Bullock plays a romance novelist kidnapped by a twisted tycoon (Daniel Radcliffe) who wants her to help him find a buried artefact on a remote, volcano-prone island.
In fifth was dark superhero film “The Batman” from Warner Bros, taking in US$6.5 million in its sixth week out. Robert Pattinson plays the caped crime fighter.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
- “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (US$6 million)
- “Uncharted” (US$2.7 million)
- “Dog” (US$635,000)
- “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (US$625,000)
- “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” (US$500,000)