Topline
Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo secured an $8.5 million debut Friday and is projected to rally past the $16 million mark for its opening weekend—a promising start for a film looking to capitalize on the groundwork set by increasingly successful video game movies from the last few years.
Maximilian Mundt, Geri Halliwell Horner, Orlando Bloom and Archie Madekwe attend the “Gran Turismo” … [+]
Key Facts
The $8.5 million grossed by Gran Turismo includes $5.3 million from early previews that contested with other films such as Blue Beetle, Barbie and Oppenheimer.
The racing movie, which has a 60% critic rating and 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, will need to drive past its $60 million budget to become profitable.
Gran Turismo’s box office projections should be taken into consideration carefully, as $4 movie tickets offered for National Cinema Day this Sunday could make sales unpredictable for all movies this weekend.
The latest video game movie to hit the big screen before Gran Turismo was The Super Mario Bros. Movie—an animated adventure movie that raked in a whopping $574.3 million in the U.S. and secured the No. 2 spot in this year’s domestic box office behind Barbie, according to Box Office Mojo.
Video game movies have found particular commercial success in the last five years, with films such as Pokémon: Detective Pikachu grossing $144 million domestically and the Tom Holland-led Uncharted grossing $148 million in the U.S. despite mixed reviews from critics.
Tangent
Video game movies have come a long way following decades of poorly received movies with mixed commercial track records. For example, Doom, a massively popular first-person shooter gaming franchise, received a big screen adaptation in 2005 starring Karl Urban and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The movie bombed at the box office, grossing $58 million worldwide and failing to break even on its estimated $60 million budget.
Key Background
Gran Turismo, despite using the namesake of a video game franchise, is based on the story of Jann Mardenborough, a teen Gran Turismo player turned racer after becoming the youngest winner of the Gran Turismo Academy. The academy was a television program that provided the best Gran Turismo players with a chance to become a professional Nissan driver. The movie, stars Archie Madekwe, David Harbour and Orlando Bloom.
Further Reading
‘Super Mario’ Beats ‘Warcraft’ And ‘Pokemon’: Biggest Video Game Film Ever (Despite Brutal Reviews) (Forbes)
Box Office: ‘Uncharted’ Ends Video Game Movie Curse With $106 Million Worldwide Weekend (Forbes)