It’s been quite the journey for Sonic and his foray into live-action movies. What began as an absolute promotional trainwreck has now become one of the greatest gaming-based movie success stories ever.
According to Box Office Mojo, Sonic the Hedgehog has raked in a worldwide figure of $308,439,401 at the time of this writing. It is the highest-grossing superhero film of the year, crushing second place’s Birds of Prey and its $201,858,461. Unsurprisingly, this crown is typically awarded to Marvel, who has had a decade-long streak of top-grossing superhero films from 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine to 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Ben Schwartz, who voiced Sonic in the film, responded to the news on Twitter, joking that he may be eligible to join the Avengers.
Does this mean I’m an Avenger now? Do I have to change my name to Chris? How does this work? https://t.co/TCPjI6ThYU
— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) October 20, 2020
Whatever your opinion of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, I think we can all agree that it’s nice to see a video game film adaptation in a positive light like this. Game-to-movie transitions have had a historically rocky history in terms of both critical and commercial success, from 1993’s infamous Super Mario Bros. to 2018’s underwhelming Tomb Raider. Fortunately, last year’s Detective Pikachu may have broken the long-running curse, so here’s hoping Nintendo’s upcoming Super Mario movie can follow Sonic in keeping a winning streak going. Just forgive me if I’m not quite as optimistic for Paul W. S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter, which hits theaters this December.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
