The battle wages on: Sonic 3 is the second highest grossing video game movie in the US behind Mario, though the gap between them really shows who’s the top dog

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now the second highest grossing video game movie in the US, with only his old rival Mario ahead of him.

It’s a tale as old as time: plumber versus hedgehog, Mario versus Sonic. OK, maybe not as old as time, more like a tale as old as the late ’80s/ early ’90s, but still, the two have a long history and rivalry together. If we’re being real, we all know that Mario is the more successful of the two, especially because Sega to this day hasn’t quite found its footing with Sonic’s transition to 3D. Still, it can’t be denied that the blue hog is popular, as the franchise is now a billion dollar one as of the third film. On top of that, though, it’s also now the second highest grossing video game movie in the US ever, having reached over $204 million domestically, taking over its predecessor Sonic 2.

Only Mario is ahead of it now, but uh, the gap is quite large. Domestically The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed just shy of $575 million, almost $300 million more than Sonic 3. That doesn’t mean everyone’s favourite speedster is doing bad by any means, but it does also mean that yet again Mario has come out on top. Though Sega, if for some strange reason you’re reading this, don’t worry, you have the better film (maybe not that first Sonic film, why did you basically remake 2011’s Hop, complete with James Marsden and all).

Still, aside from doing better domestically, the Mario Bros. movie also grossed over $1 billion alone, so it really is clear who won the console war in the end. A sequel is on the way for Mario and co, and a fourth Sonic film was greenlit before the third one even arrived in cinemas, so the lesson here is actually that the real winners are the production companies that made them.