Christmas has arrived early at the box office.
Amazon MGM Studio’s holiday film Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, earned $3.7 million in Thursday previews before opening everywhere across North America on Friday (the number also includes grosses from other early access screenings). The big-budget tentpole will be playing in a total of 4,032 cinemas this weekend, including Imax, Dolby Cinema and other premium large-format screens.
Tracking shows the movie opening in the $30 million to $35 million range domestically. Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing the Seven Bucks production overseas, where Red One opened to $28 million this year in order to avoid a direct showdown with Paramount’s Gladiator II, which is launching this weekend at the international box office a week ahead of its domestic debut. (Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel could do as much as $80 million or more in its foreign bow.)
Red One‘s box office performance will be closely monitored, considering it cost $250 million to make. A major legacy studio in the same situation would come under intense scrutiny if a film carrying that price tag opened to those numbers, but Amazon insists its business model is entirely different and fueled by subscribers, and not just box office. It’s also counting on Red One to play throughout the year-end holidays and launch a new film franchise.
And exhibitors are certainly happy to play the first proper Christmas movie since before the pandemic when The Grinch opened in 2018, not to mention a movie with such high-profile talent.
The family friendly pic follows what happens when Santa Claus — whose code name is “Red One” — is kidnapped and the North Pole’s head of security (Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Evans) in what Amazon MGM describes as a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.
Directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by Chris Morgan and a story by Hiram Garcia, Red One also stars Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel and J.K. Simmons. It is rated PG-13 in the U.S, where reviews haven’t been kind.
Red One is the first in a series of year-end tentpoles preparing to open and, if all goes well, put the box office back on the nice list after a tough fall due to lack of product. Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II both debut on Nov. 22, followed by Walt Disney Animation’s Moana 2 on Nov. 27. (Many have dubbed the high-profile corridor “Moanapocalypse” or “Glicked.)
Source: Hollywoodreporter
