The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
to comScore.
The film’s success didn’t appear to hurt the handful of new releases.
Faring the best was “Game Night,” starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, from Warner Bros.’ New Line. The comedy, which cost about $37 million to make and was directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, debuted with $16.6 million, coming in slightly above forecasts.
Though comedies have struggled at the box office in recent years, “Game Night” got a modest boost from good reviews and perhaps from the waves of moviegoers brought in by “Black Panther.”
“It’s that whole ‘a rising tide floats all boats,’ ” said Jeff Goldstein, distribution head for Warner Bros.
“The whole (comedy) genre is just really troubled,” he added. “New Line is, I think, particularly good at teasing these movies out to be the best versions of them. They’ve had a lot of success in the past, whether it be ‘Horrible Bosses’ or ‘Central Intelligence.’ ”
Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller “Annihilation,” starring Natalie Portman, also debuted with some momentum thanks to strong reviews. It opened with $11 million on about 2,000 screens (or about half the number of “Black Panther”).
Paramount earlier sold the film’s international rights (except in China) to Netflix after disappointing reactions in test screenings. Opening weekend audiences largely responded similarly, giving the film a poor C CinemaScore.