Yahoo News ‘Rampage’ Could Climb To $40M, But Dwayne Johnson-Ape Pic Looks To Make More Bananas Abroad
After delivering Sony its largest movie of all-time at the domestic box office with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Dwayne Johnson reteams with his San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island director Brad Peyton and producer Beau Flynn’s Flynn Picture Company with the feature adaptation of the 1980s video game Rampage from New Line/Warner Bros. which tracking has landing between the mid $30Ms to $40M range for or a No. 1 take at 4,100-plus sites.
Rampage follows primatologist Davis (Johnson) who soon learns that the intelligent silverback gorilla George in his care has gone crazy and grown large. Turns out there are other animals who are experiencing the same symptoms and start trampling on cities. George faces off against them.
Rampage will push Paramount’s horror surprise A Quiet Place to second place with a second weekend of $32.5M-$35M, which on the high-end will propel the John Krasinski-Emily Blunt title past the century mark stateside.
The last time Johnson and Peyton worked together was the 2015 disaster earthquake pic San Andreas, and that was a nice summer bump with a $54.5M opening, $155.1M domestic take and $473.9M worldwide. Off a $110M production cost, San Andreas churned an estimated profit of $88.1M. We’re hearing that the estimated cost before P&A for Rampage is between $115M and $120M and non-WB finance sources tell us that if Rampage can do a similar type of global business with foreign carrying a slightly heavier load than San Andreas, all should be fine with the gorilla pic. China repped 32% of San Andreas’ overseas $318.8M B.O. Rampage launches in 61 international markets this weekend, day-and-date everywhere including China with the exception of France, Germany, and Japan, which all open in May. Previews start Thursday night at 7PM with Rampage playing in all formats 3D, Imax, and 4DX. Rampage has a 52% Rotten Tomatoes Score which is close to San Andreas’ 50%.
Universal will settle down with third and fourth place titles respectively with Blumhouse’s PG-13 Truth or Dare which is expected to land in the mid-teens and Kay Cannon’s Blockers which is looking at $12M-$14M in weekend two. Through yesterday, Blockers counts $24M through four-days.
Truth or Dare is currently trending strongly with young females. Despite opening on Friday the 13th tomorrow, it’s quite conceivable that A Quiet Place will whittle away the genre crowd from Truth or Dare. Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey star in this thriller about a “Truth or Dare” game that goes sideways when something begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.
There is also Fun Academy Motion Pictures’ animated film Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero which is scheduled to go wide and which tracking has a $2M start. The Richard Lanni-directed pic follows a stray dog who is adopted by a solider during WWI. Helena Bonham Carter, Logan Lerman, and Gerard Depardieu lent their voices.
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