‘First Man’ is good for ... third
“Venom” and “A Star Is Born” lead box office.
LOS ANGELES – The Neil Armstrong film “First Man” settled for a third-place landing at the crowded box office in its opening weekend in theaters.
The biopic, starring Ryan Gosling, couldn’t unseat last weekend’s top two films, “Venom” and “A Star Is Born,” which again took first and second place.
“First Man” took flight over the weekend with everything to its advantage: prestige, good reviews (88 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes), a movie star (Gosling) and an Oscar-winning director (Damien Chazelle).
Studios estimated Sunday that “First Man” earned $16.5 million in North American ticket sales and $25 million worldwide. That was not exactly an eyepopping number for a space epic that cost nearly $60 million to produce.
“I never expected ‘First Man’ to have an opening weekend trajectory that was off the charts,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for tracker comScore. “This is a film that’s going to keep rolling along.”
Tom Hardy’s comic-book film “Venom,” meanwhile, continues to belie poor reviews in its second weekend. The film added $35.7 million to repeat at No. 1. It has earned $142.8 million domestically.
Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” rode a wave of goodwill and awards discussion into its second weekend, adding
$28 million. With a domestic total of
$94.2 million, the remake starring Cooper and Lady Gaga will sail past
$100 million in no time.
Fourth place went to family-friendly “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween,” which took in $16.2 million. The animated Yeti movie “Smallfoot” was fifth with
$9.3 million in its second weekend. “Bad Times At The El Royale,” with Chris Hemsworth, Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm and Dakota Johnson, opened in seventh place with $7.2 million.
“The Hate U Give,” about the police shooting of a black teen, cracked the top
10 playing in only 248 locations, placing ninth with $1.8 million. And Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell’s addiction drama “Beautiful Boy” opened on four screens to $221,437 for a per-screen average of more than $55,000.
Final figures are expected Monday.