Baywatch is getting ahead of the competition by opening wide today as opposed to Friday and its Wednesday night preview numbers have it off to a decent start. The R-rated comedy grossed $1.25 million during previews that began at 7:00 PM.
The studio is currently comparing Baywatch‘s evening cash to such mid-week R-rated comedies as We’re the Millers ($1.7M) and Let’s Be Cops ($1.2M). We’re the Millers went on to make a $6.8 million Wednesday before legging out to a $26.4 million over three-days and $37.9 million over five-days. Let’s Be Cops earned $5.2 million on its first day including previews, and then $17.8 million over three and $26.2 million over five.
Paramount has placed a great emphasis on making sure Baywatch starts their summer right. During Super Bowl, the studio dropped a 30-second clip which drew 1.3 million views on YouTube. At CinemaCon, they delighted exhibitors with a slew of raunchy clips, and had Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron enter the Colosseum at Caesars with an ensemble of babes and beekcakes in bathing suits, firing off beach towels into the crowd. The film carries an estimated reported cost before P&A in the high $60 million range. Tracking has the R-rated Dwayne Johnson-Zac Efron movie at $30 million-plus over three-days and $40M-plus over the five-day holiday, which is what I predicted in our box office predictions. Note, it’s still early in the weekend. Last night there were 78% colleges out and only 7% K-12.
