Harrison Ford's “The Call of the Wild” Leads Box Office

Variety.com: “The Call of the Wild” is on path for a narrow victory over “Sonic the Hedgehog” in North America with about $28 million at 3,752 locations, estimates showed Saturday.

Disney-20th Century’s launch of the Harrison Ford movie has opened well above pre-release expectations and will wind up with a $3 million lead on “Sonic.” STX’s supernatural horror sequel “Brahms: The Boy II” is battling “Bad Boys for Life” for fourth place with about $6 million at 2,151 venues, in line with forecasts.

Paramount’s second weekend of “Sonic” has slid 57% to about $25 million at 4,198 sites after its stellar launch over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. The film, a live-action and CGI hybrid about the speedy hedgehog, will finish the weekend with about $105 million in its first 10 days in North America.

Opening-day audiences gave “The Call of the Wild” an A- Cinemascore. Ford stars as outdoorsman John Thornton in an adaptation of Jack London’s novel set during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. His co-star is Buck, a CGI Saint Bernard-Scotch Collie mix who is stolen from his home in California, sent to Canada to haul freight and becomes Thornton’s friend.

Reviews for “The Call of the Wild” have generated a 64% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, written by Michael Green (“Logan,” “Blade Runner 2049”) and directed by Chris Sanders, carries a $125 million price tag. Disney inherited the movie as part of its purchase of Fox’s entertainment assets last year.