How it finished in first place, franchise comparisons and more explanations

There's a lot of context surrounding the film's $60 million No. 1 opening weekend. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its place in the overall franchise. The 2024 film, directed by Jeff Fowler, stars Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Krysten Ritter, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves. It is the third feature film in the live-action franchise that adapts the video game franchise of the same name, released in 2020 and also includes the Paramount+ spinoff series. Knucklesfocusing on the adventures of the titular echidna voiced by Elba.

THE Sonic the Hedgehog 3 launch began the weekend before Christmas 2024. It also opened that weekend Mufasa: The Lion KingDisney's photorealistic CG-animated prequel to the 2019 blockbuster remake of the 1994 traditionally animated classic The Lion King. The 2019 film grossed $1.662 million, which is more money than the previous two Sonic films won around the world, combined. However, the new Sonic The film ranked first at the national box officelikely due to a variety of factors. However, opening weekend chart performance does not necessarily affect its comparison to the overall trilogy.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 beats Mufasa: The Lion King will be number 1 at the box office

The Disney film should have been great competition

Although the film itself featured a Shadow vs. Sonic, the domestic box office faced Sonic vs. Mufasa and the first came out on top. The video game adaptation grossed a total of $60.1 million in three days, while the Disney prequel grossed just $35.4 millionfalling well short of its initial projections of around $50 million, which already represented nearly a quarter of the film's 2019 opening weekend of $191.8 million. Mufasa however, it ranked second above the remaining Thanksgiving hits Evil and Moana 2. Below, see the complete chart of the Top 5 at the domestic box office during the weekend of December 20th:

In addition to hitting Mufasa in the raw numbers during the mutual opening weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog 3the domestic debut of looks even better when compared to the films' relative budgets. THE Lion King the prequel reportedly cost $200 million, which – given the fact that films typically need to earn at least two and a half times their budget in theaters – means its break-even point is probably somewhere around $500 million. The considerably cheaper Sonic the film only cost $122 millionprobably putting its break-even point at around $305 million, a milestone it is already racing toward.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3's box office is helped by great reception

It has the best Rotten Tomatoes scores in the franchise

One thing that could help the new film succeed at the box office is the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the reviews have almost invariably been glowing. While each installment in the franchise has earned a Fresh score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the third film's Certified Fresh score from 88% of critics on Tomatometer and Verified Hot score from 97% of audiences on Popcornmeter are the best of the entire franchise on both meters. Below, see a breakdown of the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the entire franchise, including the Knuckles spin-off show:

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also has the best user scores on Letterboxd (3.7 out of 5 compared to 2.9 for the first film and 3.1 for Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and IMDb (7.5 out of 10 compared to 6.5 and 6.5). It is also the peak of the franchise on Metacriticaccording to critics (59 out of 100 compared to 47 and 47) and users (8.6 out of 10 compared to 8.0 and 8.1). With so many people agreeing across industries, it doesn't seem unusual that this positive response is translating into commercial success.

How Sonic The Hedgehog 3's opening weekend compares to the previous two Sonic films

Not the best of the trilogy

While its critical success is unparalleled among the franchise, the new installment has struggled somewhat to compete with the theatrical success of the premieres of both the previous live-action film. Sonic the Hedgehog films. While it was originally projected to earn the highest-grossing opening weekend of the entire franchise, its $60.1 million gross barely surpasses the original film's debut to earn it. the franchise's second-best opening weekend, behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Below, see a breakdown of the opening weekends for all three installments, compared to their worldwide box office totals, where applicable:

The fact that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 fell behind its immediate predecessor may have something to do with the fact that the weekend's competition was another film aimed at young children and families. None of the previous installments had a Mufasanew PG-rated style release to contend with during your premieres. The original 2020 film debuted at No. 1, alongside the PG-13 Blumhouse horror film reimagining Fantasy Island while the 2022 sequel debuted, also at number one, alongside Michael Bay's R-rated thriller Ambulance.

What Sonic 3's opening weekend means for the future of the box office

The franchise has a bright future in theaters

Two factors that cast some doubt on the prospects for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 It's the fact that its Sunday collapsed during its opening weekend, which explains why it fell so far short of its original projections. On Christmas Day too fell to third place amid an onslaught of new holiday releases which included Little baby, Nosferatus, The Fire Withinand A complete stranger. However, given the fact that the original film's 2020 theatrical release was halted amid COVID-19-related shutdowns, its overall prospects still look pretty solid compared to the rest of the franchise.

If Sonic the Hedgehog 3 manages to keep the pace behind the second film, will likely reach a total of around $340 million by the end of its run. While this only surpasses the estimated $305 million break-even point, the fact that the next Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was announced ahead of the new film's premiere shows that producers and distributors are confident the 2024 sequel will earn more than enough to justify its costs between theatrical showing, video-on-demand rentals and purchases, and merchandising tie-ins.