Wreck-it Ralph Logs $50M Opening Weekend

There is good news to report for Sonic’s film debut, however minor it may be.  Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph is expected to take in close to $50 million for the weekend, according to Deadline.com.  That may be enough to put up a decent fight next week against the debut of the latest 007 film Skyfall.

Deadline reports that grosses went up for the film 58 percent from Friday to Saturday, aided by a great word of mouth.  Overall, Wreck-it Ralph helped buoy year-to-year movie-going for the weekend, which was up 21 percent versus 2011 according to the website.

But here’s the kicker: What could have been a prime opportunity for Sega to promote Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was wasted.  We asked on Twitter this weekend if the game was shown or otherwise promised during previews preceding the film.  It wasn’t, according to those who saw Ralph this weekend.  Instead, two other games, New Super Mario Bros. U for Wii U and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale got billing instead.  We of course don’t know the terms of the agreement between Sega and Disney as it pertains to the use of Sonic in the movie and the use of Ralph in ASR Transformed, and in of itself that may be fair enough of a trade, but one has to wonder whether movie-goers and children in particular will easily connect the movie and game synergy.

We will see soon enough.  ASR Transformed will release in just two weeks’ time.