Hollywood has its sights set on this week’s speedy blue hedgehog.

Paramount’s“Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” the film that is the most family-friendly in this year’s cinemas, will be the signal that the highly desired demographic may finally return to multiplexes.

Industry hopefuls are encouraged by the movie’s first box office results. The film’s preview ticket sales were $6.25M on Thursday. This is more than twice the $3 million generated by the original “Sonic” from preview sales two years prior. According to the studio, the sequel is expected to bring in around $50million during its debut weekend. $58 million video game movie recordIts predecessor was able to score in February 2020. Covid-19 was already spreading at the time but had not been officially declared a pandemic.

Jim Carrey’s “Sonic 2” and Idris Elba’s voice will serve as a comparison in family movies for 2022. Parents have been reluctant to go back to the theaters with young children during the pandemic. Many of these kids were not eligible to receive vaccines before fall 2021. The eligibility of children younger than 5 years old is still not available.

Paul Dergarabedian is a senior media analyst for Comscore. He stated, “Family movies have struggled to get consistent traction during the pandemic. Parents are much more selective about which films they choose to take their children to the multiplex as well as the infinite availability of family-friendly content at house on the small screen.”

No domestic film targeted at families has grossed more than $200 million since March 2020.

Family films are a genre that focuses on parents and their children under 13. This genre is aimed at young people and usually has a rating of either “G” or “PG”. Sometimes, PG-13 rated movies are grouped in this category. This is because they have a lot of content before reaching the “R”.

For instance, the PG-13 rating for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” The Batman and “Jungle Cruise”, are three examples. “Spider-Man,” “Jungle Cruise”, and the gritty Batman film are better suited for young children.

Dergarabedian explained that the marketing of a movie is a great indicator as to whether it is in the family film genre. Although technically accessible for family viewing, “Spider-Man,” was intended to appeal to older audiences aged 18-35 years.

The movie “Jungle Cruise” was promoted as an adventure film for families that is based on a true story. Disney’sMost iconic rides from the theme parks. This film, which earned $116.9 million in its first run during the pandemic was second on the list of top-grossing family films. It was released between Covid variant epidemics.

This was the highest-grossing film about family during the epidemic. Universal’sAccording to Comscore data, “Sing 2” has earned $161.9 millions since it’s December 2021 premiere. This film was released in a period when children received more than two doses.

Comparatively, Disney’s Encanto premiered during the traditionally strong Thanksgiving holiday and generated only $96 million before it was available on Disney+’s streaming service, Disney+, on Christmas Eve.

Studio executives have moved more family-friendly films further down the list due to the lackluster response during the pandemic. It could signal that “Sonic 2”, which has a strong opening, will be followed by “Lightyear” from Pixar in June and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” from Universal in July. This would lead to more regularized box-office hauls.

Shawn Robbins chief analyst at BoxOffice.com said that studios waited long for parental sentiment in the dying days of the pandemic to rise before they released high-profile, family-oriented content. “Sonic 2 is responding to a lot of audience demand for family movies that were only occasionally shown in theatres within the past year. They have also been subject to the whims of Covid variations dominating headlines.

But, he stated, “It isn’t true now. Many have returned back to something resembling a pre-pandemic life style like going on the movies.”

BoxOffice.com projects that Sonic 2 will launch with tickets sales between $60 million to $75 million.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, CNBC and NBCUniversal. Universal distributes “Sing 2”, and “Minions:The Rise of Gru.”