A Good Day to Die Hard starring Bruce Willis is off to a “good” start at the North American box office as nearly $1 million worth of tickets were sold for Thursday night 10pm and midnight screenings.
Fox’s running total for A Good Day to Die Hard stands at $840,00 from those late night screenings that came from 2,328 locations. That’s more than a respectable head start for the fifth film in the franchise that will not be benefiting from 3D ticket surcharges, especially since it comes from the night that kicks off Valentine’s Day.
There will be many more dollars to be made for Fox from A Good Day to Die Hard over the coming days. The action flick is expected to top $50 million and possibly much higher through Monday’s President’s Day holiday. Today’s total earnings will offer a strong indication of exactly where the film is headed.
Fox is counting on moviegoers ignoring critical response to A Good Day to Die Hard that has saddled the sequel with an abysmal 13% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a stark contract to the 86% approval rating the previous film Live Free or Die Hard achieved. Our writer Jon Hueber was in the majority in blasting the film for its gaps in logic and phoned-in performance by Bruce Willis.
Whether the film stinks or not won’t likely impact the opening weekend, but it could impact the long-term box office prospects. A low CinemaScore rating could point toward a rapid decline in ticket sales after the “core” audience gets their fill of Willis as John McClane dodging death and taking out bad guys.
