Brad Pitt’s “Bullet Train” pulls into the station with $30.1 million

NEW YORK (AP) — The stylized action spree “Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt, arrived in theaters on Sunday with a $30.1 million opening weekend, as the last major film of Hollywood’s summer recreation, according to studio estimates came.

Bullet Train’s debut for Sony Pictures was solid but unspectacular for a film that cost $90 million to make and was fueled by Pitt’s considerable star power. While things are going well for the coming weeks, theaters have no major studio releases on the horizon for the remainder of August and few sure things to look forward to in early fall.

While late summer is always a quiet time in theaters, this year will be special – and likely to slacken some of the momentum set by Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru and others. After a comeback season that brought the box office almost back to pre-pandemic levels, things are getting pretty quiet in theaters.

“It’s definitely going to be calmer, like the calm after the storm,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at data company Comscore. “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be great movies out there, and maybe the goodwill generated by some of these movies could be enough to boost the box office until we see ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ in come down the blockbuster corridor. and `Avatar 2′ down the road. We have to reckon with not being able to keep up the pace of this summer.”

As the last big summer movie to leave the station, Bullet Train hopes to keep rolling in the coming weeks. That would be in line with the script of some other original summer movies released in August, like Free Guy and Crazy Rich Asians. Directed by David Leitch (“Atomic Blonde,” “Deadpool 2”), “Bullet Train” assembles a cast of assassins (co-stars include Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry) on a bullet train bound for Kyoto from Tokyo .

One of the few original wannabe summer blockbusters without much intellectual property behind it, the R-rated “Bullet Train” might have come into the weekend with more momentum if the reviews had been stronger. With a low re-rating of 54% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Bullet Train was only marginally better received by audiences, who gave the film a B+ CinemaScore. The film grossed $32.4 million in overseas box office gross.

The weekend’s other broad re-release, “Easter Sunday,” struggled to catch on. The Universal Pictures comedy, starring comedian Jo Koy attending his family’s Easter Sunday celebration, was praised for its Filipino performance but received even worse reviews than Bullet Train. It opened with ticket sales of $5.3 million.

Instead, Bullet Train was followed by a number of remnants, including Warner Bros.’ “DC League of Pets.” The animated release grossed $11.2 million in its second week of release.

Jordan Peele’s Nope, Universal’s sci-fi horror release, continued to do well, grossing $8.5 million in its third weekend. With $98 million in ticket sales, “Nope” will soon surpass $100 million at the domestic box office.

Taika Waititi’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” for The Walt Disney Co. took fourth place in its fifth weekend with $7.6 million. It’s now worth up to $316.1 million, making it the highest-grossing Thor film domestically. At $699 million worldwide, Love and Thunder is less likely to match the $854 million worldwide haul of 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.

A limited edition, A24’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies” opened on six screens in New York and Los Angeles with ticket sales of $226,525, averaging $37,754 per screen. The horror comedy about rich 20-year-olds at a remote house party, and starring a cast including Amandla Sternberg, Maria Bakalova and Pete Davidson, expands nationwide on Friday.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday in US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. The final domestic figures will be released on Tuesday.

1. “Bullet Train”, $30.1 million.

2. “DC League of Super Pets”, $11.2 million.

3. “No,” $8.5 million.

4. “Thor: Love and Thunder,” $7.6 million.

5. “Minions: The Rise of Gru”, $7.1 million.

6. “Top Gun: Maverick”, $7 million.

7. “Where the Crawdads Sing”, $5.7 million.

8. “Easter Sunday,” $5.3 million.

9. “Elvis”, $4 million.

10. “The Black Phone,” $1.5 million.