After adding $12.3 million from 4,275 theaters on Sunday, Sony/Columbia’s “Uncharted” is set to take a $51 million extended opening at the box office on this Presidents Day weekend, a solid start for this $120 million blockbuster considering the lingering effects of the pandemic on movie theaters.
Despite weak reviews, “Uncharted” got strong numbers with audiences with a B+ on CinemaScore and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with special praise placed on Tom Holland in his first major blockbuster performance outside of the “Spider-Man” films.
As with other hit films in the past year, the stronger-than-expected numbers were driven by younger, male audiences. Demographics data from Sony reports that 63% of opening weekend audiences were male, with 45% under the age of 25. Premium formats also played a factor with 36% of tickets sold being screenings on Imax and other premium screens.
“Uncharted” will now try to turn the positive word of mouth with young audiences into a solid second weekend hold before Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” draws away much of that core demo on the first weekend of March. So far, the film has grossed an estimated $139 million through Monday.
Also opening on this holiday weekend was MGM/FilmNation’s “Dog,” a much cheaper film than “Uncharted” which opened to an $18 million 4-day weekend against a reported $15 million production budget.
Sources at MGM/United Artists report that the film performed particularly well in the central and midwest United States, with cities like Des Moines and Houston among the top performing markets. The film also skewed older and female with 54% of the audience being women and 53% over the age of 35, suggesting that there may be some support for films appealing to older moviegoers that are at a certain budget level.
Overall, industry estimates project grosses for the four-day weekend to finish at around $111 million, which would be down 27% from Presidents Day 2019. So far this year, domestic box office revenue has only reached approximately $650 million, roughly half of what was earned in the first two months of 2019.
While “The Batman” will help boost those numbers, the only other major studio release coming next month is Paramount’s romantic comedy “The Lost City” after Disney pulled the Pixar film “Turning Red” from theaters in favor of a release on Disney+.