BULLET TRAIN opening | EASTER SUNDAY opening | August 5 to 7, 2022 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: August 5 to 7, 2022
1) Bullet Train opening
- This is a solid opening for an action thriller. These are big movies and the weekend figure is roughly average, or just above average. This level of business has launched series in the past, but extending a story like this is difficult — there’s only so much that can happen on that train. Action movies play well overseas and Brad Pitt is going to ensure international success.
- This is the second high-profile action movie in recent weeks. Bullet Train and The Gray Man are both big productions with A+ casts. Bullet Train cost around $85m to make, and The Gray Man cost $200m. Bullet Train will be profitable when all ancillary money is counted. If The Gray Man had been released theatrically, it would have performed similarly to what we’re seeing for Bullet Train, and after distribution in all media, it would have finished in the red:
- Action films remain a strong genre — Top Gun just passed $1.325b worldwide and counting — but in the last 15 years, superheroes have eclipsed human-scale action as the most consistent type of tentpole. For Bullet Train and The Gray Man, this is average success for the action genre.
2) Easter Sunday opening
- This is a soft opening for an original comedy. Comedies have performed well this year. Dog and Jackass Forever (both inexpensive movies at around $15m and $10m, respectively), are each finishing with over $80m worldwide. But Easter Sunday’s reviews are unenthusiastic and the film is not getting broad traction:
- Next week we'll update our 2022 movie count and genre mix. Audiences have been doing everything they’ve been asked to do this summer, and business has been very good for all types of films. Now we're heading into a weak stretch of the release schedule and it's going to set business back until we get to October.