Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

So now it's not even necessarily Frontiers? Where exactly would this character go that she somehow can't now? Humans are the most in-vogue for the series than they have been in decades, plural. There's no reason to assume that they're just tossing her in the garbage because it's been a while.

Frontiers only has six characters in it as it is, and a bunch of removed dialogue, but I'm wondering exactly what role this character could possibly have served in that story if removing them is so seamless? It would have to have been pretty significant given that she would be the first new human character design in a Sonic game in thirteen years, which is a role that makes sense for Sage to take. Sage herself already does a lot in Frontiers to occupy the same role that Elise/Shahra/Merlina did in their games. Why would we need a second one of those way less-connected to anything that's actually going on? I'm not sure there's ever been a situation like this in a Sonic game, where a major character with a significant position in the story would be dummied out of existence so hard that nobody even knew that was planned and there's no actual hole in the story left for their presence? It seems incredibly far-fetched.

Again though, for what? "Here's some new art superimposed onto a building of a thing we're not doing and you don't get to know about"? This is not how creators on...mostly anything...have ever operated. It's just stupid, it's the same vein of thinking as the "what if the 2019 movie design was a PR stunt" conspiracy theories. You think Hesse would have viewed that as a good, worthwhile thing to spent VFX money on instead of literally anything else? Something more recognizable and less very-stupid, perhaps? I've never viewed the man as a creative troll who intentionally makes frustrating art to spite people, this is just a weird assertion to make.

She's showing up in a post-Frontiers Sonic project right now. Frontiers was a success, it's the thing what is defining this era of Sonic! Are you implying that they would view the lack of mysterious purple-haired women as an important factor of that success???

 

I honestly thought she was going to be an archeologist/explorer and play the role that the explorers did in Sonic Adventure in the Mystic Ruins.

Someone that her or her team found themselves on the islands and would give you extra context on what's going on and even missions.

I could see them scrapping that earlier on and not being a huge loss for Frontiers, but I think she's for a future project. Especially if she does turn out being Maria's sister.

Watch that she comes out in that Netflix Chao game.

 

That's all, like, your opinion, man. I've said my piece.

I could be right, I could be wrong. All I was doing was speculating. That's all any of us that aren't working for SEGA or Paramount can do.

 

I’m not too keen on the Tailstube girl screen thing being official.
The only source of that version of the shot is that tweet which leads me to believe it’s a hoax, especially since we see the same shot in the first trailer and she’s not on the screen.

 

Unlisted video straight from Paramount. 11 seconds in.

And if you hadn't noticed they're still finalizing the movie, lots of stuff has changed between the first trailer and now.

 

They work on these until the literal last minute nowadays. Cats had a fucking patch.

Power of going digital baby*

*RIP the entire Film Print industry and all the jobs that involved

 

Across the Spider-Verse had like five

 

The idea that movie studios are developing Ubisoft level production ethics is actually hilarious to me.

 

It is hilarious. Utterly terrifying, but hilarious.

 

https://x.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1861826674951610866?t=TnsE8uLV1YtPWHbWCtCD6w&s=19

Well now...

And for those who don't use Twitter.

Spoiler

 

Given how poorly other recent sequels to big pre-covid blockbusters have fared at the box office, I'm totally buying this.

Especially since both films are targeted at children and families, and the past two Sonic films are definitely more popular with kids today than Lion King 2019.

 

I mean the saddest part is that it's becoming true, the film industry is bleak for a lot of reasons. Execs demand changes be made right up to the last minute. Across the Spider-verse was mentioned here and that film was notorious for this; they didn't even have an ending in mind until 6 weeks before the film was completed lol. Don't even get me started on how the Paramount CEO said that they're not going to make original films anymore and just focus on bankable IPs, that shit is so depressing. anyways I feel like it might be a bit ironic to be talking about this in the thread for the third Sonic movie lol.

 

Very cool, but the walk-ins could still swing in Mufasa's favor. But as Jaxer mentioned too, there's been a lot of blockbuster sequels and prequels that failed to perform despite their predecessors being juggernauts. Most notable examples being Joker 2 and Furiosa.

I mentioned before, I don't think the gap between these two films are going to be as big as some of you think it's going to be. At least domestic wise. International is a whole new ball game though. Sonic's legs have always been crippled by current events. Be sick if it owns.

 

Walk-ins for Sonic will be no slouch either.

As per Sonic 1&2, I think Deadline is once again gonna low-ball this one. Just to remind you, Sonic 2 did $72.1 million in it's opening weekend box office. Deadline, 2 days away from release in the US, was still only at the $50+ million train. The same deal with Sonic 1.

