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James Marsden Sonic Trailer.png

Box Office Report: Justice For James Marsden!

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 16, 2020 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 16, 2020 |


James Marsden Sonic Trailer.png

So hey, remember when the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog dropped and we were all petrified by the sigh of that haunted man-hog with his mouth jam-packed full of teeny human teeth and his unnervingly long hairy fingers and those girthy thighs that could crush your skull to shreds as you slept? Ah, the internet was a fun place pre-Cats. Paramount took a gamble in delaying the film’s release until they could essentially entirely redo their protagonist, but it seems like it’s going to pay off. Sonic the Hedgehog opened to surprisingly decent reviews — well, less decent and more ‘I didn’t hate this’, but still — and grossed an impressive $57 million in its opening weekend. For a mid-budget video game movie coming off the back of some seriously bad publicity, this can be chalked up as a victory for Paramount. Not a major one but something solid and much-needed for the ailing studio.

Birds of Prey slid to number two with $17.1 million. I’ve seen some places saying that 48% drop from the previous weekend is a horrible sign, but it’s still a lot smaller than many superhero movie drops in their second week. Of course, it still DEEPLY sucks that this thing has only made about $2.2 million more than Sonic has domestically but I’m still hesitant to let the ‘SJWs killed Harley Quinn’ crowd get their kudos.

The weird and totally necessary reboot of >Fantasy Island opened at number three with $12.4 million. I know we say this a lot here but was anyone really asking for this? Sony seems happy enough with the results. A low budget means low expectations so good for them. Romantic drama The Photograph opened just behind it with $12.2 million but had a higher per-screen average. These feel like typical February mid-budget adult movie grosses, to be honest. News wasn’t so hot for Downhill, the Fox Searchlight English-language remake of the amazing Swedish film Force Majeure. Critics were way less enthused about this one and audiences didn’t seem particularly invested in it either, as it opened at number ten with $4.6 million from 2,301 theaters. Not great.

With the Oscars over for another year, the true test of the awards’ power came with this weekend’s grosses. Could Parasite truly benefit from that Best Picture bounce? Oh hell yes. Neon smartly pushed the film into another 941 theaters, giving it a run of over 2,000, and its gross jumped 234% from the previous week. With this weekend’s $5.5 million in the bank, its domestic gross is now $43.1 million. Bravo, Director Bong. Go drink some more!

This coming week sees the release of the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, Harrison Ford’s The Call of the Wild, and horror sequel Brahms: The Boy II.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here!

What films did you watch this weekend? Let us know in the comments.



Header Image Source: YouTube // Paramount Pictures