With its opening day total of $12.6 million, including $4.6 million from Thursday previews, David Leitch’s Bullet Train comfortably topped the Friday list.
This story of an assassin cruising a fast Japanese bullet train has a star-studded ensemble, with Brad Pitt taking the lead. Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, and Sandra Bullock are some of the other stars listed on the marquee.
Sony is aiming for a domestic debut in the $30 million area while conducting an intensive marketing campaign in an effort to generate interest. Bullet Train now has a 53 percent critics’ approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so reviewers haven’t exactly embraced it. A B+ CinemaScore was given to the movie by viewers.
Since Bullet Train is a major studio’s final summer release, its success is more closely watched. The summer box office season typically lasts through Labor Day, but pandemic-related delays are continuing, and studios are experiencing postproduction delays with some of their films.
Easter Sunday, a comedy directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and starring Jo Koy as a failing comic and actor who joins his Filipino family for a boisterous holiday feast, is the other new release for the weekend.
After taking in an expected $2 million on Friday, Easter Sunday is expected to open to $5 million.
The Universal movie stars Lou Diamond Phillips, Tiffany Haddish, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, and Jimmy O. Yang.
