Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Speeds To Top Spot at the Box Office in Opening Weekend

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is speeding to the top spot at the box office during its opening weekend. Paramount’s sequel based on the beloved Sega video game series earned $26.5 million on Friday. That has set the film up for an opening weekend total in the $67-69 million range. That’s a bigger opening than the $58 million that the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie earned in its opening frame. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the fifth number one opening for Paramount Pictures during the pandemic, following the successful debuts of A Quiet Place: Part II, Scream, Jackass Forever, and The Lost City.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is receiving decent but not glowing reviews from critics, with a “fresh” but not “certified fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook.com’s own Tanner Dedmon wrote in his review of the film that the sequel is stellar but not necessarily an improvement over the first:

“Does all this make Sonic the Hedgehog 2 better than the movie before it? It’s hard to say, but it’s certainly much bigger and much more Sonic-y than its predecessor while managing to maintain brevity often forgone in adaptations like this. Not every joke hits, but even those that miss still add to Sonic’s goofy charm. The path forward for Sonic and his friends is clear – and Elba’s performance as Knuckles is a big green check on the live-action series that seemed questionable before – but the human characters and their roles need sorting out before the next film.”

This weekend, other films on the box office chart include Michael Bay’s latest, Ambulance, and The Lost City is still in the mix. Jared Leto’s Spider-Man spinoff Morbius loses the top spot, and rival superhero flick The Batman is still humming along. Multiversal indie sensation ranks in sixth place. This weekend’s complete list of the top 10 films at the box office is in the works.