‘The Great Gatsby’ Earns $3.3 Million On Thursday Night

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has earned an impressive $3.3 million during screenings on Thursday night.

The folks at Warner Bros. expected the adaptation of the classic novel to make around $35 million at the box office this weekend. However, analysts believe that Thursday’s numbers suggest the movie is looking at a grand total of around $45 million.

While The Great Gatsby will likely draw in a number of moviegoers over the next three days, industry insiders believe that Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 will claim the top spot once again. The sequel will likely earn an additional $70 million over the course of the weekend.

Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel sports an impressive cast, which will likely help draw people into theaters. In addition to Romeo + Juliet star Leonardo DiCaprio, the movie also features Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, and Isla Fisher.

The film has received mixed reviews ahead of its release in North America. The film currently sports a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47 percent. While some critics were not exactly impressed with Luhrmann’s latest effort, others seemed impressed with his take on the classic tale.

“The best thing about Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated / much-dreaded ‘The Great Gatsby’ is that, for all its computer-generated whoosh and overbroad acting, it is unmistakably F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby.’ That is no small deal,” David Edelstein wrote in his New York Magazine review.

New York Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman wasn’t nearly as smitten with Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the novel.

“The themes are spelled out with all the refinement of Cliffs Notes. The CGI gimmicks add nothing relevant (skip the 3-D ticket). And few of the actors seem at all comfortable amid the decadence,” she wrote in her review.

Regardless of how well the movie fared with critics, chances are a large number of people will turn out to see the film in theaters over the weekend.

Are you looking forward to Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby?