Weekend Box Office: Even Call Of The Wild's computer-generated hound can't catch Sonic
Whether it’s because of the redesign or the fact that 2020 has started off so slow that Bad Boys For Life is the biggest new movie of the year, Sonic The Hedgehog is an undeniable success. It kicked Birds Of Prey’s butt at the box office last week and won again this week, but its lead shrank considerably. Sonic made $26.3 million over this past weekend, enough to nudge it over the $100 million mark, but it was an over 50-percent reduction from last week—implying that maybe it really was lovey-dovey couples that drove up its box office take by so much. Either way, it was all still enough to narrowly edge out the competition, with Harrison Ford’s The Call Of The Wild missing the top spot by just $2 million in its opening weekend. It made nearly $25 million total, despite the fact that its very important dog character was played by a human man under unconvincing computer-generated makeup and not, say, a dog. So maybe the thing audiences like is watching human actors play off of goofy cartoon characters? What is Call Of The Wild but a more curmudgeonly take on Sonic The Hedgehog?
Things still look a little bad for Birds Of Prey: And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn (or Edge Of Tomorrow, as it’s known in the AMC app), but only if you want to be a downer about it. The movie made $7 million and got third place this week (a huge drop-off from second place), giving it enough for about $72 million total. That’s not great for a big superhero movie, but at least it didn’t have to suffer the indignity of losing to Brahms: The Boy II. The horror sequel, which comes four years after its predecessor, only made $5.8 million in its first week on the charts. It only beat Bad Boys by $40,000, making us wonder what that movie has that this movie doesn’t. They’re both sequels to movies that nobody thought would ever get sequels and they’re both about boys, but maybe The Boy II just went back to Brahms’ porcelain well a little too soon. It should’ve given us a full decade or so to really miss Brahms, then we’d all be clamoring to see him and his little outfits again.
Last week’s dud Fantasy Island fell even further, landing at seventh place with $4.1 million, and the post-Oscars rise of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite seems to be on its last legs as the movie only brought in $3 million this week. Of course, it was the movie’s 20th week on the charts, and it should cross $50 million by next week with relative ease, so this still counts as a good run. Now, we’d normally cap this thing at the top 10, but we would be remiss if we neglected to leave off this week’s 11th-place finisher: Impractical Jokers: The Movie. First off, what? And second off, it made $2.6 million across only 357 theaters, giving it a per-screen average of $7,308—which is better than Sonic and Call Of The Wild and all of the other movies that aren’t based on TruTV prank shows. Here’s an idea: Turn these guys into porcelain dolls, call it The Boy III, and little Brahms will be back on top… Or maybe give them a CG animal to talk to? Either way, we’re seeing dollar signs.
For a more in-depth analysis of this weekend’s box office, head over to Box Office Mojo.