@MeloMan Mario has been global icon for decades. He’s basically the Mickey Mouse of games due to Nintendo successfully marketing the character to general audiences of all ages.
There are more people who don’t even play videogames that know Mario than Sonic. It’s not a surprise like at all, his first movie would do gangbusters at the box office.
Disney even on their worst day, would do way more than any other animation studio by brand recognition alone. It wouldn’t matter if the Mario was a great film, a mediocre film, or a downright bad one. Nintendo is king of the family game market so a Mario film regardless of it’s quality was going to be a huge success.
Sonic on the hand doesn’t have that wide of grasp on the family market. Sega’s demographic never exclusively focused on family/ kids. Sonic game’s were always focused more on a 10+ market and by being multiple platform, the franchise doesn’t have a home console where it can be marketed aggressively to a demographic.
Sonic not making a billion dollars in one go was always a long shot regardless. But the fact the franchise as a whole did well at the box office is a success on it’s own, and there really no need to bring Mario in this.
On a final note, Mario and Sonic stop competing decades ago. It’s funny how gamers keep pitting these two against eachother.