April has been the most crowded month for movies so far in 2022. This has a lot to do with this weekend which saw the release of three new films. This includes Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ambulance, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now the box office reports are in, and it is looking like it is another strong weekend.
According to Deadline, Sonic 2 has unsurprisingly taken the top spot this weekend with an estimated gross of $67-69 million. This is after making $26.5 million, including $6.25 million in preview showings, on its opening Friday. What is a surprise is this is a big jump from the film's original weekend estimate of $50-60 million. When you compare it to the original Sonic the Hedgehog which made $58 million in its opening weekend, that is almost a $10 million jump with this sequel. This current estimate also impresses as it would land the film on par with the first film's four-day holiday opening of $70 million. This is what happens when you have a successful first film, good word of mouth, and a killer marketing campaign. Paramount has been killing it since the middle of 2021 with successes like A Quiet Place Part 2, Scream, Jackass Forever, and The Lost City. The studio has single-handedly proven that the theatrical model is still king.
In second place this weekend is Sony’s Morbius with $10 million. The Spider-Verse film is in its second weekend of release and this number would put it at a 74% drop between weekends. Morbius now has sucked up a domestic box office total of $56.7 million and, after crossing the $100 million mark on Thursday, the Marvel film now stands at $102.7 million at the worldwide box office.
In third place is the Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum romantic comedy The Lost City. In its third weekend of release, the film made $9.3 million. This is after having an impressive $30 million opening weekend and the film now has a worldwide box office total of $68.9 million.
In fourth place is the second new release of the weekend, Michael Bay’s Ambulance. The action film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II only made $8.1 million. If we had to pick a loser for this weekend it would probably be this one. The film has so many things working against it like the genre not being as popular as it used to be, an odd 17-day theatrical window, and audiences still seeing Bay as the Transformers director, but it is still disappointing nonetheless. Since this film skews older, it looks like audiences are going to wait to watch it at home.
In fifth place we have The Batman still striking fear into the box office in its sixth weekend of release with $6-6.3 million. This brings its domestic total up to $358.8 million. While it looks like now that the film will not hit the $1 billion mark everyone was hoping it would, its continued appearance in the top five all these weeks later is still very impressive.
Finally, in sixth place we have our final new major release of the weekend, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. While the film is technically in its third weekend of release, its wide release was this weekend and that is reflected in the film's $5.9 million box office. This is expected to bring its total worldwide run up to $8.5 million. Not bad for an original film about the multiverse.
No matter what, there is something for everyone this weekend. The counter-programming is strong with films like Sonic 2 and Ambulance. Most of these numbers are another great example of movie theaters getting closer to back to “business as usual”. People want to go back to the movies and these numbers reflect that. Also, Disney should be looking at Sonic 2’s numbers and realizing they were wrong for releasing Turning Red on Disney+. The family market still exists theatrically and that should put a smile on any moviegoers face. All these numbers are sure to get adjusted soon, but for now we can savor another great weekend at the movies.