‘Red Sparrow’ Flies To $1.2M In Thursday Previews; ‘Black Panther’ Racing Toward $500M This Weekend

‘Red Sparrow’ Flies To $1.2M In Thursday Previews; ‘Black Panther’ Racing Toward $500M This Weekend

There’s no question about it whatsoever: Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther will own the top spot at the box office in its third weekend with a 3-day that’s well north of $60M, with a possible shot at $70M.

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Yesterday, T’Challa made $6.6M, -4% from Wednesday with a running domestic tally of $435.4M. The pic would need to clear $64.6M to hit the half billion mark in U.S./Canada by Sunday, and that’s not a ridiculous bar for the Marvel movie to clear.

With Oscars on Sunday, moviegoers will definitely make a point about seeing this year’s crop of best picture nominees specifically those still in theaters, read The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Post, Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird, and Phantom Thread. Even though Dunkirk and Get Out are out on DVD or in the case of the latter, running on HBO, they are still part of the best picture showcases that many exhibitors like Regal and AMC are running around the nation.

20th Century Fox/Chernin Entertainment’s Red Sparrow which is the reteam of Hunger Games: Catching Fire & Mockingjay star Jennifer Lawrence and director Francis Lawrence is playing at 3,056 theaters. Tracking has the movie in the mid-to-high teens with a possible shot at $20M+. Red Sparrow made $1.2M from 2,775 locations yesterday from showtimes starting at 7pm. The comp here is The Girl on the Train which also made $1.2M on its Thursday and finaled a $9.2M Friday and a $24.5M opening. Red Sparrow carries a net production cost of $69M. Also, Red Sparrow beats the Tuesday preview take of Lawrence’s Passengers which made $1.1M as well as her critically-acclaimed box office disaster mother! which earned $700K prior to its Friday opening. Passengers had a 5-day opening with $22.1M, $14.9M over three days. Red Sparrow is based on the 2013 Scribner novel by Jason Matthews.

MGM has their ’70s reboot Death Wish starring ’80s/’90s action star Bruce Willis in 2,847 and that $30M net budgeted pic hopes to land somewhere in the mid-teens, and an iffy $20M. The Eli Roth-directed pic also had 7pm Thursday previews and MGM will be reporting those soon.

Critics have been hard on both wide entries, pulling Red Sparrow‘s wings off at 52% rotten and choking Death Wish at 15% rotten.