Sonic movie ‘breaks opening record for video game adaptation’

Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog movie has debuted with a strong three-day opening of $57 million in the USA.

The figure represents a new record for a video game adaptation, according to Hollywood Reporter, beating previous best Pokemon Detective Pikachu by almost $3 million.

In addition, the Sonic movie’s projected four-day gross of $68 million will be among the best showings ever for the long holiday weekend, which this year coincided with Valentine’s Day.

Overseas, Sonic launched to $43 million from its first 40 markets for a global figure of $100 million through Sunday, and $111 million through Monday. Top markets included Mexico ($6.7 million) and the U.K. ($6.2 million).

The Sonic movie currently has a score of 63% on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

The film follows the (mis)adventures of Sonic as he navigates the complexities of life on Earth with his newfound – human – best friend Tom Wachowski (James Marsden).

Sonic and Tom join forces to try and stop villain Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from capturing Sonic and using his powers for world domination. The film also stars Tika Sumpter and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic.

Sonic’s character design for the film was revealed in April 2019 and caused a fan backlash large enough to see the movie delayed from November to February 2020 so that Sega’s mascot could be reworked.

Sonic Mania artist Tyson Hesse was brought in to spearhead Sonic’s movie redesign, which was reportedly done without crunch and did not come at significant cost to Paramount.

It’s estimated that the movie cost around $87 million to create.