Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is outstripping the three-day opening results of its 2020 original movie — which, keep in mind, was over a holiday weekend — with $71M. For Jim Carrey, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is his biggest domestic opener on a three-day basis, beating the $68M start of Bruce Almighty in 2003.
Sonic 2‘s updated gross is after an estimated $26M Saturday, which was up 1% against Friday plus previews of $26.8M. Technically speaking, the Jeff Fowler-directed sequel was up 30% on Saturday over Friday if you back out previews.
Paramount Theatrical Distribution Boss Chris Aronson beamed, “Sonic 2‘s record opening is a victory for Paramount and for the industry at large. The filmmakers did an amazing job of crafting a film that is both in service of Sonic’s legions of fans as well as the general and family audience. Growing a franchise is no small feat and having an opening +22% over the first film is a remarkable achievement. Kudos to the filmmakers and to the marketing and distributions teams at Paramount for doing a fantastic job in bringing the film into the global marketplace!”
Knock on wood, it’s going to be fun to see the legs on this one and how vibrant a Sonic movie can truly be in the market, especially for a sector that has been starving for movies. The first movie’s momentum was stalled by Covid and the closing of movie theaters, the pic making close to 50% of its $148.9M final domestic in its first four days.
Critics at 68% Rotten didn’t curtail business for the Hedgehog as he received an A CinemaScore, the same grade as the first film, with an 87% positive and 74% recommend on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak with kids under 12 jumping up and down at 95% positive and a 79% definite recommend.
Demos were 61% guys, 39% women with 32% under 17, and 46% between 18-34 years old. Diversity demos showed a strong turnout among Latino and Hispanic audiences of 38%, Caucasian at 29%, 20% Black and 13% Asian/other. Sonic was great everywhere, but showed power on the coasts and in the South. PLFs by Saturday AM drove 22% of ticket sales.
The audience was made up of 27% parents, 31% kids and 42% general.
EntTelligence says 6M admissions were closed for Sonic 2. Matinee attendance was strong on Saturday with almost 56% of the audience attending before 5PM. Thirty-one percent came between 5PM to 8PM, and 13% after 8PM. On Friday, approximately 31% of the audience came before 5PM, 46% came during the 5PM to 8PM dayparts, and 23% of patrons showed up after 8PM. By comparison, Encanto had over 83% of their audience see the film before 8PM on opening day. Average ticket price for Sonic 2 was $11.69.
iSpot monitored that Paramount spent just under $18M on U.S. TV spots that yielded 717M impressions with the campaign running on NBC, Nick, CBS, USA and Univision on such shows as the Winter Olympics, SpongeBob, men’s college basketball, and of course the Super Bowl LVI pregame and NBA games.
Social awareness for Sonic 2 per RelishMix before the weekend stood at 468.6M and 29% above the social media universe of family-live-action movies across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. And, it also runs in-line with the first installment of Sonic which opened two years ago, just before the pandemic, and exceeded predictions for that opening weekend at $58M. Included, is the 11.7M social/digital kick from the Super Bowl pre-game spot and social pages for the movie at 568K which is strong. The franchise based on the 31 year old video game, has social cross-promotional integration from the Sega game platform (4.3M) and the Sonic The Hedgehog social media (13.1M). RelishMix noticed that the word of mouth was positive for Sonic 2 and that “expectations and love for Jim Carrey as Dr. Eggman, and concerns as to whether this this will be his ‘last film’ are building interest even more.”
The weekend’s other wide opener, Michael Bay’s Ambulance from Universal, saw $3.3M on Saturday, the same as yesterday for $8.7M in 4th place (this is as of Saturday night). Those who bought tickets love the movie with an A- CinemaScore. However, there was a disparity with PostTrak exits which were much lower at 77% positive, and 61% recommend. Older guy heavy as expected at 62%, 77% over 25 with 49% over 35 years old. Diversity demos were 38% Caucasian, 29% Latino and Hispanic, 22% Black and 11% Asian/other. West and Southwest were the best areas of play for the action pic with Imax accounting for 14% of ticket sales, and nine of the top ten runs coming from the large format exhibitor and another 7% from PLFs. According to EntTelligence, Ambulance pulled in 675K admissions this weekend, with over 35% of the audience coming after 8PM on Friday and 27% attending after 8PM on Saturday.
iSpot shows that Uni spent an enormous amount of cash on TV spots at $33M. This includes NBCUniversal owned networks, which generated 819M impressions. Spots aired across NFL games, men’s college basketball, the Winter Olympics, NBA games and The Big Bang Theory re-runs.
A24 this AM reported that their wide expansion of Everything Everywhere All at Once is in 6th place with $6M, the best weekend of the year for a platform release (Yes, they still work; not all indie movies are 17 days). A24 will continue to expand the movie in the next few weeks. The Daniels directed movie wasn’t just beloved by critics at 97% Certified Fresh after two weekends of limited play, however, PostTrak measured 89% positive, and a great 77% recommend. Guys bought tickets at 64%, with 61% over 25, and 69% between 18-34. Diversity demos were 45% Caucasian, 19% Asian, 19% Latino and Hispanic, 13% Black and 4% other. Coasts saw the best business with nine of the top ten runs; which isn’t unusual for an A24 release. Best markets were LA, NY, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington DC, Seattle, Denver, Toronto, San Diego, and Austin. Data from Tubular Labs showed trailers from A24 garnered 29.1 million views across Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Comscore reports that all movies this weekend grossed $118.6M, +7% when compared to the 2nd weekend of April 2019, which grossed $111.1M.
Top 6 Movies; we’ll have more updates for you later this morning:
1.) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Par) 4,234 theaters, Fri $26.5M, Sat $26.8M, Sun $17.7M, 3-day $71M/Wk 1
2.) Morbius (Sony) 4,268 theaters, Fri $2.9M, Sat $4.4M, Sun $2.8M, 3-day $10.2M (-74%)/Total $57M/Wk 2
3.) The Lost City (Par) 3,797 (-486) theaters Fri. $2.56M, Sat $4M, Sun $2.55M,, 3-day $9.1M (-38%)/Total $68.8M/ Wk 3
4.) Ambulance (Uni) 3,412 theaters, Fri $3.2M, Sat, $3.3M, Sun $2.2M, 3-day $8.7M/Wk 1
5.) The Batman(WB) 3,254 (-478) theaters Fri $1.75M, Sat $2.9M, Sun $1.9M, 3-day: $6.5M (-41%) Total $358.8M/Wk 6
6.) Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) 1,250 (+1,212) theaters, Fri $2.1M, Sat $2.1M, Sun $1.7M, 3-day $6.05M (+505%)/Total $8.4M/Wk 3
7.) Uncharted (Sony) 2,318 (-746) theaters, Fri $735K Sat $1.2M Sun $710K, 3-day $2.65M (-28%), Total $142.9M/Wk 8
8.) Jujutsu Kaisen (Crunch) 850 (-1,220) theaters, Fri $230K, Sat $345K, Sun $250K, 3-day $825K (-58%), Total $33.1M/Wk 4
9.) Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) 1,009 (-696) theaters, Fri $170k, Sat $288K, Sun $167K, 3-day $625K, -57%, Total $803.8M/Wk 17
10.) RRR (Sarigama Cinemas) 350 (-515) theaters, Fri $151K, Sat $248K, Sun $171K, 3-day $570K (65%), Total $13.66M/Wk 3