Here’s the good news for Amazon/MGM’s “Red One,” it exceeded the low expectations and managed to snag up $34M over the weekend, in over 4000 theaters. That’s almost $10M more than Thursday estimates hinted at. The bad news is that it cost $250M to produce.
Part of the boost might have to do with audiences genuinely liking “Red One”; Despite getting panned by critics, the film earned an A- CinemaScore and 78% positive on PostTrak. On IMDb it has a respectable 6.9/10 (23k votes).
Now we wait until next weekend, which is when “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” come out to potentially save the holiday movie season. “Red One” will likely have a significant drop in numbers because of the competition, but it could still stick around throughout the holidays and have some legs behind it.