San Andreas is Heading for a Strong $40 Million Opening Weekend

The earthquake disaster film, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, will finish at the top this weekend

Warner Bros.’ “San Andreas” is expected to finish strong at the box office with an estimated $40 million opening weekend. 

The earthquake disaster film pulled in $3.1 million in the Thursday night pre-showings and grossed more than $16 million on Friday, making it a strong contender to top the weekend with a projected $40 million. That is right above with Dwayne Johnson’s other films with great debut weekends such as The Scorpion King ($36.1 million) and Hercules ($29.8 million). It /4/fell short of his 2013 action thriller G.I. Joe: Retaliation which grossed $40.5 million in the opening weekend. 

San Andreas features Alexandra Daddario and Carla Gugino in the lead roles alongside Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. The film follows the story of a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) who attempts to navigate through the destruction created by a massive earthquake of magnitude 9 to find and rescue his daughter in San Francisco alongside his estranged wife. The film is made with a budget of around $100 million and is filled remarkbale 3D special effects.

Cameron Crowe’s romantic drama “Aloha”, which is the other new offering of the week, did not went off to a good start despite having a star-studded cast (Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams). The film generated a modest $500,000 in its limited showings on Thursday night at 2,275 locations and is on its way to make a debut weekend somewhere around $8 to $12 million.

Aloha is likely to finish this weekend at fifth place behind Disney’s “Tomorrowland”, Universals’ musical comedy “Pitch Perfect 2 and Warner Bros. Mad Max: Fury Road.

“Tomorrowland” is expected to earn $42.7 million over the weekend, which is a disappointment indeed given its $170 budget. “Pitch Perfect 2” racked in around $130 million at U.S. box office earlier this week while “Mad Max: Fury Road” has gone past $100 million mark.

Source: Variety