Box Office: ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Speeds Past ‘Call of the Wild’ With $26.3M

In a tight race between Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog and Disney’s The Call of the Wild, it was the hedgehog that beat out Harrison Ford and a CGI dog at the North American box office this weekend. 

Sonic, the CGI and live-action hybrid based on the popular Sega games, zoomed past the $100 million milestone at the domestic box office after collecting $26.3 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $106.6 million. Internationally, Sonic grossed $38.3 million in 56 markets with openings in 16 markets this weekend, including Russia, Sweden and Taiwan. 

The $87 million family film stars Jim Carrey, James Marsden and Ben Schwartz as the voice of the titular blue hero. The movie opened with a record $70 million over Presidents Day weekend, the largest domestic opening for a video game adaptation. It dropped 35 percent in its second weekend. 

Call of the Wild, starring Ford in the latest cinematic adaptation of Jack London’s classic novel, debuted to $24.8 million at the domestic box office, surpassing early projections that placed it in the high teen millions. Internationally, the film took in $15.4 million across 40 territories, bringing its worldwide bow to $40.2 million. 

“It’s a beloved classic and somewhat of a timeless story and with Harrison’s performance, it elevates the film to a level of bringing people out,” Cathleen Taff, Disney’s distribution chief, tells The Hollywood Reporter. 

The family movie, directed by Chris Sanders and inherited by Disney following its acquisition of Fox, boasts a hefty production budget of $125 million to $150 million before marketing. It drew equal numbers of male and female audiences and across all ages, with 29 percent representing moviegoers 17 and under.

Looking ahead, Taff hopes Call of the Wild will continue to play to a wide audience in the coming weeks, including older-skewing moviegoers in key cities. “Given the response, we think the audience will also broaden out to families, especially as Sonic clears itself out,” she says.

Warner Bros.’ Margot Robbie-led DC anti-heroine movie Birds of Prey kicked up $6.7 million domestically in its third frame and landed in the No. 3 spot over the weekend. Internationally, it collected another $10 million across 78 markets, bringing its global cume to $173.7 million. 

Sony’s Bad Boys for Life raked in another $5.9 million in its sixth week in theaters and came in No. 4. The Will Smith and Martin Lawrence action movie has grossed $191 million at the domestic box office and $379 million worldwide since its release. Additionally, the studio’s Little Women adaptation from Greta Gerwig hit a milestone at the box office as it crossed $200 million worldwide over the weekend.

STX and Lakeshore Entertainment’s horror sequel Brahms: The Boy II opened with $5.9 million domestically, keeping in line with projections. The audience was 53 percent female, with 56 percent of moviegoers under 25. The stand-alone sequel to 2016’s The Boy stars Katie Holmes, Ralph Ineson, Owain Yeoman and Christopher Convery.

Meanwhile, Neon’s South Korean genre-bending thriller Parasite continues to see a post-Oscars boost as it drummed up another $3.1 million from 1,800 screens over three days, taking its domestic box office total to $49 million. The Bong Joon Ho’s critically hailed film has become Neon’s most successful release ever. 

Universal’s war epic 1917, which won three Oscars, grossed $4.4 million in its ninth week of release, bringing its domestic total to $152 million.

Other holdovers included Universal’s romantic drama The Photograph, starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, which grossed $2.8 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic box office haul to $17.6 million, while Searchlight Pictures’ Downhill, a remake of Force Majeure starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell, took in $1.4 million in its second outing, bringing its domestic gross to $7.4 million. 

At the specialty box office, Focus Features’ period piece Emma grossed $230,000 across five theaters, with a strong per-screen average of $46,000. The movie — directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn and Bill Nighy — unsurprisingly drew more females, with 69 percent of the audience being women, and attracted an older audience, with 58 percent of moviegoers being 35 and over. It will expand to more theaters nationwide this week.

Amazon Studios’ Seberg, starring Kristen Stewart as French New Wave actress Jean Seberg, grossed $60,500 from three theaters, with a per-screen average of $20,200. It will expand to over 300 theaters in the coming week. 

WarnerMedia’s Impractical Jokers: The Movie, produced by Funny or Die and TruTV and based on the hidden-camera reality comedy series, laughed up $2.5 million from 350 screens, with a per-screen average of $5,500. And Pantelion Films’ Spanish-language Las Pildoras De Mi Novio (My Boyfriend’s Meds), directed by Diego Kaplan, grossed $1.4 million from 350 screens, with a per-screen average of $4,000.