Sonic the Hedgehog 2 might not speed into North American cinemas until later this week, but the blue blur's latest adventure has already arrived in other markets. The sequel hit the big screen in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and across Europe on Friday, April 1, and early indicators have already revealed the movie is on track to perform even better than the first movie at the box office.
According to Deadline, Sonic 2 racked up $25.5 million across the 31 markets it debuted in this past weekend. That's a two percent uptick compared to the first movie across those same markets during its launch weekend, something Paramount is reportedly very pleased with. A surefire sign the studio was right to press on with Sonic 3 and a Knuckles spinoff series before the second movie had even arrived.
The first Sonic movie took pretty much everyone by surprise via its success when it hit cinemas a little more than two years ago. It became the highest-grossing video game movie ever in the US and might have performed even better had the pandemic not shut down theaters worldwide. With very little threat of that happening again coupled with the sequel's early box office numbers, it seems likely Sonic 2 will break the record set by Sonic 1.
Paramount and the team behind the first two Sonic movies have big plans for the franchise's future too. Not just a third movie and a Knuckles show, but an entire Sonic Cinematic Universe. That's the exact term one of the sequel's producers used last week prior to the movie's arrival. There have also been rumors of Tails getting his own movie, and no spoilers here but the sequel's credits scene perfectly tees up whatever's next.
Even though the first two movies have sort of followed the timeline of the first three games, at least when it comes to the addition of new characters, that will apparently not be the case moving forward. Future movies and shows will cherry-pick elements from throughout Sonic's 30-year history. Probably a good job too as Jim Carrey has suggested Sonic 2 will be his final movie, meaning Paramount may have to continue on without Robotnik.
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