Sonic the Hedgehog burst into theatres over the weekend, hauling in an estimated $57 million Friday through Sunday domestically, the highest opening of any video game movie adaption in film industry history.
The record domestic debut was much higher than the $35 million to $45 million that analysts had projected. When the trailer for Paramount‘s new release first hit the Internet, it was met with widespread criticism, mostly due to its less-than-faithful depiction of the titular character, which enraged many diehard fans. Surprisingly, the studio took the comments seriously and the CGI team managed to create new animations for the speedster after a short three-month delay to the release date, which subsequently earned the Internet’s support back, and now, it seems Paramount had made the right call.
The CGI blue speedster had a different facial look in the movie’s original trailer which led to an uproar online. Sonic’s four-day estimate gives Paramount its best opening weekend since Mission: Impossible – Fallout from the summer of 2018. Terminator: Dark Fate was the distributor’s biggest opener of 2019, pulling just $29 million.
In the past, Hollywood has had trouble transitioning video game characters from their consoles to cinemas. Only three adaptations have garnered “Fresh” ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and none of them have garnered more than $500 million worldwide.