Despite its tumultuous production, in which its designers went back to the drawing board to re-design their titular character, Paramount is hoping they may have a hit on their hands with their video game adaptation “Sonic The Hedgehog,” Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter have the family animation, starring a live-action Jim Carrey, tracking towards a $45-50M opening for the long President’s/Valentine’s day weekend.
Paramount will hope these estimates turn into reality as it could spell a real return for their reported $85-$95M investment, a figure that, I must add, doesn’t take into account the money spent on marketing by the studio. The studio also needs the win after finding themselves under early year pressure following the undoubted losses made on their January release “The Rhythm Section”, which currently stands at $5.6M worldwide from over a $50M budget.
Other tracking’s for this potentially lucrative weekend in Universal’s drama “The Photograph” starring Issa Rae and Lakeith Stanfield, which is looking at around $15M, Sony and Blumhouse’s “Fantasy Island” remake ($12M), and Searchlight’s Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus starring remake of Swedish film “Force Majeure”, which will hope to rise close to the $5M mark.
Back to ‘Sonic,’ the intense outrage over the trailer was nasty and had Paramount and Sega scrambling to save the film with the aforementioned CGI redesign of the character. Unheard of. Especially for the main character and the glowing fact that a trailer, not to mention promotional material, had already been released.
The film’s budget stood at in and around $90 million before the redesign.
I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of looking forward to the “Michael” sequel. Whether Vantoine directs it or John Logan, it doesn’t matter—it’s an inevitable sh*tshow that will result from its making and release.