Hurricane Matthew, despite closing an estimated 125 theaters along the southeast coast, isn’t throwing the box office too far off its projected course. At this minute, we hear a majority of those cinemas, which were located in Florida, are expected to be back in business today.
DreamWorks’ The Girl on the Train is expected to open to $26.7M at 3,144 venues after a $9.4M Friday; a very good start.
But it’s Fox Searchlight’s The Birth of a Nation which is suffering a low FSS of $7.8M in sixth place. Many tell Deadline that the pic is truly being hindered at the turnstiles by the media maelstrom over the rape accusations against its filmmakers, director/star Nate Parker and co-writer Jean Celestin.
The true win here is for leading star Emily Blunt, whose image this feature property was sold on. She’s opening this film on her own, without being co-billed with a leading male star (or female for that matter). It will smoke Blunt’s previous notable openings, i.e. The Adjustment Bureau (co-billed with Matt Damon, $21.7M), Looper (co-billed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, $20.8M), and The Huntsman: Winter’s War (co-billed with Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, $19.4M). A decent packaging of star with property.
