Box Office: ‘Vacation’ Takes Off With $3.8 Million Debut
New Line’s rebooted “Vacation” has opened respectably with $3.8 million on its first day in the U.S.
The Wednesday number includes $1.2 million from preview showings on Tuesday night. The raunchy comedy, starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, has a two-day head start on Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.”
The first-day number signals that “Vacation” may fall short of recent projections of an opening of about $30 million over five days at 3,310 theaters. “Vacation,” which carries a relatively modest $31 million budget, does not represent a big risk for New Line.
The movie is launching 32 years after the original. Ed Helms plays the grown-up Rusty Griswold, who decides to take his own family to the fictional California theme park Walley World — with disastrous results. Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo return as Rusty’s parents.
“Vacation,” which has received mostly negative reviews, with a 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, marks the directorial debut of screenwriters Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. The original “National Lampoon’s Vacation” opened on the same date in 1983 and ultimately grossed $61 million in the U.S. on a $15 million budget.
New Line’s first day of raunchy family comedy “We’re the Millers” launched with $6.8 million on a Wednesday on Aug. 7, 2013, on its way to a $150 million domestic total.
Paramount is launching “Rogue Nation” at more than 3,800 U.S. locations on Friday. The action adventure, with a hefty $150 million budget, is on pace to open to $40 million.
The fifth “Mission: Impossible” has received strong critical support and carries a 91% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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