How Internet backlash helped ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ avoid box office disaster

After getting panned online for its creepy character design, Sonic could have easily suffered the same fate as Cats. But rather than releasing the movie when it was initially slated to debut last November, Paramount delayed the film so the director could redesign the animated character, whose creepy teeth initially made him look a little too human. It paid off. — Paramount Pictures/Sega of America/AP

LOS ANGELES: It's not a stretch to say Universal's Cats and Paramount's Sonic The Hedgehog had two of the most polarising movie trailers in recent memory. Both caught fire online for all the wrong reasons after fans on social media torched the questionable CGI.

Cats, an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, used a new science called "digital fur technology" to bring the four-legged felines to the big screen. The expensive CGI, which had been teased relentlessly, would have been too costly to completely retool before it was unleashed over the holidays. The film became a box office disaster and lost US$100mil (RM414.95mil) theatrically after factoring in marketing costs.