A ‘Magnif icent’ debut weekend
Remake of the 1960 western finishes No. 1 with $35 million to its rival’s $22.1 million.
A remake of the 1960 western finishes atop the box office.
Shooting past all competition, MGM and Sony’s “The Magnificent Seven” took over the weekend box office, surpassing the new animated “Storks” from Warner Bros.
The remake of John Sturges’ classic 1960 western starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke pulled in an estimated $35 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, meeting analyst expectations of $30 million to $45 million.
“It is ‘magnificent.’ It’s excellent, a film, from its inception, that we all felt very strongly had all the goods to succeed,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s distribution chief. “And it delivered.”
The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, revolves around a squad of seven gunslingers hired by a woman to defend her town from bandits led by a robber baron.
The western arrives nearly six decades after the Sturges movie, which was itself a redo of Akira Kurosawa’s classic “The Seven Samurai.”
Though remakes and sequels seem to be this year’s kryptonite, with the failure of many high-profile pictures including “Zoolander 2” and “Ghostbusters,” “The Magnificent Seven” showed box-office muscle. This, Bruer said, is because of Fuqua’s understanding of today’s audience.
“I think Antoine knows how to speak to the moviegoing audience and went into this knowing that it needed to be relevant to make it succeed,” he said. “And he was absolutely committed and dedicated to making a film that could stand on its own and be respectful of the other films.”
The film’s diverse cast likely helped with that relevance.
Costing nearly $90 million, “The Magnificent Seven” drew both young audiences, thanks to Pratt and Washington, as well as fans of the original. Collectively, they gave the film an A-minus on CinemaScore. Critics were also positive, for the most part, with 63% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes praising the movie.
The PG-13 picture was cofinanced with partners LStar Capital and Village Roadshow Pictures.
Flying into second place was “Storks” with an estimated $21.8 million. The film performed well below analyst projections of $30 million to $37 million in ticket sales but opened in 33 international markets this past weekend, generating an estimated $18.3 million.
“We’re extremely proud of how the movie turned out,” said Jeff Goldstein, the studio’s distribution chief. Having plenty of “running room” ahead with no direct competition, he said the “story [of the film] is going to be written in six weeks.”
“Storks,” about a gaggle of the feathered creatures delivering babies, features the voices of Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, among others. Written by Nicholas Stoller (“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”), “Storks” is the second film to be released by Warner Bros. since the studio revved up its animation business three years ago. The first, 2014’s “The Lego Movie,” became a box-office smash.
The third film, Goldstein said, will be 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie.”
“Storks,” which cost an estimated $70 million — a relatively modest amount for an animated film — scored with the under-25 crowd, which gave the comedy an A-plus CinemaScore grade.
Overall, the picture was deemed an A-minus. Response from critics was slightly less enthusiastic, with 63% of Rotten Tomatoes critics favoring the film.
Warner Bros.’ “Sully” about the 2009 real-life emergency landing of a U.S. Airways passenger jet on the Hudson River, wound up in third place after holding the top spot since its debut two weeks ago. Adding $13.8 million more, the film, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood, has grossed $92.4 million domestically.
“Bridget Jones’s Baby,” from Universal Pictures,” took fourth in its second week — perhaps because many in its target audiences took their kids to see “Storks.” The third film in the “Bridget Jones” series added just $4.52 million for a domestic gross of $16.5 million. Its worldwide take, however, sits at $83.6 million.
Landing at the bottom of the top five was “Snowden,” adding an additional $4.1 million for a domestic gross of $15.1 million in its second week.
The Oliver Stone-directed picture, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, cost $50 million to produce and is being distributed by Open Road Films.
On the limited release front, Disney’s feel-good film “Queen of Katwe” starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, pulled in $305,000 from 52 locations.
The film, which will expand domestically next week, is a biopic of a Ugandan chess prodigy. With an A-plus CinemaScore, a formidable 90% of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated the movie, directed by Mira Nair, positively.
The 1950s-set melodrama “The Dressmaker,” starring Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth, pulled in $180,522 from 36 screens. The Broad Green Pictures’ flick received a 54% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Next weekend’s new released include Fox’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” Lionsgate’s “Deepwater Horizon” and Relativity’s “Masterminds.”