RCBH928 wrote:marurun wrote:RCBH928 wrote:I was shocked when I read on BoxOfficeMojo that Sonic film budget is $85M, I thought the the producers were making a cheapo movie for a quick buck, its even more expensive than Birds of Prey. They must be nuts, either the producers are 25 years too late for the height of popularity of this mascot or Sonic just became more popular than Mario with the kids and I don't know it.(Or BoxOfficeMojo numbers are unreliable)
Well, the Sonic movie just made $70 million in the US over the 3-day Presidents Day holiday weekend, according to Rotten Tomatoes, so I think it's doing pretty well, and that hints that the $85 million may have been well-spent, especially given that the worldwide take has been $113 million. I mean, the movie is really more of a vehicle for Jim Carrey's return to film than for the namesake Hedgehog. So no, BoxOfficeMojo isn't nuts. Everyone is.
I am not sure how they justified the $85M and how they knew it was going to make its money, would you invest $85M of your money in a Sonic movie?
Also, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik is such bad casting, I will guess there are at least 10 other actors out there that fit the character better. I doubt there is a studio willing to pay $85M as a vehicle to return Carrey to films, why should they care, unless he is paying for it himself!
That's the thing. They're not being very true to video game or animated Sonic. They took the idea of Sonic and, as one review put it, basically made him The Flash. I suspect they invested $85 million in it because 1) Sonic is a known valuable property and 2) they managed to secure Jim Carrey, who tends to sell movies pretty well when he's allowed to play weird characters and chew the scenery. I mean, Jim Carrey WAS poor casting, IF you're sticking to the idea of Dr. Robotnik as Eggman, but the movie isn't, and the way they portray Dr. Robotnik looks like a pretty good fit for Carrey, actually. Reviews have pegged Carrey's performance as, well, what carries the film. And I suspect they didn't outlay a full $85 million right up front. I'm sure Carrey didn't come cheaply, but at the same time, I imagine the budget grew as they saw how the film was shaping up. By all accounts the movie is not some great work of cinema, but neither is it a disaster. Reviews are middling, but generally positive, and the movie has the kind of easy accessibility of a family film. It's probably super easy to ship overseas to boot. I imagine they were looking at the Chinese market when allocating the film's budget, and just got lucky that it did as well as it did here in the US.