Intelligence. By putting Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood together for the first time, in another Eastwood “American Hero” story, the table was already set for success.
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Taking second place with $15 million is the Screen Gems thriller “When the Bough Breaks” starring Morris Chestnut and Regina Hill.
The Wild Life, a Belgium-France animated film, rounded out the top five with a muted $3.3 million opening.
The well-reviewed dramatisation of the 2009 emergency landing by Captain Chesley Sullenberger of a jet on the Hudson River connected primarily with older moviegoers, who are usually reluctant to come out on hoopla-filled opening weekends.
Eastwood is directing the film from a screenplay by Todd Komarnicki, based on the book Highest Duty by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow.
Sully earned an estimated $35.5 million from 3,525 theaters over the course of its three-day opening weekend.
Psychological thriller and fellow newcomer When the Bough Breaks also showed well, finishing at #2 with an estimated $15 million.
Nabbing an A CinemaScore, the biographical drama skewed female (56 percent) in North America, while 80 percent of the audience was over the age of 35.
The World War II drama will take the Captain Phillips star back to sea as he’ll play a career officer finally given command of a Navy destroyer, who along with the enemy fights his self doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs.
It’s true that those questions were asked, and many more, over the course of the 18-month investigation, but that’s just part of NTSB’s meticulous investigation process that is meant to find all possible flaws that contribute to a crash, investigators said.
United States adult audiences turned out in droves this weekend to see Sully, director Clint Eastwood’s dramatization of the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson”.
“Both statistics are uncommonly strong”, Dergarabedian said.
“Sully” generated $4 million from 375 Imax locations for a $10,666 average in what’s touted as the first Hollywood film ever shot entirely on Imax cameras. This was the angle Eastwood brought to light in the film.
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Sully also stars Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney.
