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Universal’s campy R-rated genre pic Cocaine Bear from Elizabeth Banks lifted $2M last night from previews at 3,000 theaters that began at 5 p.m.
The $30M-budgeted movie, in a weekend that easily will be dominated by Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with an estimated $40M (-62%), is set to do in the high teens, pulling in guys (62% last night) and the 18-34 crowd (who showed up at 72%) at 3,534 theaters.
Any overindexing would be a surprise. The pic already has alright exits with 82% from Rotten Tomatoes’ audiences and four stars on ComScore and Screen Engine’s PostTrak and 72% fresh from critics. Uni/Blumhouse’s winter horror hit M3GAN was 94% certified fresh from Rotten Tomatoes critics, 78% with the aggregator site’s audiences, a B CinemaScore and 3 1/2 stars on PostTrak. Last night’s ticket sales are higher than the $1.1M previews of Universal’s Violent Night (which opened to $13.4M in December and legged out to $49.8M stateside) and they’re just under M3GAN‘s $2.75M, which turned into an $11.7M Friday, $30.4M opening.
Cocaine Bear is inspired by a 1985 true story when cocaine went missing in a Georgia forest after a drug runner’s plane crash, with a black bear gobbling the goods. In the movie, the beast goes on a rampage, taking out cops, criminals and hikers. WETA was involved in the CG creation of Cokey the bear, the main protag here.
Lionsgate is opening wide its faith-based title, Jesus Revolution, which already has five stars and 85% definite recommend on PostTrak. We heard that the studio pulled in an estimated $2M from Wednesday previews alone, largely from Cinemark venues. Lionsgate is reporting $940K from last night’s previews for a lump sum of $3.3M since Wednesday. Tracking had this Kingdom Story Company movie in the single digits, but it could potentially hit $10M at 2,475 locations.
Logline: In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) is searching for all the right things in all the wrong places: until he meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a charismatic hippie-street-preacher. Together with Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), they open the doors of Smith’s languishing church to an unexpected revival of radical and newfound love, leading to what Time magazine called a ‘Jesus Revolution’.
While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got juice from the Presidents Day Monday with $14.2M, discount Tuesday wasn’t so robust with only $7M this past week. Wednesday was $3.8M, however, yesterday only eased 3% for $3.7M getting the Peyton Reed directed sequel to a first week of $135M at 4,345 theaters.
20th Century Studio/Disney/Lightstorm’s Thursday for Avatar: The Way of Water was around half million, +2% for a tenth week of $9.7M at 2,675 and running total of $660.6M.
Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Oscar nominated animated feature Puss in Boots: The Last Wish saw an estimated $432K ninth Thursday, +3% and a week of $8.5M for a $169.3M running total.
The second Thursday of Warner Bros.’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance posted $405K, -3% from Wednesday for a second week of $7.6M and running total of $20.2M at 3,034 venues.
Paramount’s 80 for Brady, booked at 3,199 theaters, grossed $409K in fifth place on Thursday for a near $6M third week, $34.6M running total.