CGI critters are set to do battle at the box office this weekend, as Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 races into theaters alongside Disney's The Lion King prequel.
The Sonic threequel got off to a better start on preview night, taking in $6.5 million on Thursday. Mufasa only managed $3 million, but is expected to have a stronger opening weekend worldwide.
According to the latest estimates, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is looking at around $55 million to $60 million domestically. Mufasa is on track for $50 million in North America, but will likely reign supreme internationally with $130 million overseas for a $180 million global debut (Sonic doesn't open internationally until Christmas Day).
As for Sony Pictures' Kraven the Hunter, the latest (and possibly final) SSU movie has only just passed the $30 million mark worldwide since arriving in theaters on December 13. We knew the Spider-Man-less Spider-Man spin-off would need a Christmas miracle to avoid becoming another box office bomb after an $11 million opening, and it clearly wasn't to be.
Kraven reportedly cost upward of $110 million to produce (the budget is said to have ballooned after last year’s writers and actors strikes).
“As the superhero genre has declined over the last five years, Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven have led the race to the bottom,” said David A. Gross of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research in a recent interview. “Kraven’s budget was downsized according to the realities of the market, but it’s still too high for this kind of result.”
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“Kraven the Hunter is the visceral story about how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Set before his notorious vendetta with Spider-Man, Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the titular character in the R-rated film.”
Kraven the Hunter is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film was directed by J. C. Chandor and written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk.
In addition to Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, Ariana DeBose will play Calypso, a voodoo priestess and Kraven's on-off love interest (in the comics, at least); Fred Hechinger is Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka the Chameleon, who is Kraven's half-brother; Alessandro Nivola will play Aleksei Sytsevich, aka the Rhino, and Christopher Abbott will portray another villain known as the Foreigner.
The movie has been rated R for "Strong bloody violence, and language."