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It’s official: Sonic is the king of live video game movies. In just a few years, “Sonic the Hedgehog” has gone from a beloved collection of Sega games and series of cartoons to a multimedia global franchise, led by the large screen adaptations funded by Paramount Pictures. These photos were a good investment, because the films “Sonic” are now a billion dollars thanks to “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.” More importantly, with its drop in theatrical race, the third episode has taken an important step.
When writing these lines, “Sonic 3” by director Jeff Fowler made $ 462.5 million worldwide, with an almost fatal distribution between the national and international public. With this, he officially exceeded the 2019 “Detective Pikachu” ($ 450 million worldwide) to become the most profitable live video game film in history. Although this figure does not take into account inflation, it demonstrates how the public of these films “Sonic” has increased. The first film made just over $ 300 million in 2020, and they became larger on each episode. So where is the ceiling? This is the big question.
“Sonic 3” follows Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba) and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) while they come together to fight a new powerful enemy in the form of the shadow (Keanu Reeves), who has Powers unlike everything they have already faced. Completely outdated, Team Sonic is forced to seek an unlikely alliance in the hope of stopping the shadow and saving the world. The three films “Sonic” were anchored by Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation”) as a voice of Sonic, James Marsden (“X-Men”) as Tom and Jim Carrey (“Almighty Bruce”) in As long as Dr. Robotnik.
This live action implementation is important here since the animation of 2023 “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is well in advance on the pack, having made more than $ 1.3 billion at the box office in the world. Nintendo and illumination certainly seemed to crack the code with this one, and we will undoubtedly get more animated video game movies in the future. But “sonic” films have also shown that live action can also be very successful when executed properly. This is where the key lies, although it is easier to say than to do.
Sonic changed the conversation around video game movies
“Sonic 3” is already in VOD, so it is unlikely that it does much more business before leaving theaters completely. Fortunately, he does not need to make another penny to be considered a success thanks to his budget of $ 122 million. Similarly, the first two films “Sonic” were produced for $ 90 million surprisingly thin. Paramount Thrifty nature has helped a lot so far with this franchise.
Dating from the total disaster which was “Super Mario Bros.” From 1993, Hollywood tried to capitalize on the popularity of the game. There were some wandering tubes along the way like “Resident Evil” but, on the whole, the films were bad and people did not show up. This tide finally started to shoot just before the 2020s, “Sonic” being a massive part of the equation. Other films such as “Rampage” also made their part. Slowly but surely, studios have started to understand things.
It certainly did not hurt that programs like “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” are downright Emmy Worthy, proving that video games can fuel incredible adaptations. However, it is this longtime mascot of the Sega brand that has really changed the most story for video game movies in the future. Paramount is now developing a whole “sound” cinematographic universe, with “Sonic the Hedgehog 4” already confirmed for 2027. However, the studio is not gourmet. Like Godzilla and Kong in the Monsterverse, Paramount plays the slow and regular game.
More than anything, this franchise presented something of a model to follow for others – namely, being faithful to the source material that made popular property in the first place, keep the budgets reasonable and not to advance too much even . This is an approach that should create other video game brands to succeed in the fields of films. It will not always work, but there is gold in the hills, as an old prospector says.
You can currently pre-order “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” on DVD or Amazon Blu-ray.