Box Office: ‘Angel Has Fallen’ Flies to $1.5 Million on Thursday Night
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Action movie “Angel Has Fallen” has soared to $1.5 million at 2,600 North American locations in Thursday night previews.
Christian drama “Overcomer” took in $775,000 during Thursday night previews at 1,563 locations.
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“Angel Has Fallen” has been tracking for a debut in the $12 million to $16 million range and will expand to 3,286 sites on Friday. Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman are joined by Jada Pinkett Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo, and Nick Nolte in the third installment of the Millennium-Lionsgate action franchise.
The opening weekend for “Angel” will be well below 2013’s “Olympus Has Fallen” ($30 million) and 2016’s “London Has Fallen” ($21.6 million). Butler returns as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, who has to clear his name after being framed for an attack on Freeman’s U.S. president Allan Trumbull, who was the Speaker of the House in “Olympus” and the Vice President in “London.”
Fox Searchlight’s horror movie “Ready or Not” scared up a $2 million opening day at 2,244 North American locations on Wednesday as the studio got a two-day jump on the weekend. Fox Searchlight will increase “Ready or Not” to about 2,840 screens on Friday.
Also opening is “Overcomer,” from the creators of “War Room” via Sony’s Affirm label. Alex Kendrick stars and directs from a script he co-wrote with sibling Stephen Kendrick about a high school coach whose faith is tested. The film is expected to make around $6 million during its opening frame.
The newcomers will be battling a pair of Universal holdovers — the second weekend of raunchy comedy “Good Boys,” which has topped $28 million in its first six days, and the fourth frame of “Hobbs and Shaw,” which has gone past $138 million in its first three weeks.
Overall North American movie business continues to lag compared to 2018. The year-to-date total was down 6.7% at $7.52 billion as of Aug. 21, according to Comscore. Summer is off 0.8% at $4.57 billion but the fall season should start with a major hit, noted Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore.
“The summer season, despite being an emotional as well as a box-office roller-coaster, will actually wind up pretty much on par with last year,” he said. “With ‘It: Chapter Two’ just two weeks away the multiplex will be bustling as the destination of choice for legions of horror movie fans.”
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