Search This Blog

Monday, February 17, 2020

Sonic Speeds Towards Box Office Success


February 14th has came and went and with it, the debut of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. I don't believe anyone was expecting the Sonic movie to make billions. I mean, this is a live action video game adaptation and while there have been good ones such as Mortal Kombat and Detective Pikachu, there have been fare more stinkers like Double Dragon and Super Mario Bros. That said, there appears to be a Sonic boom at the box office as it seems Sonic fans are in a rush to see the blue blur on the big screen. This opening weekend, the Sonic movie has manged to rake in $70 million. The film's strong opening numbers could have the four day weekend to thank and there being no major competition in the theaters on opening weekend and while I do think there is some truth to that, I think there's more to it than just that.

When fans across the globe said they would support this movie after producer Jeff Fowler said Sonic would get a redesign after the backlash that spun out from the hedgehog's original look, I think it is pretty clear that those fans stood by their words. That and that second trailer? It just looked miles better than the first one. I laughed out loud at that trailer several times on multiple viewings of it. Of course, one cannot also overlook the fact that the Sonic movie is rated PG, meaning, this is a family film, a kids flick even, which is by no means a bad thing.

With great success comes great salt and man, are there some Sonic movie haters out there. We've had folks on Twitter slamming this film and even bots spouting nonsense about stuff that isn't even in the film. This comes from angry Birds of Prey film fans. Hold up, there's a Birds of Prey movie? I honestly did not know that movie was a thing until the Sonic movie started get shots taken at it from the Birds of Prey Twitter bots. Oh and this all happened days before the film came out. The fact that Sonic mania is sweeping theaters and Sonic is running with such a huge chunk of cash on its opening weekend is probably making the salt flow like wine for these haters. Sure, there are some DC films I wanna see such as Shazam and I'm stoked for Wonder Woman 84 but I've got no interest in seeing Birds of Prey.

I haven't seen the Sonic movie myself but as a fan of the fastest thing alive, I am loving that this movie is so successful. From what I'm hearing, this is a legit enjoyable film with a number of top notch performances. I hear Jim Carrey is in awesome form but Ben Schwartz, the guy voicing our favorite blue hedgehog, hit a home run. I had a feeling he would when I saw that second trailer. Rodger Craig Smith does an awesome job voicing Sonic but I didn't mind that they picked a new voice actor for Sonic's movie debut and I think they did well selecting Mr. Schwartz. For many, I suspect hearing that good voice talent in the first trailer was hidden beneath that hideous first design. So even though I haven't seen it yet, it really sounds like the Sonic movie is more than fine. Best film ever? Nah, and I don't expect it to be. But a good video game flick that does the character justice? Dang skippy. Can't wait to see it.

And no, I do not apologize for my Sonic puns.

No comments: