"Sonic The Hedgehog 2," the Paramount sequel about the iconic Sega video game character, notched an estimated US$71 million domestically for its opening this weekend, according to the studio. That number not only exceeded expectations that had the film making closer to US$50 million, but also marks the biggest opening ever for a video game based film.
The sequel, which stars Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik, also outperformed the original, which opened in February 2020 to US$58 million.The studio has had a solid start to 2022 thanks to two sequels that beat expectations at the box office. " ," the fifth installment in the horror franchise, opened to US$30 million in January before going on to make US$140 million worldwide. Now, "Sonic The Hedgehog 2" looks poised to be one of the bigger hits of the year.
"I think there was this idea that families were not ready to go back to the movie theater, but the performance of 'Sonic 2' this weekend proves that family audiences are back," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, told CNN Business. "Family audiences are one of the most important segments of the box office, so this is good news for other family films and the industry at large as we head towards the summer.