Genre film directed by New Line’s Olivia Wilde don’t worry darling grossed $3.1 million in previews split between Monday’s sold-out Imax fan screenings and Thursday showings that began at 4 p.m.
Warner Bros.’ The original screening of the film starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh was $17 million this week, while industry sources peg the R-rated pic’s debut at between $20 million and $26 million. I had heard that AMC’s internal projections were $27 million two days ago – and that was based on pre-sales.
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Venice Film Festival Photo Gallery: Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Chris Pine
Currently, the audience score for don’t worry darling is high at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, beating Rotten critics’ 36%. In early numbers from Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak, which we’ll be updating throughout the weekend, don’t worry darling landed three stars, with a 66% positive. Women under 25 – those Harry Styles fans – turn out as expected, with 40% giving the photo 75%, followed by women over 25 at 28%, men over 25 at 23 % and men under 25 at 8%. The 18-34 demo accounted for 64% of Thursday night’s attendees.
The film comes after weeks of sometimes bizarre headlines chronicling various controversies, from Shia LaBeouf’s withdrawal from the project and questions about Florence Pugh’s absence at a Venice Film Festival press conference to the debunked suggestion that Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine.
Olivia Wilde talks Spit-Gate drama ‘Don’t Worry Darling’: ‘Harry didn’t spit on Chris’
The number is larger than last year Gucci House, which grossed $1.3 million in its Tuesday previews before Thanksgiving, and just below Gaga A star is born, which grossed $4.55 million in its combined previews ($3.2 million in its Thursday previews alone) in October 2018. Want auteur genre comps? don’t worry darling also did more than Jordan Peele previews get out, which had a $1.8M Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Disney’s reissue of 20th Century Studios Avatar posted previews of $2.5 million in presales. About 45% of sales are IMAX 3D, and the 3D total exceeds 95%. The film is expected to post a weekend in the high numbers. This puts the picture’s domestic gross at $763 million, where it ranks fourth highest ever in the US/Canada, after Star Wars The Force Awakens ($936.6 million), Avengers: Endgame ($858.3M) and Spider-Man: No Coming Home ($814 million). The James Cameron-directed Oscar winner has earned $3.5m from 32 offshore markets after two days, taking its global take to $2.85bn – still the highest-grossing film ever Avengers: Endgame ($2.79 billion).
Among these regularly released titles, TriStar’s African warrior film Viola Davis The female king ended its first week grossing an estimated $25.1 million from 3,765 theaters. The film should hold up with a second weekend of $11-12 million. It brought in $1.2 million on Thursday, -8% from Wednesday.
Venice ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ review: Don’t worry about the gossip, Olivia Wilde’s 1950s dream-turned-nightmare is pretty fun
20th Century Studios/New Regency/Disney’s Barbaric ends its second week with $9 million at 2,340 for a cumulative total of $23.6 million. The photo fetched $540,000 on Thursday. A24’s horror movie pearl was third on Thursday with $320,000 and a $4.7M first week in 2,935 theaters.
Projector of See how they work booked in 2,404 locations brought in $260,000 yesterday for a first week of $4.2m.
In fifth was Top Gun: Maverick at 2,604 with $230,000, a 17th weekend of $3.1M and a running total of $710M.