{"id":231973,"date":"2019-09-22T20:31:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T00:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=231973"},"modified":"2019-09-22T20:31:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T00:31:50","slug":"downton-abbey-overpowers-brad-pitt-rambo-at-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/22\/downton-abbey-overpowers-brad-pitt-rambo-at-box-office\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Downton Abbey’ overpowers Brad Pitt, Rambo at box office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Cast and crew preparing to shoot a scene in a very recognisable bedroom! Can you tell us who it belongs to? #DowntonAbbeyFilm (Photo<\/a>: downtonabbey_official\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Raise your tea cups! The big-screen encore of \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d handily (but very politely) thumped both Brad Pitt’s \u201cAd Astra\u201d and Sylvester Stallone’s \u201cRambo: Last Blood\u201d in theatres over the weekend in one of the more unlikely box-office upsets.<\/p>\n

\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d debuted with $31 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, royally trumping the $19.2 million-opening for \u201cAd Astra\u201d and the $19 million debut for \u201cRambo: Last Blood.\u201d Neither the draw of Pitt in space nor a bandanna-wearing Stallone could match the appeal a tea party with old friends.<\/p>\n

While the stout performance of \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d had come to be expected in the lead-up to release, it was still striking. The debut marked the best first weekend ever for Focus Features in its 17-year history. It ranks as the best opening for any specialty studio in a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always knew that there was a tremendous amount of love for ‘Downton Abbey,\u201d’ said Lisa Bunnell, Focus’ distribution chief. \u201cBut as we started on working with promotions and special events for the movie, we realized that the love for ‘Downton Abbey’ goes way beyond what we even thought it was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming four years since the series finale, \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d returns most of the original cast and was penned by its creator, Julian Fellowes. To drum up excitement, Focus hosted dress-ups and \u201cDownton\u201d parties. While the film drew a healthy amount of younger moviegoers (31% under 35), its audience was predictably largely female (74 and older (32% over 55) \u2014 a seldom-catered-to demographic.<\/p>\n

Critics greeted the film warmly (85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences were even more enthusiastic, giving it an A CinemaScore. Having already played for a week in some international territories, \u201cDownton Abby\u201d has already brought in $61.8 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

Reviews were similarly strong for James Grey’s \u201cAd Astra,\u201d which premiered earlier in the month at the Venice Film Festival. It sits at 83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and comes on the heels of plaudits for Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s \u201cOnce Upon a Time … In Hollywood\u201d (which has grossed $344.6 million worldwide thus far).<\/p>\n

But the film, in which Pitt plays an astronaut journeying through the solar system to reach his space-explorer father (Tommy Lee Jones), was a pricey one \u2014 especially for an artfully made drama predicated more on father-son psychology than sci-fi spectacle. The production cost around $100 million for 20th Century Fox, which was earlier this year acquired by the Walt Disney Co.<\/p>\n

Disney postponed the release of \u201cAd Astra\u201d from May to September. The result for \u201cAd Astra\u201d follows disappointing returns for a handful of Fox films released under Disney, including \u201cDark Phoenix\u201d and \u201cStuber.\u201d \u201cAd Astra,\u201d which added $26 million overseas, will hope good reviews give the film some legs in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a very rough go for many of the Fox releases,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. \u201cI think this is a solid debut. It’s certainly an expensive movie. Anytime you swing for the fences with an outer space film, you have to spend quite a bit of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lionsgate’s \u201cRambo: Last Blood\u201d is the fifth \u201cRambo\u201d movie going back to the 1982 original, \u201cFirst Blood.\u201d Fashioned as the franchise’s final installment (Stallone is now 73 years old), it did about the same as the previous 2008 reboot, which opened with $18 million before ultimately grossing $113 million worldwide. \u201cLast Blood\u201d got especially terrible reviews, though; it’s only 31% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

That trio of new releases outperformed a pair of strong holdovers. After two weeks at the No. 1 spot, Warner Bros.’ \u201cIt Chapter Two\u201d slid to fourth with $17.2 million. The STX’s stripper tale \u201cHustlers,\u201d starring Jennifer Lopez, earned $17 million in its second weekend.<\/p>\n

Those very divergent options in theatres added up to a lot of choice for moviegoers. The weekend was up 30% from the same frame last year, according to Comscore.<\/p>\n

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cDownton Abbey,\u201d $31 million ($10 million international).<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cAd Astra,\u201d $19.2 million ($26 million international).<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cRambo: Last Blood,\u201d $19 million ($9.1 million international).<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cIt Chapter Two,\u201d $17.2 million ($21.3 million international).<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cHustlers,\u201d $17 million ($3 million international).<\/li>\n
  6. \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d $2.6 million.<\/li>\n
  7. \u201cGood Boys,\u201d $2.5 million.<\/li>\n
  8. \u201cAngel Has Fallen,\u201d $2.4 million.<\/li>\n
  9. \u201cOvercomer,\u201d $1.5 million.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    10. \u201cHobbs & Shaw,\u201d $1.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NEW YORK \u2014 Raise your tea cups! The big-screen encore of \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d handily (but very politely) thumped both Brad …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":231977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-jake-coyle","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231978,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231973\/revisions\/231978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}