Paramount Pictures has announced that the three Sonic the Hedgehog movies have crossed a major box office milestone between them.
According to a press release, the franchise has managed to surpass $1 billion in "total box office receipts worldwide", and given that phrasing, it's unlikely Paramount is including any revenue generated by the Knuckles TV show in that figure.
The first two movies constitute $725.2 million of that figure, with $181m in "consumer spending" also being generated by those two movies, although it's not clear whether Paramount is counting that figure as part of the $1b total.
According to Paramount, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the latest installment in the franchise's movie adventures, has earned over $312m around the world, hitting number one at the US box office in its opening weekend.
The studio says that this result puts Sonic 3 "83% ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 2" on a "like-for-like basis, including previews". Sonic 3 also apparently managed to hit $100m at the global box office "more quickly than its predecessors".
If you're not familiar with any of the Sonic movies, they're all essentially adaptations of the Sonic the Hedgehog "mythology", for want of a better word.
While the first movie revolved mainly around Sonic himself, the second saw Sonic's longtime sidekick Tails joining the cast, as well as the stoic Knuckles, played by none other than Idris Elba. In the third, we're introduced to brooding antihero Shadow the Hedgehog, played by Keanu Reeves.
The three movies also all feature legendary comic actor Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivo Robotnik, alongside a human cast that includes the likes of James Marsden and Krysten Ritter (in the case of the third movie, at least).
Given the success of the existing Sonic the Hedgehog movies, it probably won't come as a surprise that a fourth movie is reportedly already in development, with a tentative release window of 2027.
