'Dunkirk' Opens with a Promising Thursday

Christopher Nolan's war drama Dunkirk marched to a strong $5.5 million Thursday night after starting previews at 6 p.m., while both Luc Besson's Valerian and Universal's comedy Girls Trip kicked off the weekend with $1.7 million in previews.

Nolan’s most recent film, Interstellar, took in $3.5 million in previews in Nov. 2014 to go on to earn $47.5 million in its domestic debut. (The space epic eventually earned $675.1 million worldwide.) Warner Bros., which is releasing Nolan's World War II epic, is projecting a domestic debut in the $35 million-$40 million range. Most box-office observers believe Dunkirk will come in on the higher end.

Dunkirk follows one of the war's most famous battles in which British soldiers were surrounded by the German army during a fierce battle in WWII. Based on real events, the battle left 400,000 mostly British soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, in northern France, desperate for a way to make it across the 26 miles of the English Channel to home.

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Dunkirk stars Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Harry Styles.