It's not just them tbf. Everyone low-balled the debut weekends of these movies because not many people who do box office numbers understood just how fan-centric a Sonic movie would be, and even now it's treated as a "it'll have long legs and sell a lot over time" which has been desproven twice already (Paramount will put it on streaming after 5 weeks anyways, so it's not like Covid and such really hampered the previous movies that significantly)

I think it will debut with comparable or higher numbers than Sonic 2 while accounting for Christmas.

 

Having sorted out my thoughts regarding the second trailer, I'm regaining my excitement for Sonic 3 again. That's because (a), contrary to what I took away from this trailer, the movie still seems to have a lot of fun stuff going for it that they haven't shown us yet, and (b) I'm beginning to feel like I get where they're going with their interpretation of SA2 (even though I think it's bonkers), and, finally, (c) those references, like Shadow holding a gun, TailsTube girl*, Eggman's outfit from the games, CHAO, really only show one important thing: they're keeping up with the fanbase. Or, at least, they're trying to. Nice to see a second party (?) care for us like that instead of just reciting memes and other crazy shit that came out of this fandom.

That said, I originally was (and still am) of the mind that they must not milk the Sonic franchise to endlessly riff off of for new blueprints for their movies. After all, we're officially entering the era of critically lukewarm to downright badly received Sonic titles after Sonic 3. No matter how much you like Silver, Amy, or Metal Sonic (or any of the other characters like Blaze or Big), no matter how much new life SxShG breathed into Shadow's backstory, nothing will ever top SA2.

*Edit: Wait, that was a joke, right?

 

Paramount themselves were low balling the opening to Sonic 2. Something you need to keep in mind for Sonic 2 is that the exhibition business was still struggling at the time. The highest grossing films up until that point were a few (not all) comic book movies. Family product was still a gamble, especially with distributors like Disney training their audience to just wait until the films hit streaming. The low ball estimates for Sonic 2 were cautiously optimistic not because it was Sonic or a video game adaption, but because of the market conditions. None of the trades I read at the time were downplaying Sonic 2, if anything they were hoping for it to hit it and more. It being a break out hit was a signal of good things to come for family product and exhibition in general. Up to that point, Sing 2 and Encanto hit $20 million with Space Jam 2 hitting $31 million. Sonic 2 was the first product to finally break the $50m range, and then some. I think everyone's projections at the time were fair considering the circumstances. Family product after Sonic just hit the ground running too.

It would be one crazy weekend for Sonic 3 to match Sonic 2's $70m while Simba stays competitive in the $50m range or even matches it. Yeah, walk-ins won't be a slouch for Sonic 3 either, which is why I'm saying that whatever gap exists between these two won't be that high. I would love to be proven wrong in Sonic's favor though. Don't prove me wrong if Mufasa wins. I'll plug my ears and close my eyes.

Also, the legs actually do matter this time. This is coming out during the holiday break. Films tend to suffer smaller drops in the coming weeks which is what Paramount is most likely hoping for rather than hope for a big frontloaded opening weekend. Kids will be out of school, there's going to be steady business throughout the entire holiday period.

Now it's time for some numbers. All numbers were pulled from Box Office Mojo. I'm too lazy to check my Comscore account.
Which in retrospect, I probably should have done that since I could have just ran a report, but I'm not suppose to share those numbers anyways.

Here are the last 4 Christmas Weekends (or approximate) where multiple films surpassed $50m (or close enough)

Spoiler: Last 4 Christmas Weekend Numbers

2018 - December 21-25, 2018 - Christmas on a Tuesday (Long Weekend)
1) - $100m - 12/28 - Aquaman
2) - $041m - 12/19 - Mary Poppins Returns
3) - $034m - 12/21 - Bumblebee
4) - $025m - 12/14 - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
5) - $016m - 12/14 - The Mule
6) - $012m - 11/09 - The Grinch
7) - $010m - 12/21 - Second Act
8) - $007m - 11/21 - Ralph Breaks the Internet
9) - $006m - 12/25 - Holmes & Watson
10)-$004m - 12/25 - Vice

Top Ten Gross - $260m
Overall Total Gross - $291m

2017 - December 22-25, 2017 - Christmas on a Monday (Long Weekend)
1) - $099m - 12/15 - Star Wars VIII - The Last Jedi
2) - $055m - 12/20 - Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
3) - $026m - 12/22 - Pitch Perfect 3
4) - $014m - 12/20 - The Greatest Showman
5) - $010m - 12/15 - Ferdinand
6) - $008m - 11/22 - Coco
7) - $007m - 12/22 - Downsizing
8) - $005m - 11/22 - Darkest Hour
9) - $005m - 12/22 - Father Figures
10)-$004m - 12/01 - The Shape of Water

