Warner Bros.’ Chinese-American monster flick “The Meg” opened on 3,900 screens on Thursday night earning $4 million.
Starring Jason Statham as a deep-sea diver tasked with killing an enormous shark known as the Megalodon, the film is expected to open to $25 million this weekend. While that’s a weak start for a $150 million blockbuster, “The Meg” was co-financed and co-produced by China Media Capital’s Gravity Pictures, as the film looks to earn bigger numbers in China this weekend with the help of Statham’s co-star Li Bingbing and a story that takes place on China’s Pacific coast.
Rainn Wilson also stars in the Jon Turteltaub-directed blockbuster, which has earned mixed reviews with a 51 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.
Also releasing this weekend is Sony’s “Slender Man,” which earned $1 million from 2,100 screens on Thursday. Based on the famed internet legend creepypasta created on the website Something Awful back in 2008, “Slender Man” is projected to open to $8 million this weekend.
Finally, there is Spike Lee’s critically-acclaimed “BlacKkKlansman,” which Focus Features will release on approximately 1,500 screens. Hitting screens on the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville riots, the Cannes Grand Prix winner tells the story of how Colorado Springs’ first black cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan alongside reluctant partner Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), who went undercover into KKK meetings under Ron’s name.
The film is expected to open to $10 million this weekend, which would set a new studio record for Focus for films that open on less than 2,000 screens. Laura Harrier and Topher Grace also star, with Alec Baldwin and Harry Belafonte in cameo roles.