Family films can be a big money maker if the movie is an all-quadrant pleaser. John Krasinski has stated that he wanted his new movie, IF, to bring audiences back to the Amblin-like days of wonder when filmmakers like Steven Spielberg unlocked people’s imaginations. The box office predictions from our own Chris Bumbray had placed the movie to only open at $30 million. Family audiences are likely to be split between this and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which should be a strong second with around $28 million (of course, there’s a narrow chance Apes could actually pull off a first-place finish, which would be a disaster from Krasinski’s movie). Although, his A Quiet Place prequel will likely make a lot more money at the box office this summer.
As the weekend starts, Deadline has reported that the Thursday night preview figures that IF imagined would ultimately total at $1.75 million from screenings that started at 4 PM. It is noted, however, that original, live-action PG-rated family films are more rare nowadays and have somewhat of an uphill battle to face. For comparison, the highest-grossing opening for an original live-action PG film was 2011’s Hop at $37.5 million. While Krasinski is normally praised for his directing abilities after his work on the A Quiet Place movies, the reception for IF has been less-than-stellar. The Rotten Tomatoes score would only come out to 51%, although an audience score is yet to be calculated.
Meanwhile, a horror film that aims for a more limited range of audience is not far behind. Lionsgate’s new incarnation of the Strangers franchise with The Strangers: Chapter 1 scared up $1.2M from previews that began at 5 PM as well. The home invasion film was booked in 2,856 locations in North America, and tracking was showing an opening of $7 million to $9 million for the $8.5 million budgeted Renny Harlin film.
Krasinski and Reynolds are popular names in the comedy genre, so it will remain to be seen how IF fares in the long run. In our recent review, Chris Bumbray says of IF, “Krasinski makes a bold swing.[…] In the end, IF is nowhere near as bad as some of its detractors will say it is (people are already calling it the worst movie of the year), but it’s not that great, either. It’s an interesting misfire from a director who clearly has some major chops and a huge career ahead of him.”