Weekend projections: Sonic racing to $71-million debut

April 10, 2022

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is having a rip-roaring start to its theatrical run this weekend, with Paramount Pictures projecting a $71 million opening on Sunday morning, easily topping the $58 million earned by Sonic the Hedgehog when it debuted in early 2020. With Everything Everywhere All at Once also posting excellent numbers as it expands into wide release, and Ambulance holding its own on its first weekend, we’re headed to the second-best weekend of the box office this year.

Here’s how the domestic numbers look this morning (click on the image for the full chart of films reporting so far)…



Sonic’s opening is particularly strong, coming in $13 million ahead of the first outing in the franchise, and $17 million ahead of our model’s prediction before its pandemic adjustment. In other words, this would be a great result without the lingering effects of the pandemic hampering turnout in theaters. Among other things, it’ll set a new record for the biggest domestic weekend for a movie based on a video game.

If the numbers hold up, it’ll be the first PG-rated film to open with over $70 million since Frozen II in December, 2019, and the first non-Disney-PG-rated film to do so since Despicable Me 3 in June, 2017. If you take animated films out of the list, the last non-Disney-non-animated-PG-rated film to break $70 million on opening weekend was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with $77.8 million all the way back in 2009. That may be cherry-picking things a little, but it still shows just what a great weekend this is for Paramount.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the first platform release to survive a transition into wide release since 1917 (the movie, not the year). A24 reports that it is playing strongly across the nation, and holding on well in the theaters where it was already running last week. That suggests both excellent buzz and good word of mouth. The closest analog among films from A24 to Everything Everywhere… is probably The Disaster Artist, which earned $6.4 million when it expanded into 840 theaters on its second weekend and went on to earn $21 million in total.

- Studio weekend projections
- All-time top-grossing movies in North America
- All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Despicable Me 3, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ambulance