Sonic Movie Expected To Have Strong Box Office Start, Surpassing Birds Of Prey

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie is expected to have a strong start at the box office. Variety reports that the CG/live-action film is projected to make between $40 million and $45 million for its opening weekend, which includes the President's Day holiday in the US on February 17.

Sonic should have no trouble unseating Birds of Prey, which was last weekend's No. 1 movie with $33.2 million for its first weekend. Sonic goes up against a raft of newcomers this weekend, including the thriller Fantasy Island, the Will Ferrell/Julia Louis-Dreyfus movie Downhill, and the romance The Photograph, all of which are expected to open below Sonic.

The Sonic movie is directed by Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke). It was originally expected to hit theatres in 2019, but Sony moved the movie to 2020 in response to the social media backlash against the original design of Sonic.

The film reportedly cost $87 million to produce, before marketing expenses are factored in. The movie features the voice of Ben Schwartz as Sonic, with Jim Carrey playing the evil Dr. Robotnik. James Marsden also stars as a police officer who befriends Sonic.

Sonic is gearing up for a big 2020, with Sega planning on announcing Sonic news on the 20th of every month.

In other video game movie news, Sony Pictures has announced it will produce a movie based on the world's most popular FPS, CrossFire.