'IF' Has a Decent Opening Weekend
by EG
John Krasinksi's family film IF didn't quite live up to expectations in its first weekend in release, but it was far from a flop. The semi-animated movie performed well enough to take the top spot for the week, but it wasn't an obvious hit. The bad news for the movie's studio is that it had a big production budget, and its modest debut numbers suggest that it might struggle to make a profit in the long run. Read on for details.
Via Variety.
Not exactly the opening weekend that dreams are made of.
Director John Krasinski‘s “IF,” a fantasy-comedy that promises your imaginary friends from childhood are real, fell slightly short of box office expectations with $35 million. Heading into the weekend, “IF” was expected to bring in at least $40 million in its first weekend of release. Based on Friday’s turnout, it looked like “IF” would open to $30 million but projections were revised up after Saturday’s strong showing. Ticket sales were enough for first place — and decent for an original PG family film — but it’s a wobbly start for a movie that cost $110 million to make and many millions more to market. It collected an additional $20 million overseas for a global total of $55 million.
The good news for Paramount Pictures, which distributed “IF,” is that audiences dug the film, giving it an “A” CinemaScore. Ideally, it’ll have staying power like recent original kid-friendly movies, including “Migration” and “Elemental,” which managed to keep selling tickets months after their debuts. But while those films had relatively clear runways, “IF” will compete next weekend with another family film, Sony’s animated “The Garfield Movie.”
Krasinski wrote, directed, produced and stars in “IF,” which follows Brooklyn-dwelling neighbors Cal and Bea (Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming) with the ability to see other people’s imaginary friends (IF, for short). Steve Carell, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Emily Blunt, Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart and George Clooney round out the star-studded voice cast of IFs. Reviews have been mixed (it has a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes), with Variety’s Tomris Laffly calling it “a sweetly old-fashioned yet messily conjured children’s tale that sadly falls short of its thematic ambitions.”
It’s another downbeat weekend for the domestic box office, which remains almost 22% behind 2023 and 42% below the same point in 2019, according to Comscore.
Get the rest of the story at Variety.