Paramount Pictures revised version of Sonic the Hedgehog (R).
Source: Paramount pictures
Sonic the Hedgehog may run faster than the speed of light, but his film franchise was almost brought to a standstill in 2019.
A less than three minutes started to tease the publication of the film that was only six months away was widespread by fans who dealt with social media in order to devote themselves against Paramounts character design. The blue creature that appeared on the film was far from the legendary video game Speedster.
The cinematic Sonic, version 1, had more realistic facial features, including human teeth, and his body proportions were considered incompatible with character fans in the 1990s.
“The trailer goes out and I think he was the most respected trailer in the history of Paramount Pictures. What is astonishing,” said Toby Ascher, who acquired the rights to Sonic and produced the film franchise. “The only problem was that 90% of people hated the trailer because of the design of Sonic.”
“Suddenly we tried to be a really, very, very, very, very, very, really loyal video game adaptation to the next people who had ruined video games for everyone. It was just a catastrophe of epic proportions,” added Ascher.
The studio turned and decided Paramount However, around 5 million US dollars, but led to a franchise that generated almost 1.2 billion US dollars at the global box office. The studio hopes to build on this swing with a fourth episode of the film franchise, which is to debut in 2027.
“The Sonic franchise owes its cash success and longevity of a monumental decision at the beginning of the development of the first film marketing campaign,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore. “A redesign of a main character is not a little thing. … These decisions can generate or break the dream of a single film in a long -term income. The return of investments by generating an ugly sound in an beautiful revenue that franchise generates is inadmissible.”
Sonic bring to the big canvas
Ascher acquired the rights to Sonic the Hedgehog in 2013, a time in Hollywood when films were missed with video game-inspired films.
“When we started working on Sonic, it was a really bad idea to adapt a video game,” he told CNBC.
Until then, no film based on a video game -based film had received a positive assessment of the review agent Rotten Tomaten. It was only in 2019 that a video game-based film created a “fresh” assessment on the website, which shows more than 60% positive reviews.
Ben Schwartz is right in Paramount Pictures' “Sonic the Hedgehog”.
Paramount pictures
“I don't think someone in the city really thought of making a sound film, a good idea,” said Ascher. “But I think our strategy was that we grew up with these games. We grew up with these characters and wanted to treat them like any other character. We wanted to give them real emotional arches and real emotional stories in which you could move into them.”
Ascher noticed that earlier adjustments for video games usually focus on Worldbuilding rather than on character development.
“What we were able to inject the franchise heart, and I think that's what it did,” said Neal Moritz, the producing partner and producer of Franchise producer of Ascher and “21 jump Street”.
Both ascher and Moritz found that the film of the filmmaking behind the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” film overtook the design of the main character, but the story remained pretty much the same.
“We really screwed it up”
The film -made team was blindly made by the audience's reactions to the first trailer, but was determined to solve the problem instead of regulating the film or publishing it in its current form.
Moritz said he gave a “passionate speech” to the minds of Paramount and Sega so that the filmmakers could fix the mistake.
As Moritz remembers, he told the executives: “We really screwed up here, but there is an incredible amount of interest and what we have to do is repair … we need a little more money and we need more time. If you give it, we could turn this thing around.”
“I give a lot of recognition both Paramount and Sega,” said Moritz. “You said 'Ok.'”
In the redesign, the Sonics team brought iconic white gloves and classic red shoes back. They infused the character with some of its cartoon roots and a new iteration published six months after the first trailer.
“The fans saw that we tried to be really real in our love for this franchise,” said Ascher and found that after the first trailer, the team had more involved with fans and focus groups to record feedback and inspiration.
The new trailer was well received by fans, and three months later “Sonic The Hedgehog” opened at the box office to $ 58 million. The feature collected 146 million US dollars in front of the pandemic cinemas. It was $ 302 million worldwide.
The future of Sonic
The Sonic franchise continues to thrive in the following years, whereby each follow-up function exceeds the last.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” collected $ 190 million in Germany and $ 403 million worldwide, while “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” achieved 235 million US dollars worldwide and $ 485 million.
“This is a big leap,” said Marc Weinstock, President of Paramount of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution. “I am excited that every new film is better than the last thing that is rare.”
After the success of the second “Sonic” film, the then president of the studio, and the CEO of Paramount Pictures, Brian Robbins, Greenlit a “Knuckles” series based on the franchise for the company's streaming service, Paramount+, and a third Sonic film.
Sonic became a multi-platform, similar to Robbins and Paramount for franchise companies such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “A quiet place”, “Spongebob-squarer” and “Paw Patrol”.
The “Knuckles” show generated more than 11 million global viewing times in the first 28 days.
The success of the theater also placed Sonic from a license business of $ 70 million on one that earns more than 1 billion US dollars for retail revenue annually, says Ivo Gerscovich, Segas Senior Vice President and Chief Business and brand officer by Sonic The Hedge.
“The great thing about Sonic and Sonic's success from the start-from the beginning, that we basically listen to the fans from day one,” said Robbins, who is now co-CEO from Paramount, said. “The fans are fanatic in this franchise and love this franchise and know this franchise. For this reason they are really important for the design of the franchise company … they evangelize it.”
From Paramounts “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”
Paramount
The fans inspired Keanu Reeves' casting as Shadow, an arcrival of Sonic, in the third Sonic film. And the film closing team says that it still looks for fans which characters will contribute to the films and the next series.
Ascher and Moritz both teased that the fourth Sonic film with a new fan favorite character again contained, but said that the team would continue to expand the franchise universe at a slow pace.
“If we suddenly bring every character, they won't get the time that the audience understand them and refer to them and really fall in love with them,” said Ascher. “While we bring in characters whether it is a film or television, the most important thing is that they have a good story that really shows the character incredibly.”
Disclosure: ComCast is the parent company of NBCUNIERSAL and CNBC. NBCUniversal has Rotten tomatoes and is the sales dealer of “The Fast and the Furious” films.
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