Feb 14, 2020

"Sonic the Hedgehog" is set to speed up to the top of the box office

Its hero may move at lightning speed, but Sonic the Hedgehog took its time to reach the big screen. The movie is coming out today, after a tortuous production process and a three-month emergency delay.

Considering the setbacks, the film opens with decent commercial prospects. It is forecast to gross upward of $40 million domestically, from 4,130 venues, across the four-day weekend; Box Office Pro projects as much as $55–$66 million. These figures would be enough to place it at the top of the Presidents' Day box office.

The hybrid feature is based on Sega's wildly popular game franchise, whose heyday was in the 1990s. It therefore has a dual audience, appealing to both kids and nostalgic millennials. The release has been aided by a big marketing push from Paramount Pictures and the relative dearth of family fare since the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Sonic the Hedgehog is also opening in 41 countries overseas, although that number doesn't include two major markets: Japan (Sonic's homeland) and China. The film is due to open in China on February 28, but its release has been jeopardized by the continuing threat of the coronavirus, which has caused almost all the country's theaters to shut down.

The film has been a long time coming. Sega reportedly sold the rights to Sony Entertainment in 2013, but the project stalled and was put into turnaround. Paramount rescued it in 2017, preserving much of the production team, and the release date was eventually set for November 8, 2019.

That changed after the launch of the first trailer last April. Many Sonic fans - and even non-fans - were aghast at the cg hedgehog's awkward design, and took to social media to say so. In response, the character was redesigned and the release was delayed to accommodate the extra production work. Jeff Fowler, the director, addressed the controversy on Twitter:

The redesign was led by Tyson Hesse, an artist closely associated with the Sonic franchise. According to Indiewire, it added approximately $5 million to a budget in the vicinity of $90 million. The result placated the public, although the fiasco raises important questions about the influence of public pressure on filmmaking.

Sonic the Hedgehog is Fowler's feature directorial debut (he was previously best known for his Oscar-nominated animated short Gopher Broke). The production setbacks are yet another reminder of the risks of assigning a vfx-laden feature to a filmmaker with little experience making them. Other recent examples include Tom Hooper on Cats and Stephen Gaghan on Doolitle.

Fowler directs from a screenplay by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. The cast includes Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Adam Pally, and Neal McDonough. The producers are Neal H. Moritz, Toby Adcher, Toru Nakahara, and Takeshi Ito, and the executive producers are Hajime Satomi, Haruki Satomi, Masanao Maeda, Nan Morales, and Tim Miller. The animation and vfx were handled by Blur Studio, Digital Domain, Industrial Light & Magic, and MPC.

The film's critical reception has been tepid - at the time of writing, it holds a 63% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph speaks for many in praising the new-look Sonic, but takes issue with the production design on the whole:

In a two-star review, Time Out's Michael Gingold laments the dull script, but singles out Jim Carrey's performance for praise:

Writing in Vulture, Bilge Ebiri agrees that Carrey is fun, and adds that the film feels old-fashioned on the whole:

Owen Gleiberman argues in his Variety review that the film isn't sure who it's addressing: