“Quiet Place” on opening day of record, “Horizon” starts slowly

Paramount/Everett Collection | Disney/Everett Collection | Warner Bros./Everett Collection

Faced with two new films released in theaters, Pixar’s Vice-Versa 2 once again seeks to dominate the American box office. The Disney film grossed another $17.1 million on Friday, down 43% from the $30.5 million it took in a week ago. Any film that grosses more than $53 million in three days would put it among the top ten third-weekend grosses in U.S. box office history. It looks set to finish somewhere between seventh and tenth, with that range currently occupied by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($59.9 million), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($56 million), “The Avengers” ($55.6 million) and “Jurassic World” ($54.5 million).

The North American total for “Inside Out 2” is expected to exceed $468 million through Sunday. The global billion-dollar milestone is fast approaching; it will be the first of the calendar year and the first since “Barbie”.

French “A Quiet Place: Day One” should probably place second, but it outperforms its competitors and will come closer than expected to “Vice-Versa 2”. The Paramount release raked in $22.5 million from 3,708 theaters on Friday and previews, putting it above the single-day gross of director John Krasinski’s 2021 sequel (19, $3 million), making it the biggest opening day ever for the horror series. Projections for the opening weekend total are now $53 million, which would be higher than the original 2018 franchise record of $50.2 million. The film is benefiting from increased ticket sales from being the main attraction in Imax and premium large format auditoriums.

The production budget for “Day One” is $67 million. As with the first two parts of “Without a Sound”, this one was also very well received by critics and aroused keen interest among the first ticket buyers (a grade of B+ from Cinema Score, which is not bad for an outing in a horror film, which generally gets a lower rating). This release weekend is a good deal price-wise for the film and there is good feedback for the film to remain in theaters for the coming weeks. Michael Sarnoski is directing the prequel set in the Big Apple, with Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff and Djimon Hounsou in the lead roles.

Meanwhile, the quietest place is on the Western front. Kevin Costner’s hopeful franchise “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One” is failing to live up to its opening weekend billing. The epic Western earned $4.1 million from 3,334 locations during Friday’s screenings and previews. That puts it on track to land in the forecast for a three-day opening in the teens — good for bronze on the domestic charts.

That’s no small feat for an original adult drama these days. But the first chapter of “Horizon” was designed to be a blockbuster, with a production cost of $100 million, $38 million of which was financed by Costner himself, the film’s director, star and co-writer has said bluntly. Add to that $30 million in advertising and publicity expenses, also financed by Costner and mysterious investors. Warner Bros. is distributing the film but is not assuming any production or marketing costs, except for some development costs incurred by New Line.

More than three decades ago, reports gave the upcoming release of Costner’s directorial debut, “Dances with Wolves,” the humorous nickname “Kevin’s Gate,” calling the Western a brewing disaster on par with Michael Cimino’s infamous flop, “Heaven’s Gate.” Like “Horizon,” Costner also invested millions of his own money in “Wolves.” But he then proved the naysayers wrong, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1991 and winning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

But Horizon’s box office prospects have been clouded for some time, and not just because of its high price tag. The film was largely underwhelmed by critics after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. But now, more worryingly, Costner’s target audience doesn’t seem particularly enamored with the film either. Horizon earned a B- grade on Cinema Score, a worrying sign that the Western isn’t generating the buzz it needs to succeed at the box office. Older audiences don’t typically flock to the box office on opening weekend, and the upcoming Fourth of July holiday could end up lifting things a bit, but Horizon really could have benefited from a bigger hit than that. And with Warner Bros.’ Chapter 2 hitting theaters in just seven weeks, the production’s overall success is likely to be down.

In fourth place, Sony and Columbia’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” took in another $2.835 million on Friday. The Will Smith-Martin Lawrence action sequel is expected to add $10.2 million in its fourth weekend, which would mark another strong hold with a 46% drop. The total domestic gross will reach $165.1 million by the end of the weekend. The action sequel is now quickly catching up to Disney’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($166 million) and is expected to soon surpass it to become the fifth highest-grossing North American release of the year.

Fifth place goes to Telugu-language sci-fi epic “Kalki 2898 AD,” which earned $1.9 million on Friday from 1,234 theaters per contestant. The Nag Ashwin-directed feature, which stars Indian stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Prabhas in dual roles, is aiming for $6.2 million over the three days. It earned $5.5 million in previews.