14 DAY TRIAL // And you thought audiences had grown tired of disaster movies! Well, that may be the case, but not if said disaster pic is headlined by none other than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: “San Andreas” opened this Friday and won the US and international box office.
“San Andreas,” directed by Brad Peyton and produced by Beau Flynn, is The Rock’s biggest solo opener of his entire career and, at the same time, proof that he has incredible star power, Variety reports.
A flawless performance at the box office
In the film, The Rock plays a helicopter pilot who is desperate to save his wife and daughter as cities crumble to pieces when the San Andreas fault gives. This being The Rock we’re speaking about, he manages to cheat death many times and pull off stunts of bravery no one man would even in a fictional universe (let alone in real life).
The film has proved to be a major draw for audiences, solidifying The Rock’s star power: made on a budget of $110 million (€100.8 million), it made over $53 million (€48.6 million) domestically and another $60 million (€55 million) in international markets.
In the US, “San Andreas” ran at 3,777 locations; it also opened this Friday at 14,500 screens in 60 international markets. The cume for the opening weekend is confirmed at $113.2 million (€103.7 million).
“Johnson is clearly one of the most bankable stars working today,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak, tells Variety. “Johnson’s versatility, charisma, humor and his imposing physical presence on the big screen has made him the go-to guy for filmmakers looking to ratchet up the excitement level and drawing power of their films.”
Warners says that disaster movies have always been successful, as long as they’re not released all at once. Similarly, sequels of the same movie released in quick succession tend to make audiences lose patience with them.
“Aloha” flops
Another new arrival at this weekend’s box office was “Aloha,” from esteemed director Cameron Crowe. Despite the fact that it boasted a stellar cast including critics’ favorite Bradley Cooper and everybody’s favorite Emma Stone as leads, the film barely made $10 million (€9.16 million) at the US box office.
Other stars appearing in it include Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Alec Baldwin and Danny McBride, but none of these names had enough pull for the audiences.
What doomed “Aloha” even before it came out was negative word of mouth and allegations of whitewashing. The film takes place in Hawaii and the entire cast is white: for instance, Emma Stone’s character is named Allison Ng.
