Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

I can't take all SA2 scenes 100% seriously because there's Throw It All Away in Shadow and Maria conversation, which is very weird and unfitting because it was meant to be a dramatic moment and the dub mixing doesn't help either. Even in the Japanese script this scene is a little weird in the game, so I think Sonic 3 did a better job in that regard.

 

Movie was decent. Best of the trilogy easily, for the low bar that is. Laughed pretty consistently throughout, which is a great improvement from my consistent feeling of "wow they should have workshopped that joke more" in #2. Also some actual thought put into cinematography and cuts this time around; someone in my group even said "oh they're making like a MOVIE movie". It was nice to see them warm up a bit more to using actual Sonic music in these, but it's still just barely flirting with the idea. Speaking of:

Spoiler

I was disappointed by how they handled Live and Learn. The remix was weaker than the original track, audio mixing often made it difficult to hear over the sound effects, the placement wasn't exactly amazing, and it really didn't help that the setpiece it was paired with was just them destroying a robot army. It was not the life-changing emotional rollercoaster that people said it was going to be.

 

People in Hollywood don't really care about box office records or comparing the gross of their franchise to another franchise. The only time this stuff gets brought up is when advertising or during investor meetings. But it's not important all towards the Sonic movie franchise continuing to get new material.

What matters the most is that the Sonic franchise itself is profitable and is growing. Not how it's done compared to Mario. Not how it's done compared to Mufasa (Mufasa is winning btw). The only thing that matters is how Sonic 3 did compared to Sonic 1 and 2.

And considering it's going to top the gross of the 2nd film, Sonic is doing what it's supposed to for Paramount.

 

Rule of thumb is a movie's theatrical run is profitable if it makes 2,5 to 3 times its production budget due to P&A costs, theater cuts and other expenditures. But declared budgets aren't entirely reliable either, so much so that Hollywood accounting is a term with its own Wikipedia entry. So we just... may not know what goes on in a studio, much less a big and complex one with a vertical structure like Paramount.

Last I heard a report on the matter, though that was long ago, only half all Hollywood movies turn a profit at all, so Sonic movies do have an impressive record just by making money.

 

Thoughts and prayers goes out to little indie company Warner Bros. Blasted Harry Potter 5 only made nearly a billion dollars, nowhere near for it to be considered a profit. How is a movie studio suppose to survive with these returns?

 

Sonic 3 apparently are doing decently in Japan.

I know that's not exactly massive numbers, but his movies is doing some crazy miracles, man.

 

It went from 9th place to 12th. I don't think that's doing good. It lost to the Beekeeper.

The Beekeeper in its opening weekend made almost as much as Sonic 3's entire run over there.

 

That just means the Sonic movie series need a Charmy spin off.

 

[Youtube]

The guy who broke the news on Keanu Reeves playing Shadow has been keeping up with the box office numbers for Mufasa and Sonic and saying that, while Sonic won the opening weekend, Mufasa is getting close to 500 million (455 million) while Sonic is at 330 million.

He brought this up to say that Sonic 3's total gross is less than Sonic 2 was at this point. I think the doom and gloom he was saying of "they might cancel movie 4" is a bit wild but it's interesting to note all the same.

 

Huh? 3 weeks into the Domestic release and it's about to out do Sonic 2's entire domestic run. International is only 2 weeks in and it's easily outpacing Sonic 2. It took 2 weeks for Sonic 2 to hit $70m. Granted that was 31 markets vs 50+, but Sonic 3 saw a strong increase in the same markets that both films opened. Sonic 3 grossed $70m in its first international week. I'm not sure how John is looking at these numbers.

 

Should pass 2. Maybe not by a huge margin but I don’t see how that would cancel part 4. It’s not like it’d be making less.

It’s surpassed it’s own budget by more than enough.

 

Above all, I hope this overall success of these movies somehow helps with the games and their quality?

The most obvious element here is getting a bigger budget for the games, but to me it has always felt like the issue isn't even with the games not having the budget (though Frontiers certainly looks like it – haven't played it but a bunch of its issues do look like budget issues) or something, but the desire to churn out the games as fast as possible and not giving the developers enough time to polish the games, so I don't know if the success of the movies can help, whether it directly or indirectly results in a bigger budget or not.

 

Movies already had an effect on games, either in “what we assume” budget or even some elements like electric effects in Sonic Frontiers

also don’t think Frontiers had a budget issue as much as them figuring out how to make an open world game, the Titans fights were a spectacle, also not really a development time issue, they had 5 years to develop the game which is the largest any sonic game had, it got kinda rebooted in the middle, and got actually delayed a full year, and if we count post release support then it effectively had 6 years of development
But it also had a staff of like 60 people , now they hiring more people, Shadow Generations is a more visible result of higher budget and more staff, it’s the most polished sonic game ever probably and have great animations and set pieces, they even afforded Keanu Reeves for the DLC as short as it is, which is unheard of for a sonic game

anyway all i am saying is that developers do take their time now, Frontiers 2 would be a 2026 release at the earliest

 

Thanks for some of that info, seen some of it from the periphery.

The fact that they reset development midway through and had like 60 developers very much bolsters my point (development issues rather than budget issues affecting the quality of games, but then again it makes sense staff for to be dependant on budget, so it's really both here), but if Shadow Gens is a result of the introduced improvements, be it more money (staff being hired) given to the projects or any other shifts, I hope whatever they're doing to fix the issues stays consistent.

Shadow Gens gave me a bunch of faith for the next main project.

 

Makes sense, The Beekeeper was fucking lit.

 

Honestly, I think Sonic 4 will end up making less money than 3. I feel like much of the reason 3 did so well was because of Shadow. Amy and Metal Sonic can't compete, they're just not as popular as Shadow. Not to mention that audiences will get less interested in seeing the films as time goes on.

It's funny to think that the 7-9 year old kids that became Sonic fans after watching the first movie in 2020 will be 14-16 when Sonic 4 comes out in 2027.

 

Yep. The 1-2 punch of not having Shadow be the new reveal and Carrey possibly being replaced will likely hurt it.

maybe not though, we’ll see

 

That's pretty much a given. Off the top of my head, only few franchises manage to exceed the previous films in its fourth entry and a majority of them are due to either being some form of a reboot or some large enough gap between the previous entry that the people were yearning for another go. Star Wars, Despicable Me, Fast and the Furious, Rocky, Toy Story, and Indiana Jones. Notable exception to the previous rule is Rocky. People just loved Rocky.

Special shout outs to Madea.

 

I think the movies still have bullets in their chamber using elements from popular games to keep the money train momentum. Not saying it's going to be easy, but it's not impossible.

The hype would still be there at least for fans if they use stuff from Adventure 1, Heroes, CD, Rush, Unleashed, Frontiers, Shadow's game, heck even 06.

Saying that, I think what might hurt them more if they go crazy with spinoffs.

I know the MBAs are probably asking Paramount to do something like that, but I think that's when franchises start to lose the general audience.

It feels less like something fun and more like chore, while the hardcore fans are always going to show up if it's Shadow, Blaze, Silver, Cream and Cheese, Lumina Flowlight, Bokkun or Orbinaut for the next movie.

They should just stick to making the mainline movies and putting all their efforts there.

 

I don't think the films will have a gigantic drop off, but 3 is enjoying some good low drops thanks to the holiday period, even if it's a crowded market right now.

A good release window and access to PLF screens and IMAX screens (which Sonic 3 had 0 access to) should help it maintain a healthy number.