Christopher Robin entered the box office fray last night and got off to a pretty decent start with $1.5 million in Thursday night previews that began at 7 PM.
The Thursday preview number for Christopher Robin is comparable to what Wrinkle in Time drew ($1.3 million Thurs / $33 million opening) and higher than Steven Spielberg’s The BFG ($780,000 / $19 million opening) and Lionsgate’s Wonder ($740,000 / $28 million opening). Box office tracking has this coming in around the $30 million range (with some suggesting it could hit mid-30’s) so this Thursday gross has it on the right track for that.
Disney’s Pete’s Dragon from August 2016, which is an ideal comparison here in regards to a non-musical Disney animated movie being turned into a live-action one, didn’t hold Thursday night previews when it debuted and posted a Friday of $6.95 million and opening weekend of $21.5 million. Pete’s Dragon flew away with an 88% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, while Christopher Robin is 62% fresh, which is on the lower side of the fesh scale.
In other Thursday night preview news, Lionsgate’s all-femme R-rated action comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me made $950,000 last night, a figure that’s below the $1.5 million earned by Melissa McCarthy’s Spy movie from three summers ago which posted a $10.3 million Friday, $29 million opening weekend. Spy Who Dumped Me is expected to gross in the mid teens this weekend, with my prediction still at $17 million.
The Darkest Minds also had Thursday previews which grossed $550,000. This number is close to such YA fare as The Fifth Wave ($475,000) and Everything, Everything ($525,000). Tracking still has it at about $10-12 million which is where my prediction still lies as well.
