The Sonic the Hedgehog film began with controversy over the design of the character, delays also hit its marketing, and now critics and audience reviews are mixed at best. However, there is one big achievement the team behind this speedy film can claim loudly and boldly- according to CNN Business, this mighty Sega movie has now achieved the status of holding the best opening weekend record for a video game film, ever!
CNN’s Frank Pallotta writes, “The Paramount film about the iconic Sega video character brought in an estimated $57 million domestically for its opening weekend. That number blew past expectations of the film making closer to $40 million.” Not too shabby, especially when you look at the global number achieving $100 million so far despite receiving a “63% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes”, where audiences gave it a 95% fresh rating (also receiving a similar score with similar audiences giving the film a high score of “A” according to CinemaScore).
So other than the specific issues Sonic the Hedgehog faced, Pallota points out the hurdles films in the video game genre alone has faced historically. First is first, “films based on video games usually aren’t very popular with audiences.” Some video game movie flops that might come to your mind are films such as the much forgettable Super Mario Bros. from 1993, and even the film adaptation of the video game Doom which fans of the franchise vocally rejected because of the liberties taken with the canon source material.
According to Hollywoodreporter.com, Sonic didn’t just race past competitors in its genre, but it also eclipsed some of the other high profile films in theaters during its release weekend; “Sonic quashed its next closet rival, Warner Bros. and DC’s Birds of Prey, which fell to No. 2 in its second weekend with an estimated $17 million over the three days and $19.9 million for the four-day frame. The troubled superhero pic tumbled 48 percent, a steep drop for a holiday weekend, to finish Monday with a domestic total of $62.2 million. Internationally, it took in $23 million in its sophomore outing for a foreign tally of $83.6 million.”
As Sonic the Hedgehog continues to rake in money thanks to the franchise’s millions of fans, the sky’s the limit for the film that some thought could never be made, nonetheless loved by audiences despite all the odds while leaving its competitors in the dust.
