The Meg might exceed box office tracking and my predictions greatly after a surprisingly strong debut in Thursday night previews. The film grossed $4 million last night, which means it could seriously overperform the rest of the weekend.
The figure is on par with the Thursday nights of 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation which went on to do $55.5 million, and Warner Bros./Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island which scored $3.7 million in previews before grossing $61 million over its opening weekend.
The Meg could overperform because it’s really the only big new wide release this weekend and people may be looking for a film they can simply watch and shut off their brains. The film is rotten at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes but I don’t think audiences seem to care if the Thursday number is any indication.
The Meg’s Thursday blows away the Thursday night previews of other Hollywood co-productions that were built primarily for booming Asian cinema markets, which include Skyscraper ($1.95 million, $24.9 million opening) and Pacific Rim Uprising ($2.35 million, $28 million opening). The Meg also eats up another shark pic that hit the big screen, Sony’s The Shallows which did a $1.3 million Thursday and $16.8 million on its opening weekend. This is not the first shark movie for Warner Bros. Back in 1999 they released Renny Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea. That opened to $19.1 million and grossed $73.6 million stateside and $164.6 million worldwide off a $60 million production cost.
The other new release to open in Thursday night previews was Slender Man with $1 million. Not a bad start for a horror film that has gotten beat down by critics with a 20% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s looking to come in at my prediction of $10-12 million but remember it’s PG-13 and could surge on opening night.
