Sonic Wins A Tight Race Against The Call of the Wild At The Box-Office

In an unexpected turn of events, Sonic The Hedgehog managed to squeak past The Call of the Wild to win the top box-office spot for the second weekend in a row. The Call of the Wild was expected to lead the weekend box office by $8 million after coming out on top Friday. However, by the end of the weekend Sonic The Hedgehog managed to race to the front.

Sonic The Hedgehog was written by Josh Miller and Patrick Casey (Into The Dark, 12 Deadly Days) and directed by Jeff Fowler. Paramount’s video game inspired film which follows Sonic on his journey to finding a place where he belongs earned an A on CinemaScore. Sonic is the first Paramount film since 2018 to cross $100 million domestically, after earning $26 million in its second weekend. The film stars Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Ben Schwartz as the voice of the CGI hedgehog. Sonic The Hedgehog had a record breaking $70 million on its opening weekend. Part of this was likely due to the four-day holiday weekend during its debut. This is the largest opening weekend for a film adaptation of a video game.

In The Call of the Wild, Harrison Ford stars as John Thornton along with his CGI St. Bernard. It’s an adaptation of Jack London’s 20^th Century novel, set in the 1890s, during the Klondoke Gold Rush. Written by Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) and directed by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods) Disney inherited the project as part of the acquisition of 20^th Century Fox.

Sonic and Wild’s Box-Office Race

The Call of The Wild opened domestically with $25 million and overseas $15.4 million making the worldwide total over $40 million. The Call of the Wild managed to beat industry projections, but it carries an impressive price tag of over $125 million, due to the extensive use of CGI. The Call of the Wild earned an A- on CinemaScore and was pretty evenly split between men and women in the audience, but kids made up 23% of the 68% general audience.

Birds of Prey came in at third place in the box office earning $7 million for a total of $75.5 million. The R-rated comic book romp is in its third weekend in theaters. The Margot Robbie led film was directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson. While new release Brahms: The Boy II from STX Entertainment ended its opening weekend having earned $6 million. Brahms: The Boy II stars Katie Holmes in a sequel to the 2016 film, The Boy. It earned another $2 million overseas making the worldwide total $8 million.

Bad Boys For Life came in at number 5 with $5.86 million for a total of $191 million. 1917 was number 6, with $4.4 million and a total of $151.9 million. The reimagined horror remake Fantasy Island came in at number 7, with $4.2 million for a total of $20.2 million. Best Picture winner Parasite was number 8, with just over $3 million for a total of $48.9 million. Jumanji: The Next Level was number 9, with $3 million for a total of $310.9 million in it’s 11^th weekend in theaters. And The Photograph came in at number 10, with $2.8 million for a total of $17.6 million.