Warner Bros./Apple’s “F1” is picking up speed with strong word-of-mouth this weekend, heading for a $58 million opening weekend from 3,661 theaters while Universal/Blumhouse’s “M3GAN 2.0” is earning less than half of its 2023 predecessor with an estimated opening of just $10 million.
“F1” was projected before the weekend for a domestic opening of around $50 million, though some exhibitors told TheWrap they were optimistic for a start closer to $60 million. Produced and marketed by Apple Original Films with Warner handling distribution, “F1” carries a net budget of at least $200 million, but will be enjoying very strong overseas numbers thanks to the global appeal of Formula One, earning $39.5 million and counting through Friday.
“F1” is also enjoying very strong audience reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 83% critics and 97% audience along with an A on CinemaScore from opening night moviegoers thrilled by the film’s exciting race scenes shot during actual Formula One race weekends. That word-of-mouth should help “F1” hold strong against “Jurassic World: Rebirth” during Fourth of July weekend along with continued Imax support.
The outlook is far less rosy for “M3GAN 2.0,” which is currently at risk of opening fourth this weekend behind the third weekend of fellow Universal release “How to Train Your Dragon” and the second weekend of Disney/Pixar’s “Elio.” Its estimated $10 million start is just a third of the $30.4 million domestic opening of the first “M3GAN” in January 2023 and marks the eighth straight Blumhouse release to open to less than $12 million.
With a $25 million budget, “M3GAN 2.0” can still get out of the red, but it won’t be the big hit sequel Universal and Blumhouse were hoping for when it brought back what now stands as the latter’s last big original horror hit in theaters.
With a big pivot from horror to action comedy, many moviegoers aren’t coming back for more of the sassy killer doll, though the one positive spot is that audience reception is rather positive with a B+ on CinemaScore and an 84% RT audience score.
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