David Leitch’s Bullet Train easily topped the Friday chart with an opening day gross of $12.6 million, including $4.6 million in Thursday previews.
Brad Pitt leads a star-packed cast in this tale of an assassin roaming a high-speed Japanese bullet train. Other names on the marquee include Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock.
Sony, which has been waging an aggressive marketing campaign in hopes of whipping up interest, is eyeing a domestic debut in the $30 million range. Critics haven’t exactly embraced Bullet Train, which currently holds a 53 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences bestowed the film with a B+ CinemaScore.
Bullet Train is the last major studio offering of the summer, putting increased pressure on the movie’s performance. Generally, the summer box office season lasts until Labor Day, but delays due to the pandemic continue and studios are seeing some of their films delayed in postproduction.
The weekend’s other new offering is Jay Chandrasekhar’s comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy as a struggling actor and comedian who attends a raucous holiday meal with his Filipino family.
Easter Sunday is headed for a $5 million debut after earning $2 million on Friday, in line with expectations.
Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Tiffany Haddish and Lou Diamond Phillips star in the Universal film.