Sonic Advances to $375 Million Globally as Sonic 2 Continues to Go Strong

It’s been a little while since our last, proper box office update! Sonic rushed passed $350 million earlier in the month, but I didn’t run it because I wanted to wait until we got the international numbers…which skipped a week unfortunately.

But we’ve got the international numbers, and the latest US weekend numbers, and despite it being out for nearly two months now, it’s still going surprisingly strong! Globally, Sonic 2 has now passed $375 million, putting it more than $55 million ahead of its predecessor.

That number includes $181 million in the US, and $194 million internationally. In the US, Sonic 2 has remained in the top 5 for the past three weekends, with the movie remaining in third place during May 6 and May 15 weekends, and falling to fourth place this weekend.

Sonic 2 has demonstrated some remarkable staying power, sticking around even as most of its other competitors have fizzled in the wake of Doctor Strange 2’s release, earning another $20 million in the US in the process.

This is, notably, the last weekend before Sonic 2 hits Paramount+ and Epix broadcast channals, so this may be the last major box office jump we’ll be getting until its Japanese release this summer. At $375 million, Sonic 2 is now just $25 million away from $400 million. Can it reach it? Maybe. Not everyone has Paramount Plus, and if Sonic 2 can continue to make a few million in the US and a few million over seas every week for another month, that will add up. The big wild card, of course, is Japan.

While Japan can be a major market for movies (Jujutsu Kaisen 0 made $100 million, and Fantastic Beasts 3 made $30 million), Sonic has never been an especially popular character there. Couple that with the original’s $1.5 million total gross there (albeit, released in the middle of a lockdown) and its hard to expect much from the movie there. I would certainly expect Sonic 2 to easily beat out its predecessor in the country, but it wouldn’t expect anything on the level of $25 million.

Since this may be my last box office post for awhile, I guess I’ll end this with my own personal expectations for Sonic 2’s future. I think its going to gross another $10 million globally outside of Japan over the coming weeks. I think its total Japanese gross will be $5 million. That would put Sonic 2’s total global box office at $390 million. While that’ll still be well short of the highest grossing video game movie (Warcraft’s $439 million), that’s still a really good haul. Its no wonder Paramount seems to be betting so big on Sonic.