Sonic movie topples Detective Pikachu with biggest video game movie opening. This thing made money?

It was a close shave, furballs, but Sonic edged past Pokemon: Detective Pikachu's record. This here Sonic movie did a lot better than I thought it would.

$57 million at U.S. box offices is best for a video game movie’s debut

Sonic the Hedgehog set a record for best opening weekend by a video game movie, ringing up an estimated $57 million at domestic box offices to overtake last year’s Detective Pikachu at $54.3 million.

Sonic’s $57 million figure is a three-day total, per The Hollywood Reporter. For the four-day weekend, THR is projecting a $68 million domestic haul for the Blue Blur. Sonic’s opening day estimate of $21 million on Friday likewise edges Detective Pikachu’s first-day take of $20.5 million on May 10, 2019.

Also, out of all the video game movies (depressing list I know), only THREE movies have scored a Fresh on RottenTomatoes. And they are the recent Detective Pikachu (69%), Angry Birds 2 (73%), and Sonic The Hedgehog (63%).

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/video-game-movies-ranked-worst-to-best/

Hoping to see it tomorrow! Hopefully we've reached a turning point and more and more video game movies turn out good and start making money.

He's just too fast.

That is nice, but how is a film adaptation of a video game is relevant to System Wars?

Heard this was a by the book cliched movie and Jim Carries performance was the only thing carried this movie.

Yeah, not watching it. The cinematic Sonic I like is traditionally animated, very kid-friendly design, on Mobius, surrounded by talking animals.

Not really System Wars related sadly. But I'll gladly move it to OT (off-topic) since this is were it belongs anyways.

Just a few weeks ago, this movie was projected to open with barely over $30M. Yet it ended up almost doubling its projection. Sonic just had one of the greatest redemption comebacks ever. Sega does what Nintendon't.

I sense a video game movie renaissance incoming.

Ummm, neat.

@Gamerno6666:

"Heard this was a by the book cliched movie"

- That could be said about almost every movie nowadays. A lot of past videogame movies wished they could've AT LEAST fall into that category.

Well the whole initial design and redesign gave it a lot of unexpected attention.

As the saying goes, "bad publicity is good publicity"... which is usually nonsense, but Sonic is one of those rare instances where this holds true.

Never thought Angry Birds 2, Detective Pikachu and Sonic would be the first three video game movies to earn a Fresh score on RottenTomatoes after a non-stop Rotten streak for video game movies, but stranger things have happened.

Now if the upcoming Uncharted movie can be good, maybe one day video game movies might see a turnaround in quality and public perception much like how comic book movies changed a lot with Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

Tom Holland says the script to Uncharted is one of the best scripts he's ever read because it explores the origins of the character more. Problem is, Tom, we got some origin backstory in the video games! Did he not play them? Not sure if he means what he says or just doing some publicity:

"I think what Uncharted offers that most video games films don't is that it's an origin story to the games," Holland told IGN earlier this week. "So if you played the games, you haven't seen what's going to happen in the film," Holland said. "And if you haven't played the games, you're going to enjoy the film because it's information that everyone else is getting at the same time. But I'm super excited to make that movie and it's been a long time coming.

"I read the newest draft of the script on the way over here and it's one of the best scripts I've ever read. It really, really jumps off the page."

https://www.gamesradar.com/the-uncharted-movie-has-one-of-the-best-scripts-ive-ever-read-says-lead-tom-holland/

@whatafailure: I'd be surprised if this thing actually comes out. It's been delayed again and again, and the latest director that was slated to helm the project bailed.

It's got 94% audience rating on RT. I personally want to watch it. Heard they were pretty close to the original lore.

WTF Sonic universe have a lore??

Yeah apparently there's a few easter eggs, that some of the characters mention. Also the lore it gets pretty messed up, it has a bunch of genocides (of anamorphic animals) that eggman commits Like it happened to the echidna's, they get rounded up and put into eggmans prison and concentration camps by the Dino Regime.

I take it you never watch Sonic cartoons like SataM, Underground, or X? Or even read the Archie comics? Sonic has lots of lore outside of it's video games.

For what it's worth, I do hope video game movies (when they are done right) will someday replace comic book movies cause they overstayed their welcome in the movie world. I strongly hope this Sonic movie sends a message to other studios if you want to make a good video game movie, please take the writing and don't screw it up seriously. Detective Pikachu, Mortal Kombat, and even Wreck-it-Ralph can lead to great video game movies. I wonder how will "Free Guy" do? That's another inspired video game movie I'm looking forward to.

Oh as for Uncharted movie. They should have replaced Tom Holland if there was a scheduling conflict with Spider-Man. I like him, but he is miscast as Drake. The only Uncharted movie I care about:

Not perfect, just the best we're ever going to get. To be perfect, there would have to be another hour and a half of this awesomeness and this is what's the problem with most movie directors, they lack imagination and talent, they don't have it!

So is it like the pre-disney star wars in a sense that everything is canon?

The movies not directly based on a particular video game but about video games in general (Wreck-It-Ralph, Jumanji: Welcome To the Jungle, even Ready Player One in a way) seem to do way better with critics, which is kind of interesting. Comic book movies in the 80s before Tim Burton arrived were seen as cheesy low-tier trash and a joke of a genre, and now, they're getting Best Picture Oscar nominations (Joker and Black Panther) and wins for Best Actor (Joker), and Best Adapted Screenplay noms (Logan). So hopefully one day video game movies can achieve this as well.

I've seen that Nathan Fillion vid before and it's well done. However, the actor is pushing 50 (he's 48 years old, which is much older than the video game character in the games), and I think the studio was looking for someone in their 20s so that, in case Uncharted becomes a success and spawns sequels, they will have a lead actor who can keep doing this for well over a decade and not slow down. It's still possible to do stunts at over 50, but more difficult. And I imagine Sony is trying to capitalize on the Tom Holland name right now with his Spider-Man/Avengers popularity.

I don't remember the games' lore being so dark. Is that from the anime, cartoons or comics?

It's also worth noting that the Uncharted movie is not directly based on the games, but is rather a prequel to the games, starring a teenage Nathan Drake. So Tom Holland would be a good fit for that role.

But good point about the stunts. For most athletes, the prime years are the 20s. Or at most, up to the early 30s for some athletes. But certainly by the late 30s to early 40s, they're well past their prime. Same goes for actors playing physically demanding roles. While there are a few exceptions doing stunts well into their 50s (e.g. Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise), it would be a bit too physically demanding for most 40-something actors to perform their own stunts.

I think it was from the 80/90's cartoons.

I only watched the Sonic X animation for a few episodes when it was first aired in what, 2002 or 2003? Never a fan of Sonic or Mario so I have zero knowledge of the lore of these games. But I definitely can see Bowser enslaving his minions and Dr. Eggman destroying some village or 2 but never genocide lol.

I found the source

https://archiesonic.fandom.com/wiki/Archie_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Issue_138