The power of two Will Smith’s lead Gemini Man to a Thursday night preview win over The Addams Family but it was closer than anticipated.
Gemini Man grossed $1.6 million in Thursday night previews that started at 7:00 PM from 3,000 locations. For comparison’s sake, the preview number is just under what The Magnificent Seven pulled in back in September 2016 in its previews with $1.75 million (for a $12.7 million opening day, $34.7 million opening weekend) and ahead of Millennium/Lionsgate’s Angel Has Fallen ($1.5 million previews, $7.95 million opening day, $21.3 million opening) and Ad Astra ($1.5 million previews, $7.1 million opening day, $19 million opening weekend). Judging from those comparisons, Gemini Man has quite a range it could potentially open to this weekend.
For Will Smith launching an original title at the box office, it tops the $900,000 preview numbers for 2015’s Focus and the $1.1 million of 2013’s After Earth. These films were released when Thursday night previews weren’t as significant so view these comparisons lightly. Gemini Man cost $138 million to make and is tracking at $25-29 million for the weekend and it’s hoping for the high end on that so it doesn’t bleed too much due to its hefty budget.
Also launching in Thursday night previews was The Addams Family with $1.3 million at 3,000 locations that started at 4:00 PM. This is an impressive start since the target audience wasn’t fully available for the film and this is a film that is likely to surge as the weekend progresses. Previews were higher than the $850,000 made by Warner Bros. Smallfoot last year ($6.4 million opening day, $23 million opening weekend) as well as the $840,000 made by The House With a Clock in Its Walls ($7.7 million opening day, $26.6 million opening). The Rotten Tomatoes score is finally out and it’s 32% rotten but the target audience is likely not to care which means its potential $30 million opening is still in play.
