Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a computer-animated adventure film based on the video game franchise of the same name by Sega. It was released February 14, 2020 by 20th Century Fox to critical acclaim.

Development
Development for a film adaptation based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video games began in 1993 during production of DIC Entertainment's television show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Michealene Risley, the newly appointed consumer products director who helped green-light Adventures, negotiated with several Hollywood producers. Sega CEO Tom Kalinske, however, was wary of damaging the brand, citing the commercial and critical failures of the Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter films. Despite Kalinske's concerns, Sega was enthusiastic about a film adaptation. In August 1994, Sega struck a development deal with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group, with Pen Densham as the executive producer of the film.

MGM and Sega hired Richard Jefferies, an associate of Risley from her days at Marvel Comics, to write a film treatment. At the time, Sega was developing Sonic X-treme for its next console, the Sega Saturn, and asked Jefferies to feature the Saturn in the screenplay. Jefferies' treatment, entitled Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World, was submitted in May 1995. While the draft received a positive response among MGM and Sega executives, Shinobu Toyoda suggested Kalinske replace Robotnik with a meaner villain. MGM canceled the project after a failed attempt to revive the film at DreamWorks; Jeffries suggested that the film was scrapped as both Sega and MGM wanted a higher share of the profits, while Densham said it followed creative differences between Sega and Trilogy.

In 1998, News Corporation had fully acquired Sega, and the film rights were transferred to 20th Century Fox. After the purchase, a film based on Sonic was announced for a 2002 release in order to accompany Attack of the Clones. The film would be a mix of live action and animation, with the live action production being handled by Regency Enterprises and Neal H. Moritz's Original FIlm, while Blue Sky Studios would handle the animation. However, the film's development was scrapped in 2000 due to conflicts betweem Sega, Original Film, and 20th Century Fox. In addition, Blue Sky Studios sold the distribution rights of its films to Universal Pictures. It was agreed that Blue Sky's animation work on Sonic would be kept at 20th Century Fox, while the live action work would be completely scrapped. The script of this version was leaked in 2015.

In 2014, Bill Mechanic, chief executive officer of 20th Century Fox at the time, announced that a Sonic film was in development under Lord Miller Productions, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's company, and that the film would release between 2018 and 2021. The film would be produced by Marza Animation Planet, where Lord and Miller were already working on The Lego Movie, with financing by Regency Enterprises.

Release
Sonic the Hedgehog was initially scheduled for May 11, 2019 by 20th Century Fox; however in December 2018, the studio rescheduled the film to February 14, 2020 to avoid competition with Avengers: Endgame.

The film was simultaneously released to cinemas and home media on February 14, 2020.

Box office
, Sonic the Hedgehog has grossed $407.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.353 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.76 billion, making it the highest grossing animated film of all time.