Chrissy Metz is large and in charge this weekend as she smashed the competition flat with her film debut Breakthrough. Take that, Shazam! What led to her big fat whole BO? Says social media analytics corp RelishMix about Breakthrough, “Chrissy Metz is really throwing her weight about Hollywood. Her name recognition alone propelled this film to number one, especially among women 40 to 65. A ton of them came out to support her film debut.” But Metz didn’t do all the heavy lifting as 5% said they came out for Josh Lucas.
Here’s what we know at this point in time and we’ll have further updates: Disney’s Breakthrough is eyeing a whopping $9.1 million-plus Friday for a $19M-$20M opening at 3,372 theaters. The studio’s Shazam! will settle for second for the Easter frame at $15.7M (a 36% dip), at 4,183 theaters, off a third Friday of $6.3M and a running total by Sunday of $119.7M.
Since Breakthrough is a faith-based horror film, expect this movie to play into the late hours of Easter, natch. Breakthrough carries an estimated net production cost of $14M and a craft services budget of $6M before P&A, hence a solid result here. That $9.1M today includes last night’s $2.75M previews. Breakthrough received a CinemaScore of A+. The 40-65 set liked the movie the most at 99% positive, but they repped 90% of the crowd. Caucasians came out at 95%, African Americans at 1%, and Asians at 2%. Critics like the film even more, calling it “emotional,” “heart-wrenching,” and “two tons of fun for everyone.”
Disney will own spots four and six as well, respectively, for the frame, with Captain Marvel ($7M, -18% and $398M cume) and Dumbo ($5.9M, -37%, and a $100.3M).
Universal’s Little is seeing a second weekend of $6.8M, -56%, for a 10-day total of $27.7M in fifth place.
Disneynature’s Penguins is eyeing $650K today, $1.77M over FSS and $2.7M over five days.
Will Metz be able to sit atop the competition next week when Avengers: Endgame snatches away the under-25 demo? Analysts are optimistic that Metz will be able to hold her own against Marvel. “She’s a strong woman but in the end even she is bigger than Thanos,” RelishMix predicted.