“Mile 22” debuted to $1 million on Thursday night.
The STX release stars Mark Wahlberg, a shadowy CIA operative, who must extract a valuable asset. It reunites the actor with Peter Berg — the pair scored with 2013’s “Lone Survivor,” but “Patriots Day” and “Deepwater Horizon” — both released in 2016 — were box office disappointments. The hope is that “Mile 22” will spark a new action franchise.
Before any sequels get the greenlight, “Mile 22” has to ward off some stiff competition from the second weekend of “The Meg” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” a critically adored rom-com that is doing some big business after launching on Wednesday.
“Crazy Rich Asians” topped the box office on Thursday, picking up $3.8 million to push its two-day total to $8.8 million. “The Meg,” a thriller about a giant shark, added $3.2 million on Thursday to its $62.6 million domestic haul.
STX said “Mile 22’s” preview results compare favorably to those of “American Made.” The Tom Cruise thriller opened last September to $960,000 in previews. Its initial weekend gross topped out at $16.8 million. “Mile 22” is expected to earn between $17 million to $18 million in its inaugural weekend. That should put it just behind “The Meg,” which is projected to add another $20 million to its gross.
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The weekend’s big winner should be “Crazy Rich Asians.” The film is the first Asian-led studio pic to hit theaters since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club,” making it a major cultural touchstone and a testament to the box office potency of inclusion. It is expected to pull in more than $30 million over its first five days in theaters.
Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, and John Malkovich round out the cast of “Mile 22.” The movie carries a budget of $35 million, a relatively modest price tag for a star-driven actioner.
“Alpha,” an Ice Age adventure yarn about a boy and his wolf, will also open in wide release. The film is backed by Studio 8 and distributed by Sony. It is expected to debut to between $7 million to $8 million, a disastrous result for a movie that cost more than $50 million to make.
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