Uncharted tracking towards a $30 million opening weekend

Tom Holland will be making a second appearance on the box office charts this weekend with Spider-Man: No Way Home still pulling in money and the release of the video game adaptation, Uncharted, preparing for its opening weekend. The film is set to dominate the President’s Day weekend as it’s looking to attract young guys and women under 25, per Deadline.

Uncharted is tracking towards a $30 million opening over the four-day weekend and $27 million over three days. Other industry projections have the film debuting even higher in the mid-$30 million range over fours days with a possible chance at $40 million. Previews for Uncharted begin at 4:00 PM on Thursday at 3,526 locations before going wide on Friday to 4,200 locations.

Working in the film’s favor is that the movie’s target demo skews younger and that demographic has proven to be a driving force at the box office as things continue to go back to normal during the pandemic. Sony Pictures reportedly isn’t really going for fans of the video games for this one. They’re hoping for the same love that movies like National Treasure or Jungle Cruise received. It’s a bit of a smart move because those who aren’t familiar with the video game series will be more open to seeing it and fans of the video game won’t be able to nitpick about how the film isn’t a completely faithful adaptation of the source material. This is part of the reason they opted to make the film an origin story and cast Tom Holland, who is considerably younger than the character of Nathan Drake in the video game.

Positioning the film so close to Spider-Man: No Way Home was also a smart move by Sony. There is bound to be some kind of halo effect as they’re expecting this to be another franchise-starter for Tom Holland. If anything, this will be a testament to his ability to be a box office draw. It’s like his name alone will bring in moviegoers.

Globally the film is looking at an opening of $70-100 million and this is a film that should play extremely well overseas due to the globetrotting nature of its plot. The film has already hunted down $22 million from last weekend’s overseas start in 15 markets. The film ranked number one in the UK, Russia, and Spain and it also had a pretty sizable start in Ukraine.

Critics haven’t been too nice to Uncharted with a current rotten score of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes but critics are never really kind to video game adaptations. This will be a film that plays better with casual moviegoers so the critical reviews may be mute at this point.

Also opening this weekend is Channing Tatum’s Dog, which is tracking towards an opening of $12 million over four days. The film opens in 3,677 theaters and women are the key demo here thanks to Tatum. Previews begin at 4:00 PM on Thursday. Tatum co-directed the film with Reid Carolin and it follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will for a road trip. The Rangers happen to be Tatum’s Army Ranger Briggs and Lulu, a Belgian Malinois dog. There is no Rotten Tomatoes score yet but this film COULD leg it out as word from early screenings says this is a surprise must-see.

What are YOUR thoughts on this opening weekend’s box office tracking for Uncharted and Dog?