Sonic Overshadows Ambulance At Box Office
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, by Paramount, premiered to a massive $71 million, providing a significant boost to the domestic box office rebound, particularly in the family sector.
The PG-13 film performed significantly above projections, collecting $26.5 million from 4,234 locations on Friday.
Families made up over 60% of the audience. Because of the pandemic, titles relying heavily on children and parents have struggled to gain traction.
Sonic 2 is also one of the few COVID films to open ahead of its predecessor. Other bragging rights: it is now the biggest debut for a video-game adaptation of all time, surpassing the original Sonic, and it is also Paramount's biggest three-day opening since 2014.
The first Sonic premiered to $58 million for the three-day Presidents Day weekend in February 2020, a month before theatres across the country shut down due to the developing COVID-19 issue, on its way to becoming the top-grossing video game movie of all time domestically ($148 million).
Sonic 2 earned an additional $37 million from 53 markets outside of the United States, bringing the foreign total to $70 million and $141 million overall.
This sequel based on Sega's highly successful video game and media series stars James Marsden, Jim Carrey, and Tika Sumpter as the otherworldly, vivid blue hedgehog (voiced by Ben Schwartz).
On the other hand, the prospects for Michael Bay's upcoming film, Ambulance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is not promising.
Despite a strong push on Imax and premium large format screens, the Universal action film opened at $8.7 million from 3,412 cinemas, placing fourth. This weekend, Ambulance earned another $2.8 million from 68 markets, bringing the global total to $31 million.
Eiza Gonzalez also appears in Ambulance, a film about the aftermath of a botched bank heist in Los Angeles. Audiences preferred Sonic 2 and Ambulance over reviewers, awarding them an A CinemaScore and an A- CinemaScore, respectively. Critics praised Bay's film, which now has a 69 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Sonic 2 has a 68 percent.