‘Sonic’ sprints to the top at theaters
“Sonic the Hedgehog” shot to the top of the box office this weekend, opening to an estimated $57 million in domestic ticket sales — a somewhat unlikely success story for the film, an adaptation of a video game series about a little blue creature with a superhuman sprint.
The movie easily could have been a box-office disaster. Domestic moviegoers haven’t always been particularly kind to adaptations of video games. “Warcraft” and “Assassin’s Creed,” from 2016, and the more recent “Tomb Raider” reboot, all struggled at the box office.
But “Sonic the Hedgehog,” distributed by Paramount Pictures and based on the Sega video game character, has more than avoided catastrophe. It brought in an additional estimated $43 million overseas this weekend, according to the studio, bringing its global opening weekend total to $100 million. The movie’s budget reportedly was $85 million.
Directed by Jeff Fowler, “Sonic the Hedgehog” pairs its blue, fur-covered hero (voiced by Ben Schwartz) with a human friend, played by James Marsden, and pits them against a mustachioed villain played by Jim Carrey.
Second place went to “Birds of Prey” (Warner Bros.), a DC Comics origin story with Margot Robbie that had a disappointing opening last weekend. It continued that course this weekend, bringing in an estimated $17.1 million in sales, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.
Two lower-budget newcomers are in a close race for third place.
“Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island,” a horror movie distributed by Sony, opened to an estimated $12.4 million in domestic ticket sales this weekend, a good start for a movie whose reported budget was around $7 million. Estimates place it slightly ahead of Universal’s “The Photograph,” a New Yorkset romance with Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield that also had a good opening this weekend, with about $12.3 million in domestic sales from Friday through Sunday.
The weekend’s biggest stumble was probably “Downhill” (Searchlight), a comedy with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus that opened to an estimated $4.7 million, landing in 10th place.