Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Dethrones Detective Pikachu With New Video Game Box Office Record

More than a month after its release, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continues to perform well for Paramount. Over the weekend, the Sega adaptation surpassed Pokemon: Detective Pikachu‘s record as the highest-grossing live-action movie based on a video game property. The 2019 Pokemon film earned $450 million worldwide, while Sonic the Hedgehog 3 now has a global take of more than $462 million, according to numbers from Box Office Mojo. That’s still significantly behind Universal’s animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which earned more than $1.3 billion in 2023. However, if you only count live-action films, Sonic now leads the rest of the pack.

Sonic’s continued success at the box office is pretty impressive, especially given the fact that the movie received a home release last month. While viewers can now watch Sonic digitally, it seems many are still opting to see the movie in theaters. How long that remains the case is anyone’s guess, but it seems Sonic has longer legs than a lot of other movies at the moment.

It should come as little surprise that Paramount already has plans for the Sonic franchise’s future. Last month, the company announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will be released in theaters on March 19th, 2027. At this time, details about the movie are pretty scarce; presumably, the current cast will return for the movie, alongside director Jeff Fowler, but no details have been confirmed as of this writing. The ending of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 laid the groundwork for a sequel, introducing two popular characters that will likely play key roles in the next film. It also seemed to set up a potential spin-off starring the Keanu Reeves voiced character Shadow the Hedgehog.

The future of Sonic the Hedgehog seems pretty well-established, but things are a lot less clear for Pokemon on the big screen. A sequel to Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was announced by Legendary Entertainment, and was confirmed to be “in active development” in February 2023. Nothing has been heard about the sequel since, and many people associated with the first film seem skeptical about the chances of it ever happening. It’s possible Pikachu could still get a chance to retake his crown from the blue blur with a sequel, but it remains to be seen!

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The successes of Pokemon, Sonic, and Mario on the big screen have caused something of a video game gold rush in Hollywood, with studios desperately looking to find the next big franchise to adapt to TV or film. Nearly every major property seems to be in some form of active development, from a Tomb Raider series starring Sophie Turner, to Sony’s upcoming Until Dawn film. It remains to be seen whether any of these will prove nearly as successful, but it’s easy to see why there’s so much interest!

Have you checked out Sonic 3 in theaters? Do you think we’ll see another Detective Pikachu movie at some point? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Video Games Chronicle]