The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Is Expected To Open Strong

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie releases on February 14, 2020, and it's expected to perform reasonably well. The film, which carries a budget of $95 million, is expected to open north of $40 million.

The Hollywood Reporter is tracking the movie at opening between the range of $40-45 million for the four-day weekend (Monday is President's Day). Deadline believes it could go higher, with a range of $41-47 million.

There's the chance of the movie finishing above or below these figures, of course, but tracking tends to be a good indication of how a movie will do. How reviews turn out could also influence the movie's opening. Traditionally, video game movies have performed better internationally than they have domestically, too--it's fair to expect this will be the case with Sonic the Hedgehog as well.

If it hits the high-end of estimates, it could end up having the second best domestic opening weekend of any video game adaptation, although its direct competition opened over three days rather than four. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened to $47,735,743 back in 2001. It will likely finish below Detective Pikachu, though, which earned $54,365,242 in its opening weekend (both figures via Box Office Mojo).

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has gone through a turbulent production, with a full character redesign being commissioned after the film's disastrous first trailer. Thankfully, a team led by Sonic comic illustrator Tyson Hesse gave gaming's premiere hedgehog a much more lovable look.

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