‘Twisters’ opens with $7 million in previews

Universal

EXCLUSIVE: Tornadoes, Amblin’s reboot of the 1996 feature film co-written by Michael Crichton is off to a strong start with around $7 million as a preview of the money from last night’s two Imax/PLF screenings and the previews that began today at 5pm for Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar Jones’ film.

The reviews and audience response are excellent, with a 78% certified fresh rating and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. That’s better than the original film, which received mediocre scores of 67% from critics and 58% from audiences. Projections were for a $50 million+ opening, but since this movie is doing well in the heartland, it wouldn’t be shocking to see it hit $60 million.

That Wednesday-Thursday preview figure, if sustained through tomorrow morning, would be higher than the $6.6 million in Wednesday/Thursday preview sales reported by 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes earlier this summer, which opened to $22.1 million on Friday and $58.4 million over 3 days. The difference here in outperformance? Monkeys There was no Powell idol.

RelishMix measured a universe of social media for Tornadoes of 341 million followers across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram combined, 3% more than the action-adventure photo competitors. The social media champions are stars Anthony Ramos with 2.5 million, Edgar-Jones with 1.9 million and Powell with 1.8 million followers.

Warner has already invested in the sequel (the studio first handled the 1996 title in the U.S., while Uni handled the title overseas). Through Monday, the Lee Isaac Chung-directed title has grossed nearly $13 million in 38 markets. Another 38 are opening this week, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and China. Overseas grosses are expected to climb to more than $45 million.

Among the best openings for environmental disaster films in the United States is probably Roland Emmerich’s 2004 film. After tomorrow with a budget of $68.7 million over 3 days and its 2009 set 2012 which debuted at $65.2 million.

The US estimates tonight are industry estimates, not Universal’s.