This weekend, moviegoers will get their choice of three new films — the actioner Jason Bourne, the comedy Bad Moms and the thriller Nerve. All are said to be decent films. First off, Jason Bourne returns with a vengeance this year, pulling together the combo of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass for the first time in nine years, and the industry is expecting a good turnout.
Universal is releasing the picture on the same date Paramount did last year for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which at the time looked like $35M on tracking and then ended up grossing $55.5M for its three-day weekend. Jason Bourne is tracking the same way as Rogue Nation, and Deadline expects an equally big opening on what is the fifth installment of the action franchise which is said to be higher in advanced ticket sales to Rogue Nation. We are also taking into account that Damon generates a better box office than Jeremy Renner, who starred last time out. The film, which also stars Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles and Tommy Lee Jones, opens at 7 PM Thursday in previews.
The film is coming four years after Renner-toplining The Bourne Legacy. The actioner also opens in 46 territories this weekend including Australia, Brazil, South Korea and the UK and Ireland. The original group of Bourne films did better domestically than internationally, but when China’s ears perked up, everything changed.
Jason Bourne, which the studio pegs as a $120M budgeted film, is also expected to suck the demo out of this past weekend’s opener Star Trek Beyond which could drop 60% in its sophomore frame.
Damon is also a draw for females, but both young and older females are expected to pack into Bad Moms this weekend for distributor STX Entertainment. The R-rated comedy from The Hangover filmmakers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore could hit in the mid-$20Ms. Some observers think it could possibly do Trainwreck numbers (that opened to $30M in July of last year), and its currently outpacing the Amy Schumer-led movie in advance ticket sales, according to Fandango. It’s basically a one-quad movie with females aged 20-40 and the fly in the ointment is the date. Trainwreck had a less challenging date because it wasn’t so crowded by other films the way Bad Moms is now. All the movies in play in the marketplace currently are decent-quality films. The film, which is great counter-programming, will start previews Thursday at 6 PM.
Bad Moms, which stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn as overworked and under-appreciated moms who seek their freedom, should find its audience overseas just as Bridesmaids did. Bad Moms is actually a very good option to what is available now domestically and abroad — mainly animated family fare, action and horror films. Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo (who penned Bridesmaids with Kristin Wiig) also star.
Given that there is an overlap of the young female demo, Lionsgate is trying to separate its thriller Nerve out and get the jump so they are dropping this movie tonight in previews that begin at 7 PM. Nerve is a PG-13 movie about an online truth or dare video game that becomes increasingly dangerous. The movie is said to play OK and is drawing the youngest crowd of the three new offerings. The three-day opening could generate around $9M-$10M and $12M-$15M for the five-day.
The only other picture worth noting is Woody Allen’s Cafe Society which is being expanded nationally by Lionsgate and Amazon after bowing in limited release two weeks ago to a big $71K per screen. The film, which stars Steve Carell, Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, averaged $17,500 per screen last weekend after expanding to 50 theaters. In doing so, it had the weekend’s second-best PTA ahead of Star Trek which landed at $15K in 3,928 theaters.
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.