This weekend’s new releases are meeting their pre-release projections, with Sony/Columbia’s action comedy “Bullet Train” earning $12.6 million from 4,357 locations on opening day — including $4.6 million from previews — and is now estimated for a $30 million box office opening.
Trackers projected that the R-rated movie starring Brad Pitt would launch at $26-33 Million. While critics have been mixed with a 55% Rotten Tomatoes score, audience reception has been better with a B+ on CinemaScore, 4/5 on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak and a Rotten TomatoesScore of 81%
But “Bullet Train”The film faces a tough road to profitability, with its $90 million budget. A lack of competition for August might not be enough to allow it to make it past the break-even point.
This is already happening with last week’s No. 1 film, Warner Bros.’ “DC League of Super-Pets,”It has fallen 53% since its $23million opening, for an estimated second weekend worth $10-11,000,000. This is still a total of $44.6 million for the 10-day period, consistent with the DreamWorks spring animated release. “The Bad Guys,” “Super-Pets”The film isn’t receiving as much international support and is moving closer to flop status.
Farther down the charts, Universal/DreamWorks’ “Easter Sunday”It opened at No. 8 slot, which saw $2 million in opening day sales from 3,175 theaters. This amounts to an estimated $5million opening. That’s just below the $5-7 million projections.
Jo Koy stars as a Filipino comedian who takes his son to an Easter family reunification. Similar reactions have been received to the comedy. “Bullet Train”With Rotten Tomatoes scores from 47% critics, 71% audience and a CinemaScore B+. You might also like “Bullet Train,” “Easter Sunday”To turn a profit in the slow-performing August period, it will need to be able to stretch out even though it has a lower bar with a $17million budget.