Sonic the Hedgehog may not have been first to the VOD race (not be a long shot), but the speedy Sega character is now joining a ton of recent releases coming to homes early. Paramount Pictures has announced that the February blockbuster will become available on digital in a week and a half, following in the footsteps of other films such as Bloodshot and Pixar’s Onward.
The good news for Sonic the Hedgehog is it has already had a month in theaters and made a ton of money before chains across the country closed down earlier this week. The Paramount movie made $306.7 million worldwide on a reported $85 million production budget. Its debut weekend was a record-breaking $70 million over the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend.
Sonic the Hedgehog went on to become the highest-grossing video game movie on the domestic front when it recently crossed Detective Pikachu’s $144.1 million. In light of COVID-19’s effects on the movie industry, the 2019 Pokémon movie will still hold its worldwide record for the genre. Detective Pikachu has over $100 million over Sonic in global earnings.
The family-friendly action flick will be available for digital purchase on Tuesday, March 31 for $19.99. The Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD copies of Sonic the Hedgehog, on the other hand, won't come out until May 19, which is quite the gap of time following the digital release. The movie stars Ben Schwartz as the eponymous alien hedgehog who befriends James Marsden’s Tom Wachowski, and the pair defend Earth against Jim Carrey’s wacky Dr. Robotnik.
Sonic the Hedgehog was once the subject of viral backlash when its first trailer revealed a horrific first design of the video game character that resulted in its initial release date being pushed back. The new character design led by director Jeff Fowler certainly made up for the initial response for the movie adaptation.
Along with Sonic the Hedgehog, earlier today, Disney decided to release Onward on digital super early as well, just two weeks after it hit theaters. Sadly, the animated Pixar film does not share the same success as Sonic does. It only managed to make $103 million worldwide on a reported budget of $135 million, making it a pretty gnarly flop. It was also announced that Onward would hit Disney+ two weeks from today on April 3.
On Monday, Universal was the first studio to announce a slew of its recent releases would be available for VOD rental, including The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma. Additionally, Trolls World Tour’s April 10 release will be available on digital now on the same day of its initial theatrical debut. Other movies coming to VOD early include Warner Bros’ Birds of Prey, The Way Back and Lionsgate’s faith-based drama I Still Believe.
Will you be checking out Sonic the Hedgehog on digital this April? Comment and vote in our poll below!
