Posted on 10/13/2018 8:13:41 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Unless Saturday brings a course change, Universal's critically acclaimed astronaut drama First Man is headed for a muted domestic debut of $16.8 million after earning $5.9 million on Friday from 3,640 theaters. The hope is that the adult-skewing film will be buoyed by a long run throughout awards season.
Conversely, Sony's Venom and A Star Is Born continue to rock the October box office in their sophomore outings with a projected weekend haul of $30 million-plus and $28 million-plus after grossing $9.8 million and $8.5 million on Friday, respectively.
Reuniting Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle with his La La Land star Ryan Gosling, First Man is a visceral retelling of Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon in 1969. Heading into the weekend, the biographical drama was tracking to open in the $18 million-$20 million range (some services had it slightly higher). Audiences liked the film less than critics, giving it a B+ CinemaScore.
It's not clear so far whether a dust-up over Chazalle's decision not to show the famous image of Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon is impacting the film, whose theater count includes Imax runs.
Comparisons to La La Land (2016) or Chazelle's Whiplash (2014) are tough, since both of those films debuted first in select cinemas. First Man, costing a gross $70 million to produce (and $60 million net), co-stars Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll and Lukas Haas.
One comp Universal is using internally is Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning Argo, which started off with $19.5 million in October 2012 and Bridge of Spies ($15.4 million). First Man is expected to be more of an adult-skewing title than space epics Gravity (2013) or The Martian (2015), which likewise launched in October, opening to $55.8 million and $54.3 million, respectively.
First Man looks to place No. 3 for the weekend, followed by Sony's new animated family pic Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, voiced by Jack Black. Goosebumps 2, earning an estimated $4.8 million Friday from 3,521 locations, is now projected to open to $16 million.
20th Century Fox's period thriller Bad Times at the El Royale, another new title on the crowded marquee, is on course for a $7.8 million debut from 2,808 locations, despite relatively strong reviews and a star-studded cast that includes Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm and Nick Offerman.
El Royale earned a B- CinemaScore and Goosebumps 2, a B.
A slew of movies are also rolling out in select theaters at the specialty box office, including Sony Pictures Classics' The Happy Prince, directed by and starring Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde; Roadside Attractions' The Oath, toplined by Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz; and Amazon Studios' father-son drama Beautiful Boy, starring Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet.
Beautiful Boy, playing in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, looks to post the top opening screen average of the year so far, or a projected $84,400.
Like First Man and A Star Is Born, Beautiful Boy made the rounds at the fall film festivals in hopes of whipping up awards attention. Ditto for Paul Greengrass' terrorist drama 22 July, which opened date-and-date on Wednesday on Netflix and in a smattering of theaters. Netflix doesn't report grosses.
Oh great, that sounds great! Thanks!
Another reason not to see it.
That’s disappointing. She was fantastic on The Crown.
I would suggest spending your money to get the book. The movie takes a small snapshot in time, from Armstrong’s entry into NASA until Apollo 11, and does fairly well with it.
However, there is much more to his story. A Naval fighter pilot in the Korean War, a test pilot after leaving the Navy and before becoming one of the first two CIVILIAN astronauts. Not to mention his incredible body of work after leaving NASA.
I can understand not doing much with the pre- and post- NASA experience due to time constraints, but they could have done a few minutes at the beginning and an “afterword” crawl like so many fact-based movies do now.
Yes, I did a report on him in High School. I had no idea the man was so accomplished. We all just knew him as the first man on the moon, not that it was small potatoes.
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