It’s official — Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the highest-grossing movie based on a video game of all time. The genre has traditionally been viewed as cursed, given its various infamous flops over the years, but the Sonic franchise has well and truly trounced that belief thanks to the runaway success of 2020’s first film and its new sequel, which has managed to outpace its predecessor at the box office.
And Sonic himself — Ben Schwartz, specifically — is overjoyed by the news. The actor and comedian, who voices the Blue Streak in the movies, shared the exciting update on Twitter this Tuesday that Sonic 2 has outdone Sonic‘s total domestic gross. That means it can now be crowned the biggest video game flick ever.
“[Sonic 2] has officially passed the domestic box office total of the first [Sonic] film, officially making the sequel the highest domestic grossing movie based on a video game of all time,” Schwartz said. “AND THIS LITTLE BLUE GUY IS STILL GOING!!! AHHHH!!!!”
Sonic 2, which opened internationally on April 1 before hitting U.S. theaters the week after, started strong out the gate and has continued on a sprint ever since. This past weekend saw it hold on to a top three place despite now being in its third week, with its latest earnings pushing it to a domestic cume of $146.2 million (via Box Office Mojo). Globally, it’s currently sitting at $288.3 million, which means its close to outranking Sonic‘s international total of $319.7 million to boot.
In the light of Sonic 2‘s big earnings, it’s funny to think back to how the first movie almost got it totally wrong with that infamous original Sonic design. Luckily, the franchise’s good fortunes mean that producer Neal Mortiz can look back on the intense backlash and laugh. As for looking to the future, Paramount is known to be moving forward with Sonic 3 and a spinoff for Idris Elba’s Knuckles.
If you haven’t done so already — and, if that’s the case, know that you’re in the minority — catch Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the big screen now.