The release date for the third ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie has been unveiled by Paramount Pictures. At the same time, they have pushed back the date for its untitled ‘Smurfs’ animated musical.

According to Deadline, ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ will open wide on December 20, 2024, with the newest ‘Smurfs’ movie going wide on February 14, 2025, having previously been set to unspool on the date now claimed by the former film. While Sonic will open against James Cameron’s ‘Avatar 3’, it’s not yet clear what kind of box-office competition the new Smurfs pic has in store, reported Deadline.

Based on the beloved video game franchise from Sega, Paramount’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ franchise launched with a 2020 film of the same name. In it, a small-town police officer helped the titular blue hedgehog contend with Dr Robotnik, an evil genius looking to make him the subject of his experiments.
Jeff Fowler directed that movie from a script by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, with the film ultimately grossing over USD 319.7M worldwide. The sequel hit theatres in the U.S. in April and outdid the gross of the original, at over USD 400M worldwide.

While multiple ‘Smurfs’ films, based on the Belgian comics, have been made in recent memory, including ‘The Smurfs’, ‘The Smurfs 2’ and ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’, those projects hailed from Sony, as per Deadline.