The Weinstein Company’s “Burnt,” featuring Bradley Cooper as a bad boy chef who’s lost his creative drive, cooked up $250,000 at the Thursday night previews. John Wells‘ $20 million comedy-drama is expected to gross up to about $8 million from 2,500 theaters.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s teen horror comedy “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” made $140,000, and is on its way toward a $2 million to $4 million opening weekend.
However, both films, as well as other wide newcomer “Our Brand is Crisis,” are expected to open behind holdovers “The Martian” and “Goosebumps.” None of the opening films are expected to top $10 million, Fox’s sci-fi saga with Matt Damon and Sony’s R.L. Stine adaptation starring Jack Black are left to fight it out for No. 1, with “Hotel Transylvania 2” and Tom Hanks‘ “Bridge of Spies” just behind the leaders.
“Scouts Guide” will open in limited theaters this weekend, similar to last week’s “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension,” where the studio decided to limit the exclusive theatrical runs for an earlier VOD-release experiment. Because of this, last week’s series finale was the lowest-grossing of the six-film horror series.
“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” is following the same model, and is only opening in 1,500 theaters. The film cost $15 million to produce. On Thursday, the film showed at 690 locations.
Directed by Christopher Landon, it stars Tye Sheridan, David Koechner, Cloris Leachman, Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Sarah Dumont and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
The horror follows three scouts and lifelong friends who join forces with a cocktail waitress to fight against a zombie invasion — using their scouting skills, of course.
The film is produced by Todd Garner and Andy Fickman, with executive producers Samson Mucke and Bryan Brucks. It currently holds a meager score of 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
John Well’s R-rated film, “Burnt,” is the third feature he has directed for The Weinstein Company, and currently racks up a 28 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sandra Bullock‘s “Our Brand is Crisis” is predicted to bring in $6 million for Warner Bros. The film is opening in 2,200 theaters this Friday, and is about the American political campaign marketing tactics used by Greenberg Carville Shrum in the 2002 Bolivian presidential election.
Billy Bob Thornton and Anthony Mackie co-star in the film directed by David Gordon Green, known for the pot comedies “Pineapple Express” and “Your Highness.” The film, based on a true story and drawn from a 2005 documentary film of same name by Rachel Boynton, is at 32 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
George Clooney and Grant Heslov‘s Smokehouse Productions’ film had a whopping budget of $28 million.