The last few weeks has been kind of a tribute to old-school star power, as Tom Hanks was mostly responsible for Sully's success, and now Denzel Washington has one of the biggest openings of his career with The Magnificent Seven remake doing very well with a debut of $35 million. The movie got mixed reviews (62% on Rotten Tomatoes), but earned an "A-" Cinemascope, so it will hopefully stick around long enough to recoup its $90 million budget. Westerns normally don't do well and are hardly made anymore, so the success of this film is a good thing for everyone, including audiences.
In second place was the animated Storks, with a $21 million opening, kind of a low gross, as WB's last animated film was The LEGO Movie, obviously much more successful. Sully fell to third with $13 million, as its total creeps to $92 million and will cross $100 million by next week. The question now is if its financial success can translate to some Oscar attention for the film, and maybe, finally another nod for Tom Hanks, seeing how he was robbed of one (In my opinion) for Captain Phillips. The top five was rounded out by Bridget Jones's Baby and Snowden, neither of which are doing well and are considered bombs.
Top 5:
- The Magnificent Seven- $35 million
- Storks- $21.8 million
- Sully- $13.8 million
- Bridget Jones's Baby- $4.5 million
- Snowden- $4.1 million
Disney's Queen of Katwe opened in limited release this weekend, and despite being one of the runner-ups for the TIFF Audience Award last week, the Lupita Nyong'o starring drama opened to a fairly low $305k from 52 screens. Next week it's Mark Wahlberg's Deepwater Horizon against Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children- I'm guessing Deepwater Horizon has the better chance to do well, since it seems to be the season for recent true life events dramas.
