Facts3 Apr 2021 18:25
In even more optimistic news, the $165 million flick earned $11.6 million on Friday in North America, a 73% jump from Thursday’s $6.7 million gross and 21% higher than the $9.6 million opening day. I was frankly expecting real frontloading as the devoted fans (and theatrical die hards) flocked to theaters on opening night while the rest watched the film on HBO Max. That clearly didn’t happen which is warming my cynical heart. The film has earned $27.9 million in three days, already bigger than any Fri-Sun weekend (Tom & Jerry’s $14.11 million). At a glance, we’re likely looking at a $32 million Fri-Sun frame, $48 million Wed-Sun holiday weekend and a $52 million Wed-Mon launch.
Considering pre-release forecasts were hoping for a $30 million-plus Wed-Mon launch, this is beyond impressive. It will be, by Monday, the third-biggest Covid-era grosser behind only The Croods: A New Age ($56 million) and Tenet ($58 million). What’s most impressive is that it is legging over the long weekend like a normal release. A $52 million Wed-Mon gross would 5.4 times the Wednesday gross, which is indeed relatively “normal” for long Easter weekend releases. It’s about on par with the 5.92x Wed-Mon multiplier for Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla ($74 million/$12.5 million) in 1998. Yes, these are smaller numbers (not even counting inflation), but theaters are still dealing with capacity limitations, closures in much of Canada and all the expected Covid-era challenge