The stylized action romp Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt, arrived with a $30.1 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, as the last big movie of Hollywood's summer recovery landed in theaters. The film's debut for Sony Pictures was solid but unspectacular for a movie that cost $90 million to make and was propelled by Pitt's star power, the AP reports. Even if it holds well in coming weeks, movie theaters have no major studio releases on the horizon for the rest of August, and few sure things to look forward to in early fall.
As one of the few original would-be summer blockbusters without big-name intellectual property behind it, the R-rated Bullet Train might have come into the weekend with more momentum if reviews had been stronger. With a low 54% fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Bullet Train was only slightly better received by audiences, which gave the film a B+ CinemaScore. The weekend's other new wide release, Easter Sunday, opened with just $5.3 million in ticket sales. The Universal Pictures comedy, starring comic Jo Koy as an actor attending his family's Easter Sunday celebration, won praise for its Filipino representation but drew even worse reviews than Bullet Train.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Bullet Train, $30.1 million.
- DC League of Super Pets, $11.2 million.
- Nope, $8.5 million.
- Thor: Love and Thunder, $7.6 million.
- Minions: The Rise of Gru, $7.1 million.
- Top Gun: Maverick, $7 million.
- Where the Crawdads Sing, $5.7 million.
- Easter Sunday, $5.3 million.
- Elvis, $4 million.
- The Black Phone, $1.5 million.
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