The Brad Pitt-led racing action thriller “F1” is headed for an opening on the high end of expectations.
The film pulled in $10 million in previews on Thursday night with a further $13-14 million on opening day Friday with domestic opening weekend estimates now coming in at around $55 million or slightly higher.
Earlier this week, projections were all over the place with a range of $35-60 million depending on different sources. Strong critical reviews and last-minute promotion appears to have helped push it towards the higher end of those expectations.
It is, by far, the biggest theatrical opening ever for an Apple Original Movie – earning as much on opening day as Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” pulled in over its entire Friday-Sunday opening weekend.
It will also mark the second-best opening for a Brad Pitt ‘vehicle’ following the $66.4 million debut of 2013’s “World War Z”. Internationally, the film is said to be going very strong, unsurprising considering Formula One racing’s appeal is mostly outside the United States.
While the news is good for Pitt, it’s not so good for everyone else. Blumhouse’s “M3GAN 2.0” is especially taking the news hard, the movie debuting to $4.3 million on Friday and headed for an opening weekend of just $10 million – below even the lowest expectations and just one-third of the opening of its predecessor
The second weekend of Pixar’s “Elio” looks on track to be just $11-12 million – a drop of 45% which is steeper than the second weekend of “Elemental” and suggests it may not have the legs that film did.
Then there’s “28 Years Later” which is having an even rougher second weekend, Danny Boyle’s horror film heading for a sophomore slump of 67% – heading for just over $10 million for the weekend.
Source: Deadline
