Free Guy’s Thursday preview numbers are out and they might be a bit less than you’d expect. Variety reports that the film opened to about $2.2 million on Thursday. Now, that’s a bit of a staggering number for a film that costs more than 50 times that amount to create. But, the estimates for the entire opening weekend are only $15 to $18 million and it’s right on pace to be near Jungle Cruise. A stark contrast to what these figures would have been back in the era before the pandemic. Analysts have had to take into account that there are only 4,165 theaters here in North America for opening weekend. Some of the estimates are a bit more optimistic, banking on the unique premise and the star power of Ryan Reynolds. The delta variant’s current rise in the United States is a cause for concern among exhibitors as well. Venom: Let There Be Carnage just suffered another delay as the prognosis on the theater situation took another dip yesterday. A lot of fans were equally relieved and horrified to learn that Disney would be keeping Shang-Chi in theaters no matter what happened in the time between now and early September.
