Shazam! got off to a great start in Thursday night previews which bodes well for a particularly strong weekend. Also making a noteworthy debut is Pet Sematary, which should also scare up a big weekend at the box office.
Shazam! grossed $5.9 million last night from preview showings and when added with the Fandango preview screenings, the film’s gross is now at $9.2 million before going wide today. Shazam!‘s Thursday is just under the $6.4 million that Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man did which repped 28% of its $22.6 million first day Friday, yielding a $57.2 million opening. Shazam! also knocks down the $3.75 million made by Ready Player One‘s Wednesday night preview. I’m thinking Shazam! will top its $45 million opening weekend tracking.
Pet Sematary also got started in Thursday night previews & performed admirably with $2.3 million. Next to horror comps, that’s higher than the $1.8 million which Get Out pulled in, the $2 million made by Split and the $1.9 million made by Sony’s remake of Evil Dead. Those opening weekends ranged between $24-41 million so Pet Sematary could land in that range for the weekend.
Lastly, The Best of Enemies starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell kicked off Thursday night previews with $265,000 from 1,440 theaters. The result is a tad higher than what Focus Features’ Race did making $205,000 at 1,800 locations in Feb. 2016. Focus went wider with Race at 2,369 and opened to $7.3 million.