Top Ten Gross - $236m
Overall Total Gross - $259m

2016 - December 23-25, 2016 - Christmas on a Sunday
1) - $096m - 12/16 - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2) - $054m - 12/21 - Sing
3) - $022m - 12/21 - Passengers
4) - $015m - 12/23 - Why Him?
5) - $014m - 12/21 - Assassin's Creed
6) - $012m - 11/23 - Moana
7) - $011m - 12/16 - Fences
8) - $009m - 12/09 - La La Land
9) - $007m - 12/09 - Office Christmas Party
10)-$006m - 12/16 - Collateral Beauty

Top Ten Gross - $250m
Overall Total Gross - $274m

2009 - December 25-27, 2009 - Christmas on a Friday
1) - $095m - 12/16 - Avatar
2) - $062m - 12/16 - Sherlock Holmes
3) - $048m - 12/16 - Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
4) - $022m - 12/21 - It's Complicated
5) - $011m - 12/21 - The Blind Side
6) - $011m - 12/23 - Up in the Air
7) - $009m - 12/25 - The Princess and the Frog
8) - $005m - 12/09 - Nine
9) - $005m - 12/25 - Did You Hear About the Morgans?
10)-$004m - 12/16 - Invictus

Top Ten Gross - $255m
Overall Total Gross - $270m

There's pretty much a power gap between 1st and 2nd film rank. The closest it was ever to an "even" split was in 2009 with Avatar holding 28% of the overall gross followed by Sherlock at 23% and Alvin at 18%

The highest grossing Christmas weekend in the last 10 years

Spoiler: 2015 Numbers

2015 - December 25-27, 2015 - Christmas on a Friday
1) - $149m - 12/18 - Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
2) - $038m - 12/25 - Daddy's Home
3) - $017m - 12/25 - Joy
4) - $014m - 12/18 - Sisters
5) - $013m - 12/18 - Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
6) - $010m - 12/11 - The Big Short
7) - $010m - 12/25 - Concussion
8) - $009m - 12/25 - Point Break
9) - $005m - 11/20 - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
10)-$004m - 11/25 - The Hateful Eight $4,610,676 (Limited Release)

Top Ten Gross - $273m
Overall Total Gross - $292m

The last time Christmas fell on a Wednesday (not including 2019 for obvious reasons). This is a pain in the ass because we have to look at two weeks. It doesn't help that the following week bleeds into the New Year.

Spoiler: 2013 Numbers

2013 - December 20-22, 2013
1) - $031m - 12/13 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2) - $026m - 12/18 - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
3) - $019m - 11/22 - Frozen
4) - $019m - 12/13 - American Hustle
5) - $009m - 12/13 - Saving Mr. Banks
6) - $008M - 11/22 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
7) - $008M - 12/13 - A Madea Christmas
8) - $007M - 12/20 - Walking with Dinosaurs 3D
9) - $004M - 12/20 - Dhoom 3
10)-$001M - 11/08 - Thor: The Dark World

Top Ten Gross - $134m
Overall Total Gross - $143m

2013 - December 27-29, 2013
1) - $029m - 12/13 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2) - $028m - 11/22 - Frozen
3) - $019m - 12/18 - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
4) - $018m - 12/13 - American Hustle
5) - $018m - 12/25 - The Wolf of Wall Street
6) - $013m - 12/13 - Saving Mr. Banks
7) - $012m - 12/25 - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
8) - $010m - 11/22 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
9) - $009m - 12/25 - 47 Ronin
10)-$007m - 12/20 - Walking with Dinosaurs 3D

Top Ten Gross -$167m
Overall Total Gross - $197m

Regardless of how it plays out, it's going to be a good week for movies.

The real question we should be asking though

Who's gonna be out hunting for single moms

 

I will note that I have seen precisely zero marketing for Midfasa. People have been saying Sonic 3's marketing is bad but that movie's marketing is straight-up nonexistent.

 

Those people are stupid.

Marketing for Mufasa doesn't kick off until December. Disney has already put out 2 trailers ahead of their marketing campaign too. You don't make a major marketing push months ahead of a film. That's just throwing money into a furnace.

 

lol, even the Japanese Sonic account is boasting about how Sonic 3 is projected to have a better opening than Mufasa