‘First Man’ Losing Badly In Opening Weekend As ‘Venom’ And ‘A Star Is Born’ Continue Earning

Universal Pictures believes that First Man may be one of those movies which could net a number of big award nominations, but they hope for a big box office too. While the Ryan Gosling-starring film has received praise from critics, it didn’t really provide the type of numbers that the studio was hoping for. Then again, it is going up against A Star Is Born and Venom, which has already broken all kinds of box office records.

In First Man, Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong and the movie details everything leading up to his moment as the first person to walk on the moon. There has been a lot of award buzz for it and Universal was really hoping that it would bring in money in its opening weekend and overall.

Unfortunately, things aren’t looking so earth-shattering as First Man earned $5.9 million in its first day in theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. That put it in third place and has it on track to make an estimated opening weekend of just $16.8 million, which is below studio expectations.

The box office numbers don’t mean that First Man is a bad film, it’s just that it was released at a bad time and up against some strong competition.

Forbes reported that Venom had a massive drop of 70 percent on its second Friday, but that didn’t stop it from crossing the $300 million mark worldwide. If all holds steady throughout the weekend, Venom is expected to finish with around $30 million at the domestic box office.

Coming in right behind it is A Star Is Born which stars Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in another film generating a lot of Oscar buzz. Its second Friday scored $8.5 million, which has it on track to end the weekend with an estimated $28 million.

Three new movies opened in theaters this weekend and all of them couldn’t surpass Venom or A Star Is Born on Friday night. Here are the numbers for Friday, October 12, 2018.

1. Venom – $9.785 million

2. A Star Is Born – $8.5 million

3. First Man – $5.86 million

4. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween – $4.85 million

5. Bad Times At The El Royale – $2.825 million

None of those numbers are incredibly impressive, but at this time of year, they’re quite common. Venom has received a ton of criticism and has plenty of negative reviews, but it’s continuing to earn at the box office. A Star Is Born is over $88 million worldwide and has its focus more on the awards. First Man? Well, there were high hopes for awards and a big take from theaters, but so far, it’s falling short in the latter.