After two back-to-back weekends of preview screenings, Sony’s Gran Turismo races into the weekend with $1.4M.
Sony‘s Gran Turismo is peeling away from the starting line with $1.4M in previews. The studio began previewing the game-related sports drama two weeks ago and has included the overall take on Friday’s total. Screenings turned key at 2 p.m. on Thursday at 3,156 markets, including PLF and IMAX theaters. Analysts say the Gran Turismo box office could race toward the top spot this weekend with $12M-$15M across 3,800 cinemas.
Gran Turismo’s road to release is a winding one. Sony decided at the end of July to move the feature’s wide release from August 11 to August 25. The strategy was to put distance between Gran Turismo and Barbenheimer, a lethal combination that’s dominated the box office for several weeks. Another reason for moving the film is the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which forbids stars from the film to participate in promotional events. In Los Angeles, Gran Turismo played on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for two consecutive weekends. Smoke on the street says Sony earned $3M from the back-to-back screenings, but Sony has not confirmed as much. The double-preview window angers some studios, who say some audiences rely on numbers to tell them what movie to see. Some say Sony is padding Friday’s total by including the additional weekend. In other words, the reported sum should be lower.
A true story inspires Gran Turismo. The project is “the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.” Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie, Elysium) directs, taking the filmmaker outside his science-fiction wheelhouse. David Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow), Orlando Bloom (Carnival Row, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), and Archie Madekwe lead the cast.
Sony’s Gran Turismo franchise has sold 80 million copies worldwide, with the latest installment, Gran Turismo 7, released on March 4, 2022. Despite making the ultimate Gran Turismo experience in Gran Turismo 7, the game upset dedicated players by introducing a predatory monetization system. Sony quickly scrambled to quell the complaints, finding themselves in deeper water than before. Since the upset, Sony has gone to great lengths to improve the experience, and most fans seem happy with where the game is after several fixes.
Let us know in the comments below if you plan to see Gran Turismo in theaters this weekend.
Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/gran-turismo-box-office-previews/
