Thursday Night Previews: Christopher Robin’s $1.5 million Start is a Good Omen

August 3, 2018

Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin earned $1.5 million during its previews last night. There are not a lot of movies that are great matches for this movie, so it is hard to judge if this is a good start or not. This is almost exactly twice as large an opening as the $775,000 The BFG earned during its previews, so if this film earned the same legs, it would top our prediction by a few million dollars. I’ve seen some people compare it to Peter Rabbit, but that was a spring release. Another Pete, Pete’s Dragon, is a much better comparison, but it had no previews. Despite the lack of concrete data, I think this debut is on the high end of expectations and with good reviews, it should top $33 million over the weekend by a little bit. Anything more than $35 million would be a bit of a surprise.

The Spy Who Dumped Me managed $950,000 last night, which is more or less in line with expectations. I would have liked it to top $1 million during its previews. If the film has the same legs as Rough Night, then it will earn about $11 million over the weekend. Similar reviews, similar release dates, and similar target audiences make that likely. That said, it wouldn’t have to over-perform too much to match our $14 million prediction.

The Darkest Minds debuted with $550,000. Like Christopher Robin, there’s not many direct comparisons we can make. The best is probably The Giver, which earned $750,000 during its previews, but that movie opened in 2014 and that’s a long time ago when it comes to previews. I think our $8 million prediction is safe, but we will have to wait till tomorrow when the Friday estimates are released to have a clearer picture.

Death of a Nation held no previews.

- Christopher Robin Comparisons
- The Spy Who Dumped Me Comparisons
- The Darkest Minds Comparisons
- Death of a Nation Comparisons

Filed under: Midnight Previews, The Darkest Minds, Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Death of a Nation