David Leitch’s Bullet Train easily topped Friday’s chart with $12.6 million, including $4.6 million in Thursday previews.
Brad Pitt leads a packed cast in this tale of an assassin roaming a Japanese high-speed bullet train. Other marquee names include Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock.
Sony, which is running an aggressive marketing campaign in hopes of drumming up interest, is eyeing a domestic debut in the $30 million range. Critics haven’t exactly embraced Bullet Train, which currently holds a 53% review score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences awarded the film a B+ CinemaScore.
Bullet Train is the last big studio offering of the summer, putting increased pressure on the film’s performance. Generally, the summer box office season runs until Labor Day, but delays due to the pandemic continue and studios are seeing some of their films delayed in post-production.
The weekend’s other new offering is Jay Chandrasekhar’s comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy as a struggling actor and comedian who attends a rowdy holiday meal with his family from the Philippines.
Easter Sunday is on track for a $5 million debut after earning $2 million on Friday, in line with expectations.
Jimmy O. Yang, Tia Carrere, Brandon Wardell, Eva Noblezada, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Tiffany Haddish and Lou Diamond Phillips star in the Universal film.