“Evil Dead Rise” might not be able to vanquish the soon-to-three-peat box office champion “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” but the horror entry is still chainsawing off its own solid opening on domestic charts.
The Warner Bros. release earned $10.3 million from 3,402 locations on Friday, a figure that includes $2.5 million in previews. The horror entry now has a strong chance of outperforming its projections, which had pegged the film with a $15 million to $20 million debut heading into the weekend. That’s not too shabby for a production originally slated to release directly on HBO Max. Even more impressively, “Rise” is contending with two horror releases from last week, “Renfield” and “The Pope’s Exorcist.”
“Evil Dead Rise” is the fifth installment in Warner Bros. and New Line’s outlandish horror franchise, as well as the first in 10 years. “Rise” is tracking slightly behind its predecessor, which scored an $11.8 million opening day, on its way to a $25.7 million debut in April 2013.
However, “Rise” will have a word-of-mouth edge over its predecessor. Audiences are being receptive enough, as indicated by the film’s “B” grade through research firm Cinema Score — not too low for a horror entry, plus a few ticks higher than the “C+” earned by 2013’s entry. It’s received favorable reviews too, currently sitting at 72% approval from top critics on aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. In his PvNew review, Joe Leydon called it “potently claustrophobic and gasp-inducingly shocking.”
Ever since Sam Raimi’s low-budget 1981 original, the “Evil Dead” series has had a reputation for resourcefulness. “Rise” carries a reported production budget of $19 million, a figure that the film looks to recoup by the end of the weekend. The horror entry still looks to cover additional marketing and distribution costs, but it’s off to a very auspicious start.
Directed by Lee Cronin, “Evil Dead Rise” stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as estranged sisters who contend with a new crop of demons. The film’s cast also includes Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols and Nell Fisher.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is still the reigning box office champion, now in its third weekend of release. The Universal, Illumination and Nintendo co-production drew $14 million in coinage on Friday, down a slim 38% from a week ago. The animated adventure will surpass a $400 million domestic gross on Saturday. By the end of the weekend, it will rank as the third-highest grossing domestic release ever from Universal, behind only “Jurassic World” ($653 million) and “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” ($437.1 million).
“Mario Bros.” has shown some superlative staying power at the box office. If projections for a $58 million weekend hold out, that would notch the highest-ever third domestic weekend for an animated release, powering up ahead of “Incredibles 2” ($46.4 million). The global total will surpass $850 million through Sunday, storming ahead to the coveted $1 billion milestone.
Also opening this weekend, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is releasing “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.” The war thriller earned $2.25 million from 2,611 theaters on Friday, in line with tracking heading into the weekend. Though MGM is now owned by Amazon, Amazon Studios doesn’t have a hand in distribution.
When the project was commissioned by the now-defunct STX Entertainment, reports indicated that the film would carry a $55 million production budget. MGM acquired the thriller from the embattled label for an undisclosed figure. The film has a stellar “A” Cinema Score grade and solid reviews, both of which it will look to spur some staying power moving forward.
Directed by — you guessed it — Guy Ritchie, “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier returning to Afghanistan to save his interpreter (Dar Salim).
“John Wick: Chapter 4” looks to take fourth place, projecting $5.3 million in its fifth weekend. The Keanu Reeves action epic from Lionsgate should expand its domestic gross to $168 million through Sunday, honing in on surpassing the $171 million domestic gross earned by its predecessor, 2019’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.” “Chapter 4” already ranks as the highest-grossing “Wick” entry worldwide.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s sports world drama “Air” and Paramount’s fantasy epic “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” are in close competition to round out the top five. Both films are projecting roughly $5.4 million for the weekend.
Directed by Ben Affleck, “Air” is putting up another solid hold, dropping a slim 31% in its third weekend of release. It’ll surpass a $40 million domestic tally through Sunday — a good result these days for a talky drama with a starry ensemble, though the film has little hope of recouping the $130 million that Amazon Studios reportedly shelled out for the production. The company will look to find a large fraction of the film’s value in its streaming release.
From Paramount and Entertainment One, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” should expand its domestic gross to $82 million through the weekend. Those numbers aren’t small potatoes, though it’s still far below the hopes for a supposed franchise starter with a $150 million production budget.
Expanding this weekend, A24 is bringing Ari Aster’s picaresque epic “Beau Is Afraid” to 962 theaters. The film marks the independent studio’s most expensive film to date, with a $35 million production budget. Industry estimates show “Beau” earned roughly $1.1 million on Friday.
