Sonic the Hedgehog 2 sprints past Ambulance at box office

Sonic the Hedgehog's supersonic speed was no match for fellow box office contenders this weekend.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office this week, debuting with a booming $71 million. It shatters the first film's previously held record as the biggest opening ever for a video game adaptation. (The first Sonic debuted with a record-breaking $57 million.) Sonic 2 sprints past Michael Bay's action thriller Ambulance starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as bank robbers on the run, which stalled with a $8.7 million debut in fourth place, per Comscore.

Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, and Tika Sumpter star in Jeff Fowler's second Sonic film installment, which follows the titular hedgehog hero (Schwartz) as he teams up with trusty sidekick Tails (O'Shaughnessey) to find a mystical emerald before it falls into the hands of the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Carrey) and Knuckles (Elba).

To embody the super-speed hedgehog, Schwartz told EW he took inspiration from the original video games created by Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima. "In the games that I've played, when you wait too long, he stomps his feet and wags his finger at you," the actor said. "He's got that attitude — as opposed to Mario, who didn't really have that at that time."

"I wanted to keep that rebellious attitude," Schwartz continued. "In my head, heart and comedy were the two biggest things." And, spoiler: Sonic 2 even manages to slip in a meta Parks and Recreation joke. In a nod to Schwartz's beloved character Jean-Ralphio Saperstein and his signature phrase, the hedgehog calls something "the woooorst" in the film.

"Jean-Ralphio is canon in the Sonic universe, which is very exciting for me," Schwartz said. "His taste is mostly '90s, and then Parks and Recreation."

Elsewhere, Morbius trailed behind Sonic 2, earning $10.2 million its second weekend. The Lost City followed in third place, earning an additional $9.1 million its third weekend. Ambulance and The Batman rounded out the top five, with Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader earning an additional $6.5 million. In a separate universe, the Daniels' multiverse epic Everything Everywhere All At Once crushed projections in sixth place with $6.1 million following a wider release.

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• How Ben Schwartz injected Sonic 2 with his personality — and slipped in a Parks and Rec joke
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• Tails and Knuckles debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 trailer