Who said April is the cruelest month? In its second week of release, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 received a major boost as it opened in the Domestic market with a massive $72.1 million, proving the suggestion audiences weren’t coming back to cinemas incorrect, they just needed the product. Sonic 2 opened 24 percent higher than the 2020 original, according to the British analytics firm Gower Street.
Overall, the film added an estimated $109 million for a global total of just over $142 million. Other major openings included Brazil, where it was +36 percent ahead of the original, Italy (+1 percent), and Mexico (-5 percent). It also enjoyed good holds in holdover markets including Australia (-24 percent), Germany (-30 percent).
The same, in terms of holdovers, could not be said of Morbius. The Domestic market delivered a damning indictment with a 74 percent drop from launch. That was the biggest drop of any major market, though many international markets were not far behind, including: UK/Ireland (-70 percent), Australia (-69 percent), Italy (-66 percent), Japan (-65 percent), Spain (-64 percent), France (-60 percent), and Germany (-56 percent). The anti-hero movie stands at $126.4 million globally.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secret of Dumbledore made its debut in 22 international markets, with Domestic and further international roll-out following next week.
The third film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise (itself a prequel spin-off from the eight-film Harry Potter franchise) delivered $56.9 million with China ($9.75m) leading the way from Germany ($9.1m), Japan ($8.5m), and a disappointing UK/Ireland launch ($7.7m) which was less than half the opening result of the second film in the franchise in 2018 (-51 percent). The film fared comparatively better in other markets but still came in well behind The Crimes of Grindelwald in all major markets opening with Japan (-8 percent) the closest in opening business.
With the Easter Weekend approaching many markets are now in school holidays with more coming in this weekend.
As of April 9, the global box office for 2022 stands at $7.1 billion. This is now 54 percent ahead of 2021 at the same stage, while the deficit against the average of the three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) is at -39 percent. The Domestic market is tracking 48 percent behind the three-year average; China is now 22 percent behind the average; International, excluding China, is 42 percent behind.