Movies

Sonic the Hedgehog Wins Big at the Holiday Weekend Box Office with $57M


Moviegoers showed a lot of love to Sonic the Hedgehog over the Valentine’s Day weekend, as the Paramount Pictures release has set a new high-bar for video game adaptations in Hollywood. It easily took the top spot away from Birds of Prey, the latest DC Comics adaptation from Warner Bros., which was entering its second weekend after a rough start. This weekend’s other newcomers all did somewhere between good and not-so-good.

Sonic the Hedgehog earned a reported $57 million for the three-day weekend box office and, thanks to the Presidents Day holiday, it’s expected to take in $70 million during the four-day start. Considering the reported $90 million production budget, that is a killer beginning for the directorial debut of Jeff Fowler. It now holds the record for the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game movie, besting last year’s Detective Pikachu, which opened to $54.3 million, on its way to $433 million globally. Again, all good news for Paramount. Especially considering the mess this movie had to go through ahead of its release, with the top-to-bottom redesign of Sonic. But all of that work paid off in a big way.

Birds of Prey had to settle for second place with $17.1 million from Friday to Sunday. It’s expected to pull in just shy of $20 million through Monday. That represents a 48 percent drop weekend-to-weekend, which isn’t bad by any stretch, but considering the much lower-than-expected debut, Harley Quinn’s return to the big screen isn’t shaping up to be a smashing success. Theater chains began changing the title to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey to try and help with the brand awareness. Margot Robbie’s latest, which was directed by Cathy Yan, has made $145.2 million worldwide so far.

Blumhouse’s latest, Fantasy Island, narrowly took the number three spot with $12.4 million and is expected to earn $14 million over the full four days. While the adaptation of the classic TV show was savaged by critics, it should prove to be a financial win. Director Jeff Wadlow’s horror-tinged reboot was produced for just $7 million, which means its $21.6 million global total following its opening weekend is quite solid. Coming in just behind that is Universal’s Photograph with $12.2 million. It fared well with critics and audiences. With a cast led by Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield, the movie benefited from the Valentine’s Day crowd looking for something on the romantic side.

RELATED: Sonic the Hedgehog Review: Jim Carrey Returns to Form in a Fantastic Adventure

Another bright spot for the weekend was Parasite. Despite already being available via On Demand and Blu-ray/DVD, the recent Oscar-winner saw a huge increase over the weekend to the tune of 234 percent, bringing in another $5.5 million. It capitalized on that surprise Best Picture win in a big way. Barely making it into the top ten was the weekend’s final newcomer Downhill, which stars Will Farrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The comedy didn’t find much in the way of critical love and earned just $4.6 million over the weekend, with an expected $5.1 million take for the full four-day stretch. Be sure to check out the full weekend box office results below. These numbers come to us via Box Office Mojo.

  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Birds of Prey
  • Fantasy Island
  • Photograph
  • Bad Boys for Life
  • 1917
  • Jumanji: The Next Level
  • Parasite
  • Dolittle
  • Downhill
Ryan Scott at Movieweb



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