‘RRR’ Frontloads With $9.6 Million As ‘Everything’ Nabs Boffo Limited Debut

In other new release news, RRR earned a solid (but unquestionably frontloaded) $9.6 million over its Thurs-Sun debut. S. S. Rajamouli’s latest action epic earned $5.4 million on its first day, which includes $3.3 million in Thursday screenings, so clearly, those who were most excited showed up on Thursday (my IMAX showing that morning was oddly crowded). We’re still talking about an Indian melodrama that grossed almost $10 million in 1,200 theaters. Alas, that’s below the $10 million domestic launch for Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Conclusion in April of 2017.

That towering action epic ended up with $19 million in North America and $262 million worldwide. It earned $221 million in India alone, remaining the biggest “in India” grosser ever. Both Baahubali flicks (including The Beginning from 2015) are on Netflix if you want to know why those in the know were psyched for RRR. This flick is comparatively more grounded, telling a comparatively grim and often violent tale (centered on but not technically based upon real-life characters and incidents) of British imperialism and righteous revolution while still offering the bonkers-bananas production values, spectacle and larger-than-life action that justifies yesterday’s $30 (!) IMAX ticket.

This release is being specialty-priced courtesy of the distributor, and you can’t use your AMC A-List or Regal Unlimited passes, which is something to note as the grosses are counted accordingly. Nonetheless, I got my money’s worth. As almost expected from the pedigree, RRR is a three-hour spectacle (with intermission) that occasionally plays like Aquaman and Avatar on steroids with the patriotic/nationalistic fervor of Pearl Harbor or Battle At Lake Changjin and at least one knock-out dance sequence.

Globally speaking, the flick will try to stand tall beside Dangal (the biggest-grossing Indian flick ever with $305 million worldwide, including $193 million in China) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (the biggest grosser ever *in* India). RRR will best the $10 million domestic debut of Baahubali 2 and presumably that 2017 film’s $19 million domestic total. Overseas numbers are slowly rolling in, with around $31 million in its worldwide opening day. If, and this is a big if, it was as frontloaded worldwide as it was in North America, it’s still looking like around $55 million globally for the long weekend.

Meanwhile, A24 unleashed Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s critically acclaimed sci-fi mindbender Everything Everywhere All at Once into ten theaters yesterday. They are trying an old-school platform release before going wide on April 8. The cinematically spectacular Michelle Yeoh/Ke Huy Quan/Stephanie Hsu multiverse comedy earned $203,900 on Friday and a $509,659 opening weekend. That would give the flick a $50,966 per-theater average, one of the bigger such per-theater averages since late 2019.

If you’re so inclined, A24 is hosting an IMAX “fan screening event” on March 30, which might be the last chance general audiences have to see this eye-popper in IMAX. I have nitpicks and subjective qualms, like RRR it’s overlong, redundant and peaks at the 90-minute mark, but it is absolutely a must-see original. And yeah, if you can, I’d highly recommend catching that IMAX event. I don’t know how Everything Everywhere All At Once will play when it goes wide.

Frankly, the platform release was partially about getting at least one week of positive box office news via a massive per-theater average. However, it’s almost certain to play as a demographically specific event film. It’s Michelle Yeoh’s first outright lead role in an English-language movie, features the acting comeback of Ke Huy Quan and (if need be) could be a swan song for James Hong (who is 93 years old, so I view every performance as a fond farewell just in case). A24 did get The Green Knight to $17 million last summer. I’ll choose to be optimistic that A24 can sell this one-of-a-kind fantasy as a “too cool to wait for VOD” event flick. At the very least, they may have their best shot at the next Oscar season.