Oscar Isaac’s “The Promise” earned just $200,000 at the Thursday previews last night, with showings starting at 7 p.m.
Open Road Films is releasing “The Promise,” which stars Isaac as an Armenian medical student who falls into a love triangle with an American reporter (Christian Bale) and a beautiful dance instructor (Charlotte Le Bon) amidst the start of the Armenian Genocide in 1914.
Heading into the weekend, trackers had the film making $5 million from an estimated 2,000 screens this weekend. It currently has a rating of 46 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Comparably, Matthew McConaughey’s “Free State of Jones” took in 365,000 at the Thursday previews last year and ended up with a $7.5 million weekend. The film had a budget of an estimated $50 million, while “The Promise” was produced for a reported $100 million.
The Katherine Heigl-led thriller “Unforgettable” is also hitting theaters this weekend, and is expected to make $9-10 million from 2,300 screens, with WB projecting a little less at $7-8 million against a $12 million budget. Directed by Denise Di Novi, the film stars Heigl as Tessa, a woman fresh off a divorce who watches as her ex-husband (Geoff Stults) quickly become engaged to another woman named Julia (Rosario Dawson). Soon, Tessa’s jealousy drives her to violent madness, forcing Julia to fight for her new family.
Disney’s “Born in China,” a co-production between the House of Mouse and Shanghai Media Group (and the tenth nature documentary released by Disney through their Disneynature imprint), is projected to make $4-5 million from an estimated 1,500 screens — a range that many of Disney’s recent nature films have hit in their opening weekends. It’s directed by Lu Chuan and narrated by John Krasinski.
A24’s “Free Fire” is also opening this weekend; an action-comedy directed and written by Ben Wheatley. The film stars Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, and Cillian Murphy as a group of black market arms dealers who whip out their guns when a warehouse deal takes a very violent turn. Co-written by Amy Jump and produced by Andy Starke and Film4, the film is projected to make $3 million. It currently has an 80 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a screen count yet to be announced.
The big question this weekend is what “The Fate of the Furious” will earn in its second weekend at the box office. The movie starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Charlize Theron is coming off the biggest opening weekend in movie history, racking up $536 million worldwide with $98.8 million coming from domestic screens.