Battle at the Box Office 2/17
The delay to redesign Sonic seems to have paid off as the Sonic the Hedgehog movie took the top spot at the box office over the weekend and claims the highest opening ever for a video game movie.
Sonic took in $58 million for the weekend with an estimated $70 million for the four day weekend including today’s Presidents’ Day holiday in the US. The $58 million weekend opening tops Detective Pikachu, which took over the video game opening record last year with $54.4 million. It’s the second-best opening weekend for Jim Carrey, only behind Bruce Almighty, which opened to $67.9 million back in 2003. Sonic also took in $43 million outside the US for a global opening of $101 million.
Birds of Prey dropped to second with $17.3 million. It had a fairly strong hold, dropping less than 50% from last week’s opening but that opening wasn’t particularly strong so it is still underperforming compared to all the other recent DC films. It has $143 million worldwide so far.
Fantasy Island opened to $12.4 million, which was above expectations and despite terrible reviews. Its opening puts it between the first Insidious and Oculus on the Blumhouse charts. It made another $7.6 million internationally for a $19.9 million global opening. In true Blumhouse fashion, it only cost $7 million to make so it’s already more than doubled its budget.
The Photograph, probably the most traditional Valentine’s Day weekend release, took fourth place with $12.2 million. It’s a slightly better opening than last year’s Queen and Slim and it has fairly strong reviews and solid word of mouth, but it could fade fast without the Valentine’s boost this coming weekend.
Bad Boys for Life rounded out the top 5 with another $11.5 million and its made over $368 million worldwide.
Further down the list, Best Picture winner Parasite had the biggest post-Oscars boost of any Best Picture winner, jumping up 245% from last weekend with $5.7 million and moving back into the top 10 at seventh place.
The weekend’s other new release, Downhill, barely made it onto the top 10 at #10 with $4.6 million. It’s one of the lowest openings ever for Will Ferrell, even worse than recent box office flops like Holmes & Watson and The House (the latter of which is hilarious though).
The Per Theater average went to the documentary The Times of Bill Cunningham, which made $22,238 in both theaters it played in over the weekend.