Box Office: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Lands Groovy $10.3 Million Opening Day, ‘Mario Bros.’ Still 1-Upping Newcomers

Evil Dead Rise might not be able to vanquish the soon-to-three-peat box office champion The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but the horror entry is still chainsawing off its own solid opening on domestic charts.

The Warner Bros. release earned $10.3 million from 3,402 locations on Friday, a figure that includes $2.5 million in previews. The horror entry now has a strong chance of outperforming its projections, which had pegged the film with a $15 million to $20 million debut heading into the weekend. Thats not too shabby for a production originally slated to release directly on HBO Max. Even more impressively, Rise is contending with two horror releases from last week, Renfield and The Popes Exorcist.

Evil Dead Rise is the fifth installment in Warner Bros. and New Lines outlandish horror franchise, as well as the first in 10 years. Rise is tracking slightly behind its predecessor, which scored an $11.8 million opening day, on its way to a $25.7 million debut in April 2013.

However, Rise will have a word-of-mouth edge over its predecessor. Audiences are being receptive enough, as indicated by the films B grade through research firm Cinema Score not too low for a horror entry, plus a few ticks higher than the C+ earned by 2013s entry. Its received favorable reviews too, currently sitting at 72% approval from top critics on aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. In his Variety review, Joe Leydon called it potently claustrophobic and gasp-inducingly shocking.

Ever since Sam Raimis low-budget 1981 original, the Evil Dead series has had a reputation for resourcefulness. Rise carries a reported production budget of $19 million, a figure that the film looks to recoup by the end of the weekend. The horror entry still looks to cover additional marketing and distribution costs, but its off to a very auspicious start.

Directed by Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as estranged sisters who contend with a new crop of demons. The films cast also includes Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols and Nell Fisher.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still the reigning box office champion, now in its third weekend of release. The Universal, Illumination and Nintendo co-production drew $14 million in coinage on Friday, down a slim 38% from a week ago. The animated adventure will surpass a $400 million domestic gross on Saturday. By the end of the weekend, it will rank as the third-highest grossing domestic release ever from Universal, behind only Jurassic World ($653 million) and E.T. The Extraterrestrial ($437.1 million).

Mario Bros. has shown some superlative staying power at the box office. If projections for a $58 million weekend hold out, that would notch the highest-ever third domestic weekend for an animated release, powering up ahead of Incredibles 2 ($46.4 million). The global total will surpass $850 million through Sunday, storming ahead to the coveted $1 billion milestone.

Also opening this weekend, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is releasing Guy Ritchies The Covenant. The war thriller earned $2.25 million from 2,611 theaters on Friday, in line with tracking heading into the weekend. Though MGM is now owned by Amazon, Amazon Studios doesnt have a hand in distribution.

When the project was commissioned by the now-defunct STX Entertainment, reports indicated that the film would carry a $55 million production budget. MGM acquired the thriller from the embattled label for an undisclosed figure. The film has a stellar A Cinema Score grade and solid reviews, both of which it will look to spur some staying power moving forward.

Directed by you guessed it Guy Ritchie, Guy Ritchies The Covenant stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier returning to Afghanistan to save his interpreter (Dar Salim).

John Wick: Chapter 4 looks to take fourth place, projecting $5.3 million in its fifth weekend. The Keanu Reeves action epic from Lionsgate should expand its domestic gross to $168 million through Sunday, honing in on surpassing the $171 million domestic gross earned by its predecessor, 2019s John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum. Chapter 4 already ranks as the highest-grossing Wick entry worldwide.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers sports world drama Air and Paramounts fantasy epic Dungeons Dragons: Honor Among Thieves are in close competition to round out the top five. Both films are projecting roughly $5.4 million for the weekend.

Directed by Ben Affleck, Air is putting up another solid hold, dropping a slim 31% in its third weekend of release. Itll surpass a $40 million domestic tally through Sunday a good result these days for a talky drama with a starry ensemble, though the film has little hope of recouping the $130 million that Amazon Studios reportedly shelled out for the production. The company will look to find a large fraction of the films value in its streaming release.

From Paramount and Entertainment One, Dungeons Dragons: Honor Among Thieves should expand its domestic gross to $82 million through the weekend. Those numbers arent small potatoes, though its still far below the hopes for a supposed franchise starter with a $150 million production budget.

Expanding this weekend, A24 is bringing Ari Asters picaresque epic Beau Is Afraid to 962 theaters. The film marks the independent studios most expensive film to date, with a $35 million production budget. Industry estimates show Beau earned roughly $1.1 million on Friday.