SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Bombs At The Chinese Box Office With COVID-19 Restrictions In Place

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Bombs At The Chinese Box Office With COVID-19 Restrictions In Place

With social distancing guidelines in place, Sonic the Hedgehog's opening weekend in China proved to be something of a disaster as the video game adaptation earned only $1.27 million in the Middle Kingdom.

By JoshWilding - Aug 03, 2020 02:08 AM EST
Filed Under: Sonic the Hedgehog
Source: Variety

With around 65% of Chinese theaters now open across the country, this weekend saw audiences offered the likes of Dolittle, Jojo Rabbit, and Sonic the Hedgehog. The latter broke records when it debuted in the United States back in February with a $57 million opening weekend, but in China, the video game adaptation earned only $1.27 million. 

Instead, it was local content that went straight to the top of the box office, but the entire weekend only drew a dismal $17.6 million from paying moviegoers. 

Sonic the Hedgehog's disappointing box office performance isn't necessarily indicative of how new blockbusters will perform in the Middle Kingdom, as Variety reports that the movie has been widely pirated in the country by this point (it's been available online in HD for months now). 

A big part of why tickets don't appear to be selling are the restrictions which have been put in place to combat COVID-19. Venues are only allowed to sell 30% of seats, while only half of screenings are allowed to accommodate disinfection measures. With similar plans in place internationally, what's happening in China could be a sign of things to come for theaters over the next few months. 

Time will tell on that front, of course, but nothing new is coming our way until the end of August/early September when Christopher Nolan's Tenet arrives in a limited number of theaters. 

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tmp3
tmp3 - 8/3/2020, 3:07 AM
Interstellar’s doing great numbers in China as a re-release right now, so I guess Sonic just didn’t appeal to their movie sensibilities. Feel like TENET should do quite well there, and in most territories that dealt with this pandemic in a proper manner (so... not the US, heh)
NathanielX
NathanielX - 8/3/2020, 4:29 AM
@tmp3 - well Sonic its more of a kids movie and Interestelar it's adult oriented maybe single people went to watch that but people with children remained home.
dragon316
dragon316 - 8/3/2020, 6:35 AM
@NathanielX - so transformers, transformers started out as kids age then when movies came around they hit adults to make bots look realistic less cartoony
dracula
dracula - 8/3/2020, 3:20 AM
Yup expect to see that for a while. Seriously no movie is going to hit their original box office estimation for a while and more than a few will probably bomb.

Maybe best choice would be to double the price and put more stuff on video on demand
LameLuka
LameLuka - 8/3/2020, 3:51 AM
@dracula - they still wont make back their money
dracula
dracula - 8/3/2020, 3:58 AM
@LameLuka - maybe not do it for the really major stuff like WW84 and Avatar 2(still not a fan of avatar), but they should be able to make some money on smaller stuff.
Feralwookiee
Feralwookiee - 8/3/2020, 4:02 AM
@dracula So, you're telling me, you expect people to pay TWICE as much for the same product while putting up with added restrictive safety measures while still taking a risk of becoming sick?
KWilly
KWilly - 8/3/2020, 4:02 AM
@Feralwookiee - LOL
dracula
dracula - 8/3/2020, 3:30 AM
Just finished watching The Legend Of Bruce Lee. Still rewatching Angel and Xena. Just switched out Legend Of Bruce Lee with Merlin

man hope Anthony Stewart Head plays a villain in Joss Whedon's new show
LameLuka
LameLuka - 8/3/2020, 3:53 AM
Sonic has been out for months. Plenty of time for pirated copies to find their way online there. Also I don't think Tenet will be pulling in big money like some people here think. Will be lucky if it even makes more than 100 milion worldwide. Nolan really wants to make WB bleed with this ego of his. Push everything to next year. If they want they can release the low-mid budget movies this year and make some money
dragon316
dragon316 - 8/3/2020, 6:35 AM
@LameLuka - same with end game being released in theaters with added content
NathanielX
NathanielX - 8/3/2020, 4:32 AM
Sonic its the perfect template to Nintendo and Capcom to follow a 3D animated Mario Movie would be bonkers.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 8/3/2020, 4:58 AM
I'm more surprised by the fact that they allow something like Jojo Rabbit into their country.
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 8/3/2020, 5:23 AM
The entire weekend for all movies only made 17.6 million? Yeah, that’s not going to cut it for any new big release. That’s a tiny fraction of what the box office is under normal circumstances. That number is going to need to jump up a lot in the near future or more postponements are coming.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 8/3/2020, 5:48 AM
@TheUnworthyThor - to be fair, most of the movies showing have had digital and blu ray releases for months now, it's not like they're new releases.
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 8/3/2020, 6:27 AM
@Spidey91 - I mean I have no idea how available those Chinese movies have been. As for the American releases they have in the past been able to make tons of money even when the Chinese release date was months after the American release date. Now this is obviously different. It’s been even longer. Legit DVDs and blu-rays probably change things but the article I read put it pretty plainly:

“The depressed performance is due in large part to restrictions on operations currently in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the moment, venues can only sell 30% of their maximum capacity of seats for each show to allow for social distancing, and they must schedule half the number of screenings they normally would play in order to accommodate new disinfection measures.” And they are not allowed to sell concessions. Ouch for them.
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