Everyone can go out to the movies this weekend and find something different. If you want a horror film, Resident Evil is still rolling strong. If you want an intense drama, Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime premieres this weekend. If you want a survival film that’s a heartstring-puller, Brad Pitt’s Heart of the Beast also opens this weekend. If you want a family-friendly animated comedy film, DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island also opens. And if you want to revisit the ultimate Marvel team-up film, Avengers: Endgame: Encore arrives to prepare you for Doomsday this December.
With such a stacked weekend with ample competition, Deadline is reporting that Resident Evil, Avengers: Endgame: Encore and Primetime are in a triple threat match for the number one spot. However, Avengers is looking at somewhere over $3 million in early Thursday previews, while Primetime is not far behind in the $2 million to $3 million range. Primetime‘s R-rating and subject matter will prove to be an obstacle of matching Avengers dollar-for-dollar, but Robert Pattinson is on a roll this year with a movie coming out in every quarter. Avengers also slightly gets its wings clipped as it shares premium theaters with Resident Evil this weekend.
Globally, Avengers is projected to start off with $25 million in what could ultimately be a $50 million weekend. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt’s star power may not be enough to give real competition this time, as Heart of the Beast started the early weekend with an estimated $1.8 million, which also includes the Monday Mystery screenings. Forgotten Island would’ve likely done better on a less busy weekend, but it was unfortunate to open across other hyped films and is estimated to have started off in Thursday previews with around $800K to $1 million. Meanwhile, Resident Evil‘s cume through Wednesday has totaled $76.8 million.
Of the new releases, Heart of the Beast and Forgotten Island got some solid marks here at JoBlo, but unfortunately, our Chris Bumbray found Primetime to be rather 2-dimensional despite the talent involved. Our EIC said in his 5/10 review, “I do wonder if Primetime would have been better had Hansen simply been used as inspiration rather than as the actual subject. At its worst, Primetime never — for a second — feels like it can offer any real insight into the phenomenon that was To Catch a Predator. It’s stylish and entertaining, but it also feels like a two-dimensional look at subject matter that demands to be taken seriously. In short, the satirical approach leads to it being a bit of a misfire.”