Animated sequel ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’, an adaptation on the popular videogame character, is sitting pretty on top of the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
Starring Jim Carrey as the villainous Dr. Robotnik, reprising his role from the first film, he is joined by bad hedgehog Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba. James Marsden also returns along with Ben Shwartz at the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.
‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ collected all the rings with a haul of $72.1 million. Quickly outpacing the competition. The closest any film got was ‘Morbius’ with only $10.2 million.
This weekend’s winner continues to show that animated movies are favored by audiences even as industry experts claim they’re only for children. There is also a continued debate over whether animation is a genre. Genre is defined as a category of artistic composition characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter. Given that the form of animation is essentially to bring kinetic life to usually inanimate objects, this would make animation a genre. Perhaps, more accurately, a macro genre consisting of several subgenres from pure cartoon to animated/live-action hybrid. ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ falls into the latter.
The Marvel movie from Sony, ‘Morbius’ starring Jared Leto, enjoys the second spot even with a 74% decline from last week. That is a major decline especially for a Marvel comic book adaptation.
In third, ‘The Lost City’ starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. The romantic comedy is in its third consecutive week slowly falling down the chart. ‘The Lost City’ also features Daniel Radcliffe as the villain and Brad Pitt.
‘Ambulance’ may need an ambulance. The Michael Bay directed film slammed the brakes into fourth on its debut making only $8.7 million. ‘Ambulance’ stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a bank robber taking the title vehicle hostage. The movie also is one of many one-word-bland titles that seem to be in favor in Hollywood right now. ‘Ambulance’ did not enjoy the box office of ‘Dog’ or the critical acclaim of ‘Pig’. Even Michael Bay himself said of ‘Ambulance’, “some of the CGI is shit”. Not a good sign when the director talks bad of a movie he’s promoting.
‘The Batman’ rounds out the Weekend Box Office Top 5. Starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, ‘The Batman’ is in its sixth and probably final week in the Top 5. Still, ‘The Batman’ will retain the title of highest grossing film of the year at least until ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ debuts next month. The Marvel sequel is directed by Sam Raimi and will feature Bruce Campbell somewhere in the cast. Bruce Campbell previously posted an April Fool’s joke of pages from the script involving his character from Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ films meeting Doctor Strange. It would be interesting if that turns out to be true, as it would make ‘Evil Dead’ part of the Marvel universe. At least by proxy. Benedict Cumberbatch will star as the Master of the Mystic Arts, the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.
Before all that, next weekend will be make or break for the Harry Potter spinoff series, ‘Fantastic Beasts’. It will likely take the top spot but don’t count out ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (April 8-10, 2022)
- ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ – $72.1 million – animated (debut)
- ‘Morbius’ – $10.2 million – fantasy (drop $28.9 million, 74% down)
- ‘The Lost City’ – $9 million – comedy (drop $5.8 million, 39% down)
- ‘Ambulance’ – $8.7 million – action-adventure (debut)
- ‘The Batman’ – $6.5 million – fantasy (drop $4.3 million, 40% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $106.5 million. This is a gain of $36.2 million, an increase of 51%, from last weekend’s total of $70.3 million.