It doesn’t matter how high Morbius flew in its opening weekend at the box office, the first non-Venom installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was always destined to spend a solitary frame at the head of the pack, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 waiting in the wings.
As a general rule of thumb, sequels tend to perform better than their predecessors after finding new audiences on home video and streaming, and the first outing for the blue speedster already ranks as the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever released in the United States, while it sits 6th on the all-time global charts for console-to-screen translations.
The pandemic might still be a factor, but Sonic 2 is nonetheless heading for a strong $55 million three-day debut based on the most recent projections, which isn’t all that far behind the $58 million of the opener. That leaves Morbius and Ambulance battling it out for second spot, with Jared Leto’s vampire up against the sheer force of Bayhem.
As things stand, Marvel’s supernatural comic book story is set to win out with $15 million or so, but Ambulance isn’t expected to be too far behind. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is already off to a great start overseas, and it probably won’t be too long until a third entry in the series is officially confirmed to be in the works.
The SEGA icon starred in one of cinema’s last significant smash hits of the pre-COVID era, and the fuzzy fan favorite is seeking to prove that he hasn’t lost any of his luster in the two years since.