Updated: Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 grossed $6.25 million in previews from Wednesday fan screenings and Thursday screenings beginning at 3:00 p.m. The film is expected to gross over $50 million this weekend. Universal/Endeavour Content’s ambulance isn’t looking good last night with $700,000 from 2,800 theaters that started at 7pm.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Thursday cost $5 million, 66% more than the $3 million previews of the first film of 2020 on Thursday, which started at 5 p.m. This film opened with a $20.9 million opening day, of which only 14% was previews, and a $58 million 3-day weekend and $70 million 4-day weekend dollars before ending at $148.9 million. The film’s legs were actually marred at the time by the outbreak of the pandemic and the nationwide shutdown of the exhibition.
As for Ambulance, the good news is that it’s double the preview count of Universal’s previous action dud The 355, which grossed $350,000 in 2,300 theaters on its 7 p.m. Thursday. The irony here at Ambulance is that it’s the best-reviewed film of director Michael Bay’s career, tied with The Rock, which was also 68% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film won’t be in the double digits when it opens create area. The logical question is why wasn’t this sent to Peacock day by day. From what I understand, Universal wanted to get into the Bay business and here it was a negative balance of Endeavor Content, which funded Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González for an estimated $40 million. The only boast here for Universal is that the film was cheap. After the picture’s disastrous grossing of $20 million in 59 territories, Uni is already dealing with the reality that this vehicle is broken.
Among regular films hitting theaters, Sony’s Morbius earned $1.3 million yesterday and ended the week at an estimated $46.9 million. The film is expected to drop 65% in its second weekend due to its genre nature. Paramount’s The Lost City returned $1.1 million, -8% from Wednesday, for a second week valued at $19.9 million and two weeks total at $59.7 million. Warner Brothers’ The Batman made $745,000, down 7% since Wednesday, which ended its fifth week at $14.3 million for a running total of $352.5 million. Sony’s Uncharted on its 7th Thursday made $303,000 for a week of $5 million with a running total of $140.3 million.
Michelle Yeoh (center) in “Everything Everywhere at Once” A24
Meanwhile, with Everything Everywhere All at Once, A24 is the little engine that could. The film has grossed $113,000 in its current 38 weekdays 2 locations and an additional $530,000 in previews (all $643,000 on Thursday) on its way to expanding to 1,200 theaters, bringing the film’s running total to 2 .8 million US dollars. This is a very promising result for specialty cinemas.
Iconic’s 25th Anniversary Jennifer Lopez Movie Selena took 5th place yesterday with an estimated $216,000 across 218 locations, we hear. This is not a one night event but will continue in the coming weeks.