Paramount‘s prequel A Quiet Place: Day One is heading to a franchise record preview night between $5M-$6M, several sources inform us. Showtimes began at 3PM.
Tonight’s figure easily ranks ahead of the $4.3M made by the first movie in 2018, and the $4.8M made by Quiet Place: Part II on its Thursday heading into Memorial Day weekend 2021 when summer kicked off for recently reopened theaters. Those two movies were directed by John Krasinski, while the prequel is helmed and written by Pig director Michael Sarnoski. The prequel tells the story about how the ferocious aliens with the highly sensitive ears landed on Earth in NYC. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou star. Reviews are great at 86% certified fresh, though are the lowest of the franchise to date after chapter one (96%) and chapter 2 (91%). CinemaScore comes out tomorrow, but A Quiet Place earned a B+, while Part II landed an A-.
Tracking had this prequel at $40M+ for the weekend, and given that it’s a genre film, it can be frontloaded. The first movie’s previews repped 23% of its $18.8M Friday heading to a $50.2M 3-day weekend, while the second installment’s previews repped 25% of its first Friday of $19.3M for a 3-day of $47.5M, 4-day of $57M over Memorial Day weekend. Too soon to tell if there’s a ‘5’ in front of Day One‘s opening. The Platinum Dunes production is rated PG-13. Paramount held the New York premiere last night at AMC Lincoln Center.
At this point in time, we’re hearing around $1M-$1.5M for Kevin Costner’s three-hour pricey epic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. At that level, it could get the New Line theatrical release, which is a distribution deal, to $12M. Realize this older skewing title is a slowburn, not a one shot, opening weekend film. Best to assess this movie’s success in its first ten days as many take a summer break this week. Critical reviews stand at 41% on Rotten Tomatoes which isn’t as bad as Costner’s The Postman at 14%, though near Waterworld‘s 47% Rotten (which he produced), but under his 2003 film Open Range (79% certified fresh), and his multi-Oscar winner Dances With Wolves (87% certified fresh). Of his westerns, Open Range opened to the highest at $14M, was released by Disney, and ended its run at $58.3M.
As expected, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 will rule the weekend with $55M-$60M. The pic crossed $400M in its 13th day of release on Wednesday. That figure is pacing 2% ahead of Barbie which stood at $394.4M at the same point and time and finaled at $636.2M. The Kelsey Mann directed sequel will click past the $1 billion global mark this weekend, becoming the 54th title to reach that feat.