‘Red One’ Box Office Battles for $30M Opening

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans’ Christmas movie The red one topped Friday’s domestic box office with nearly $11 million. The question now is whether it can hit the mark and unwrap a $30 million opening.

Amazon MGM Studios has always believed that the film is a piece of Saturday and Sunday versus Friday (a big distraction on Friday was the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Netflix, although the majority, or 54 percent, of The red one ticket buyers on the opening day were men).

The red one playing in a total of 4,032 North American theaters this weekend, including Imax, Dolby Cinema and other premium large-format screens. While many critics were indifferent to the action-adventure film, audiences felt the opposite and gave it an A-CinemaScore. Amazon originally intended to send the film directly to its streaming service Prime Video, but gave it the big-screen treatment in hopes of giving exhibitors a boost.

Heading into an otherwise quiet weekend, tracking showed the film opening in the $30 million to $35 million range domestically. Warner Bros. Pictures is distributing the Seven Bucks production overseas, where The red one opened to $28 million to avoid a direct showdown with Paramount’s Gladiator IIwhich launches this weekend at the international box office a week before its domestic debut. (Ridley Scott’s Gladiator the sequel could make as much as $80 million or more in its foreign arc.)

The red one‘s box office performance will be closely watched, given that it cost $250 million to make. A major legacy studio in the same situation would come under intense scrutiny if a movie with that price tag opened to those numbers, but Amazon insists its business model is different and driven by subscribers and not just the box office. It also counts The red one to play during the year-end holidays and become a holiday classic for years to come.

Nevertheless, it would be a disappointment if it doesn’t clear $30 million.

The red one is the first proper Christmas movie to play in theaters since before the pandemic when The Grinch opened in 2018.

The family-friendly picture follows what happens when Santa Claus – codenamed “Red One” – is kidnapped and the North Pole’s security chief (Johnson) teams up with the world’s most notorious bounty hunter (Evans) in what Amazon MGM describes as a worldwide, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

Directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by Chris Morgan and a story by Hiram Garcia, The red one also starring Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel and JK Simmons. It is rated PG-13 in the US, where reviews have not been kind.

The red one is the first in a series of year-end tentpoles gearing up to open and, if all goes well, put the box office back on Santa’s nice list after a rough fall due to a lack of product. Universal’s Evil and the Paramounts Gladiator II both debuted on November 22, followed by Walt Disney Animations Moana 2 on November 27 (Many have dubbed the high-profile corridor “Moanapocalypse” or “Glicked.)

The figures will be updated on Sunday morning.