If we've been holding out for a box office hero, then we've got one in the form of Sonic. The Sega video game icon toplines this month's sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and he's helped to smash an important box office record in the United States, which is excellent news for distributor Paramount.
Reports Box Office Mojo: "Paramount’s kid-friendly follow-up, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, exceeded even the most bullish industry expectations in its debut weekend and blew past the box-office competition with a sonic boom thanks to a massive $71 million bow. The Sega video game-inspired sequel marked the studio’s fourth 2022 film to open in the top spot."
According to critic and box office analyst Erik Davis, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has posted the largest-ever United States opening for a video game movie. The movie's total worldwide gross currently stands at $158 million; expectations are that it will exceed the total haul of the first Sonic movie, which just about got ahead of the pandemic in 2020 and closed to an impressive $319 million against an $85 million budget.
"Paramount’s own estimates for the new sequel’s debut weekend were in the neighborhood of $50 million," observes Box Office Mojo. "But Sonic 2 zipped right past that number and just kept going. Unspooling in 4,234 theaters, the PG-rated sequel scored a $16,789 per-screen average and seemed to click with ticket-buyers of all ages (who rewarded it with a straight-A CinemaScore grade)."
The sequel pits the Ben Schwartz-voiced hero against Jim Carrey's nefarious Doctor Robotnik. The latter has now enlisted fan-favourite character Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) to help him search for the all-powerful Master Emerald. (Check out our Sonic 2 interviews with Jim Carrey and the rest of the cast and crew, plus Sonic himself.)
Don't forget that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is playing in Cineworld cinemas during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. (Variety reports that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has taken £10.9 million in the UK in its first two weeks of release.)
Click here to book your tickets for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, on release now in Cineworld.
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