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Challengers has finally taken to the court.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the movie earned $1.9 million in box office previews for MGM and Amazon Studios as it prepares to open everywhere on Friday. The majority came from Thursday night shows, but there was also a special Imax sneak earlier this week.
The critically acclaimed movie features Zendaya as a tennis player caught up in a love triangle. She stars opposite Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.
“Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, Challengers is arguably Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date; it’s certainly his lightest and most playful,” writes THR‘s David Rooney in his rave review. “As agile and dynamic as the many tennis matches it depicts, the love-triangle drama pits the rivalry on the court of two former best friends against their competing desire for a self-possessed woman whose hunger to win is not diminished by a knee injury that cuts short her own career.”
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Challengers was supposed to open last year in time for awards season, but MGM and Amazon scuttled those plans because of the SAG-AFTRA strike and the ban on talent doing press. Zendaya in particular has a huge social reach needed for the film.
If tracking is correct, Challengers has a shot at winning the weekend with $15 million, a strong number for what’s more of an arthouse movie than a commercial play.
Also opening nationwide is Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s Unsung Hero, which earned $470,000 in Thursday previews. All told, the faith-based film has collected $1.67 from early-access screenings.
Based on a true story, Unsung Hero follows David Smallbone as he moves his family from Australia to the U.S. searching for a brighter future after his successful music company collapses. He and his wife begin to realize the musical talent of their seven children; three of them who would go on to become two successful acts — KING + COUNTRY and Rebecca St. James.
Unsung Hero is on course to open in the $5 million to $6 million range against a budget of just $6 million.
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