
Sonic's movie career started as a nightmare but quickly turned around when the team behind the original live-action movie changed his look. It's now morphed into three entire films and following the release of Sonic 3 late last month, this series has just hit another big-screen milestone.
According to Box Office Mojo data (via Reddit), the Sonic 3 movie has now made an estimated $280 million worldwide - and combined with previous sales of the franchise (close to $320 million for Sonic in 2020 and $405 million for Sonic 2 in 2022) this apparently makes it a billion-dollar movie franchise!
The third outing has been well received so far by fans, and Paramount has already reportedly locked in a fourth movie outing. Even better is the news Jim Carrey is "open to the idea" of playing Robotnik in future Sonic movies.
Have you contributed to the success of Sonic's live-action movies? Have you seen the third movie yet? Let us know in the comments.
[source boxofficemojo.com, via x.com, reddit.com]
Comments 45
Well deserved I loved all 3 movies!
I don't watch sonic 3 movie after I overheard something inside the movie, added with my bad reception from the first sonic movie in year 2020.
Even I suddenly stopped watching the sonic 3 movie trailer from YouTube after 20 seconds.
I already felt something not quite right and I don't want to regret like last time I watched Harold & Purple Crayon and The Wild Robot. (Only watched the movie one time and never want to watch or thinking about them anymore).
Instead, I watched WICKED for eight times from my local cinema XXI.
WICKED looked way more interesting and entertaining for me than sonic 3 movie.
Speaking about sonic games, I know I'm not sonic fan as i'm not SEGA fan but I only have little interest with certain sonic games that I found easy enough to play for newbie who have zero experience in sonic games.
The sonic games maybe yes for me, but the sonic movies?
Nah....
I have learnt from my experience after watching bad movies.
Love to hear it, looking forward to watching these movies myself when I can and seeing what they'll come up with for the next one!
aww that’s cute - only took ya 3 films!
Now why can't they get his games to sell like that? Make a new game that sells that good then I'll be impressed.
@Anti-Matter I watched Sonic 2 on the plane to America the other week and it was surprisingly good. I agree that the first movie wasn’t the best. I reckon 3 might be good after watching 2 👍🏻
Looking forward to watching 3 at some point. Glad there’s a 4th in the works.
Great. Watched all 3 with the family. All fantastic. Mario proudly takes his hat off
Easily the best of the three Sonic movies.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Sonic films, honestly. Glad a fourth is in the works.
Mario is laughing his boots off. Then again, he is the a-number one. So is Luigi.
@Anti-Matter Regardless of everything else, Wicked is about eight times better than Sonic 3 imo, so I actually think you made the right choice there.
For me personally, the first Sonic movie is still the best of the three, with each sequel adding more but not being quite as satisfying. It's exactly how I feel about all the Sonic games too; nothing for me has topped the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Genesis. Sonic Mania actually looks like it's probably the best Sonic game of them all, but I haven't played it enough to be able to make that call.
@lyle_catcliffe An interesting point. It looks like all three Sonic movies combined still haven't made as much as The Super Mario Bros. Movie made all by itself at the box office. And I don't think there's much chance of them catching up at this point. That speaks to just how massive a hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie was really. And I am very comfortable with that, as I still think it's one of the very best animated movies I have ever watched. It's simple, and it's for kids and families and 1000% for the fans, but it's so well put together that I've watched it maybe fifteen to twenty times at this point and still love it just as much each and every time. There's not a weak second of that film imo. I cannot wait to see what Illumination has in store for the sequel, although I'm certainly not expecting them to achieve such heights of greatness and success across the board twice in a row.
Well-deserved. Let this be an example to the out-of-touch Hollywood executives.
I have watched each one with my son and we both liked the films
It is truly amazing how even positive Sonic articles can be twisted into negatives on this site.
So 120 million to produce and 60ish (generally half the production budget) for marketing, even after the ticket split with theaters (differs in all countries) but lets aggressively say half goes to theaters. This movie has made 279, so a little more to be profitable at the theaters. But, kids movies usually play longer in theaters and home video/streaming will start soon, along with merchandise, ties in and whatever. I have no interest in seeing it will be successful financially
I’m happy for them. I watched 3 in theaters last week and really enjoyed it. I never had played a Sonic game for then, but picked up Sonic Superstars for half off on the eShop
Thou it looks like Mufasa actually beat Sonic 3.
Refreshing to see how well this franchise has been doing considering the budget they are produced on. It’s very lucrative for SEGA and paramount right now.
That said, I’m not super surprised that The Mario Bros Movie reached 1 billion on a single film compared to Sonic doing the same on three individual movies. Based on the IP and global reach, Mario is always going to be more popular.
But, there is also a good reason that Sonic 3 currently holds the throne for best Videogame movie adaption based on critic and user scores. If Nintendo and illumination can get their act together for the sequel and not solely rely on dozens of video game and pop culture references, then it might have a fighting chance to be just as good (if not better) than the Sonic Movie Franchise 🙂
@fenlix Sonic never had a chance nomatter what. It's Disney.
Good. It was a fun movie. All three Sonic films are wholesome family fun and as a Sonic fan since 1991 it’s great to see what us fans could only imagine: Sonic and co on the big screen!
