An “F” CinemaScore. That’s what opening night audiences thought of Andrew Dominik‘s fantastic new film Killing Them Softly starring Brad Pitt. That’s the reason phrases such as “That’s why we can’t have nice things” were developed. Meanwhile, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 remains atop the box-office with an estimated $5.6 million on Friday followed by Skyfall at $4.6m and Lincoln at $4 million.
The “F” CinemaScore for Killing Them Softly accompanies an estimated $2.5 million, which means we’re looking at something around $6.5-7 million for the opening weekend. With a production budget listed at $15 million and the film already grossing nearly that overseas it’s not as if the film itself is a massive flop, but it will be lucky to match that budget domestically, which is a damn shame.
Some are already comparing the general audience reaction to Killing as similar to that of Drive last year, which opened to a “C-” CinemaScore and saw FilmDistrict sued because the film wasn’t like Fast and the Furious. It would seem the same audience turned out to see this film and got all confused with the metaphors and what not. Oh well, I’m done being surprised at the overall taste of general audiences. I’ve been watching several of this year’s highest profile documentaries and the things humans are capable of will only continue to keep phrases such as “We can be better” in circulation.
The week’s other new wide release is the horror film The Collection, which brought in $1.1 million. The complete Friday top ten is listed below and I’ll be back tomorrow with a complete wrap-up. For now I’m going to go make Christmas cookies and hopefully forget that “F” ever happened.
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 – $5.6 million
- Skyfall – $4.8 million
- Lincoln – $4 million
- Life of Pi – $3.3 million
- Rise of the Guardians – $2.9 million
- Killing Them Softly – $2.5 million
- Red Dawn – $2 million
- Wreck-It Ralph – $1.6 million
- Flight – $1.3 million
- The Collection – $1.1 million
