Doctor Sleep Gets Beaten by Midway at Friday Box Office

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Doctor Sleep Gets Beaten by Midway at Friday Box Office

 

According to Friday's box office numbers, the new Stephen King adaptation, Doctor Sleep came in second to the WWII drama Midway. A sequel to the hit 1980's horror film The Shining, many expected the film would almost immediately find success, what with Doctor Sleep being chock-full of references to the Jack Nicholson horror classic. The movie stars Ewan McGregor as Dan Torrance, a man struggling with alcoholism and dealing with the traumatic events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was young. When he meets Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a young girl who shares the same extrasensory gift of the "shine," they find themselves in a battle against a cult - led by Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) - who are trying to steal their powers in order to become immortal.

Directed by Roland Emmerich, Midway stars Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring), Woody Harrelson, and Mandy Moore. Based on real-life events, the war drama tells the story of U.S. Navy sailors and aviators who made their way through several battles, including Pearl Harbor, to the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. It's been said that the battle between the United States and the Japanese naval forces lasted for four days and totally changed the course of WWII. With its release on Friday, the film has already been deemed a "touching tribute to those who turned the tide in the Pacific."

According to The Wrap, Brad Ferguson's Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep was expected to pull out great numbers this weekend, but on Friday it was beat out by Roland Emmerich's war drama, Midway, putting it well below its opening weekend projections. The WWII drama is now estimated to open with $17.5 million, which is slightly above its predictions. But even though it's starting out well and drawing ahead of one of the most buzzed about films of the year, it does have a way to go if Midway hopes to turn a profit on its $100 million budget.
 

 

The bigger surprise is the under-performance of the horror thriller, Doctor Sleep. Produced on a $50 million budget, the film earned just $5.2 million on Friday. The Wrap also reports that trackers had predicted it as having an opening of somewhere between $25 - $30 million, given that it has had such solid reviews and "glowing praise from Stephen King". Unfortunately, the film now is predicted to flop with just an estimated $13.5 million - well below Pet Semetary's $24.9 million opening weekend just earlier this year.

It's interesting that films like It and It: Chapter 2 - both adaptations from the Stephen King universe - can bring in huge box office numbers, and yet a much talked about film like, Doctor Sleep fails to deliver the same. There's certainly still time for word of mouth to generate interest and higher box office numbers for Doctor Sleep, but it's no doubt disappointing that it's unlikely to reach those initial opening weekend predictions. In a case like this, it just goes to show how these predictions can sometimes be way off, and really, it's up to the people to decide what they feel like watching at the movies.

Doctor Sleep (2019) release date: Nov 08, 2019
Midway (2019) release date: Nov 08, 2019