Also can we stop comparing it to the Mario film? Mario was a ‘traditional’ fully animated film for a character who is even more popular with a consistently high level of games keeping him in the zeitgeist far more successfully than old Sonic. To me both series are triumphs: with Sonic it’s that it has managed to return him to great popularity among the general public to a level not seen since the early 90s and has managed to stay consistently good across three films. Mario’s success isn’t just financial; it’s the fact that after so many years they did it and didn’t make a huge mess of it! As anyone who grew up with the Super Mario Bros. Movie from the 90s can attest, it was not necessarily a sure thing <shudders>
@Anti-Matter You’re fully entitled to your opinion, but I think you are missing out. The Sonic movies are some of the most family friendly, wholesome films I have seen in a long time. The moral centre is very consistent across all three, with great ideas about family, friendship, responsibility, self-discipline and being true to yourself. The humour is also very warm and genuinly funny.
Meanwhile, Sony has announced that the Playstation 2 movie has made "more than that".
Just don’t understand the love for these movies. All of them are unbearably childish. I get they are kids movies but there are way better kid films.
Nice. And Mario did it in one movie.
@MeloMan : Gotta go slooooooow!
@MeloMan Mario has been global icon for decades. He's basically the Mickey Mouse of games due to Nintendo successfully marketing the character to general audiences of all ages.
There are more people who don't even play videogames that know Mario than Sonic. It's not a surprise like at all, his first movie would do gangbusters at the box office.
Disney even on their worst day, would do way more than any other animation studio by brand recognition alone. It wouldn't matter if the Mario was a great film, a mediocre film, or a downright bad one. Nintendo is king of the family game market so a Mario film regardless of it's quality was going to be a huge success.
Sonic on the hand doesn't have that wide of grasp on the family market. Sega's demographic never exclusively focused on family/ kids. Sonic game's were always focused more on a 10+ market and by being multiple platform, the franchise doesn't have a home console where it can be marketed aggressively to a demographic.
Sonic not making a billion dollars in one go was always a long shot regardless. But the fact the franchise as a whole did well at the box office is a success on it's own, and there really no need to bring Mario in this.
On a final note, Mario and Sonic stop competing decades ago. It's funny how gamers keep pitting these two against eachother.
They're fun, well made films, each better than the last.
@ anyone trying to make this about the Sonic vs. Mario films: each Sonic film is better because the actors in them actually want to be there and it shows. But the Mario film is fun too.
@ Disney trying so hard to bury Sonic 3 with Mufasa: lol.
Is a billion dollars a lot or not much? I literally can’t tell if a few billion is enough for a business anymore..
So, they’re going to do the same thing with the movies that they did with the games then? Pump them out until the well is dry?
Watched all 3 in the theater with my kids. Jim Carrey is a national treasure. Add on top of that the wonderful fan service to those of us who grew up playing Sonic Adventure 2. What a great movie!
Watched it on Dec 23rd and can say that I enjoyed it quite alot. It does have the same feeling as the second movie (as in Sonic vs Knuckles into Sonic vs Shadow) but connecting both Robotniks together since Gerald Robotnik is critical to introducing Shadow, was done brilliantly. It even felt abit "dark" and sad at times. Oh and love the post-credit scenes (yes, plural)
3 movies. Still behind the single animated Mario movie in total gross.
Removed - unconstructive
take that Disney
Me and my family watched the 3rd movie the day before Christmas and honestly it’s easily the best of the 3 and that’s saying something since the other movies were all pretty good. Definitely gonna see 4 when it comes out.
Congrats to both Sega and Paramount, both of y'all deserve those earnings for making this the best trilogy of the Sonic franchise right behind the original Sega Genesis and Nintendo Game Boy Advance trilogy. I would say Dreamcast too but Sonic Adventure 3 never happen in 2003 and all the Game Gear Sonic games never made it to 3.
@WaffleRaptor01 Maybe if Sega didn't make surpassing Mario Sonic's goal, there wouldn't be so many comparisons.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/11/segas-executive-director-wants-sonic-games-and-movies-to-surpass-mario
@Anti-Matter Hearing Wicked on this site now just gives me flashbacks to that delusional maniac in the funko fusion wicked crossover announcement's comment section who would respond to everyone's comment with like 3 unique comments of his own everytime and was weirdly defensive of funko pops as a whole LMFAO
@PinballBuzzbro
WICKED is my Movie of the Year 2024.
Great movie is deserved for multiple watch.
And right now I'm watching WICKED again at my local cinema for the ninth times.
Prefer the Sonic movies by some distance over the Mario Movie. If Jeff fowler and paramount handled Mario, It would be far more creative,
Mario felt undercooked, rushed, filled with cringeworthy pop culture references and purely aimed at young children. Illumination have made nothing more than a cash grab.
@X68000
But here is the thing.
I watched Super Mario movie at my local cinema for FOUR times.
But, when I watched the sonic 3 movie trailer from YouTube, I stopped watching immediately after 20 seconds, indicated I felt something wrong with the movie.
And moreover, I watched again WICKED for the NINTH times at my local cinema this afternoon.
I choose WICKED and Super Mario movie for something interesting to watch than any sonic movies.
I have bad experience from watching first sonic movie long time ago and I will not thinking to watch any sonic movies by Paramount.
@Anti-Matter UUuuuuuuuhhhhh........
@Anti-Matter 9 times? I love movies, but this is slightly ridiculous. Local Movie theater must be happy though
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