However, the biggest surprise is coming from Paramount’s alien drama Arrival starring Amy Adams which is now looking at an estimated $23.4M FSS after a $9.3M Friday. This is great news for Adams who chose Arrival over Nocturnal Animals as her awards season contender this year. Twenty-nine percent of those who arrived at the theater to watch Arrival came because of Adams. That’s a solid drew for a headliner. A few weeks ago, rival distribution executives were rubbing their chins over the prospects of this indie title directed by Denis Villeneuve. Paramount snapped it up at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for $20M (that includes China and domestic). Forecasts had it opening at $15M, with some projections even lower. For a film that also comes with an estimated $40M P&A spend per rivals, this is a very good start for Arrival, and the studio is hoping that its 94% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score carries the film to even greater multiples this holiday season. CinemaScore is a B, but given the older female appeal of this movie (48%), we could see a better than expected 2.9 multiple which typically comes with that grade. A majority of the audience at 85% was over 25. The 18-24 loved it the most with an A- CinemaScore, but they didn’t show up at 8%.
