There’s one major studio wide entry this weekend, Amazon MGM Studios‘ $60M dystopian future thriller, Mercy starring Chris Pratt, and while it did $1.5M in previews in yesterday, the entire 3-day outlook could be impacted by the looming winter storm that’s hitting Texas to New England. Currently, the Timur Bekmambetov directed movie which also stars Rebecca Ferguson is looking at $12M-$15M domestic for a No. 1 win against the sixth weekend of 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire and Ash which is eying a 50% decline around $7M as it’s losing the Imax and PLFs to Mercy.
Those preview figures for Mercy are higher than Greenland 2: Migration‘s previews of $900K, and Jason Statham’s A Working Man which did $1.1M.
The Marco van Belle screenplay follows a detective who stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.
Mercy has an 83% offshore footprint this weekend, which began Wednesday in Belgium and Indonesia, with Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and the Middle East opening yesterday. Today brings UK, Spain, Japan and China. Overall, with overall 80 territories. Comps here for the Pratt movie are on par with other meat and potatoes action movies, i.e. A Working Man and Gerard Butler’s Den of Thieves: Pantera. A Working Man opened to $15.5M domestic, finaled at $37M stateside and $89.2M global off 47% Rotten Tomatoes critics and 87% audiences. Word from sources is that the No. 2 global ranking pic is between Zootopia 2 and Mercy. These meat and potatoes action movies tend to excel in Germany, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, Spain and Mexico.
Also wide is Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill, which is looking at low to mid single digits at 1,830 theaters. Critics aren’t fans of either Mercy at 23% or Return to Silent Hill at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Christopher Gans directed movie follows a man, who receives a mysterious letter from his lost love. He’s drawn to Silent Hill, a once familiar town now consumed by darkness. Pic is loosely based on the 2001 Konami video game Silent Hill 2 and it’s the third installment in the Silent Hill film series. Sony opened the original Silent Hill to $20.1M in 2006. Open Road had the 2012 sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation, which debuted to $8M.
Focus Features Hament in the wake of eight Oscar nominations is jumping from 718 theaters to 1,983. The Chloe Zhao directed period pic is up to $15.6M domestic, and well north of $13M abroad. Sources are expecting this Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal movie to take off at the global box office.
This weekend’s potentially historic storm in the U.S. is ramping up today in areas including Dallas and Oklahoma City. It’s expected to expand eastward by Saturday morning, with ice and freezing rain hitting Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. By later Saturday and into Sunday, the storm is forecast to affect the Mid-Atlantic states and hit the Northeast hard on Sunday afternoon and evening. Some 8-18 inches of snow is expected in such major metropolitan areas as New York City, Boston, St. Louis, Columbus, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, in Park City, UT where the Sundance Film Festival is in the town’s final swing, the mountains are completely dry.