‘Cocaine Bear’ Claws $2 Million at the Thursday Box Office

Accidents happen! Elizabeth Banks tripped on stage at the Oscars as she walked on stage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Scream VI” collected $44.5 million in its opening weekend, a scary-good start for Paramount and Spyglass Media’s long-running slasher series. Those ticket sales were enough to top domestic box office charts over two newcomers, Sony’s prehistoric sci-fi thriller “65” and the Focus Features heartwarming comedy “Champions,” as well as last weekend’s victor “Creed III.” The initial haul for “Scream VI” is frighteningly strong for the sixth installment in a franchise. Not only did it greatly improve upon the start of last year’s hit reboot “Scream,” which scored with $30 million, but it crushed the all-time opening weekend record previously set by 2000’s “Scream 3” with $34 million. And, “Scream VI” cost $35 million so it’ll easily turn a profit in its theatrical run.

J. Kim Murphy Do you like scary movies? The rest of the box office does. Paramount’s “Scream VI” looks to spook off “Creed III” for the top slot at the domestic box office. The self-branded slasher re-quel grossed $19.3 million from 3,675 locations on its opening day, a figure that includes $5.7 million in previews. That’s more than enough to fend off the weekend’s other new releases, Sony’s science-fiction dinosaur thriller “65” and Focus Features’ sports comedy “Champions.” “Scream VI” is already a few steps ahead of its 2022 predecessor, which landed a $13 million opening day. In fact, the “Scream” franchise is proving to be bigger than ever. Should projections hold, the sixth entry will score a franchise record opening weekend of $43.5 million, a good deal higher than the $32 million that “Scream 2” earned in its 1997 bow.

Jordan Moreau The sixth time may be the charm: “Scream VI” is heading toward what could be a franchise-high opening at the box office this weekend. The Paramount and Spyglass Media slasher movie made $5.7 million at the domestic box office in Thursday previews. It’s expanding from 3,125 domestic theaters to 3,675 on Friday. Nearly 27 years after the first “Scream” movie terrified moviegoers, the franchise is still going strong, thanks to last year’s reboot, or “requel,” also titled “Scream.” The 2022 “Scream” pulled in $3.5 million in Thursday previews in January 2022 before scaring up a solid $30 million opening weekend. “Scream 3,” released in 2000, years before some of the younger stars of the newest movie were born, holds the record for the franchise’s highest opening weekend with $34 million.

grossed $3.5 million at the Thursday box office in January 2022. It went on to make $81.6 million in the U.S. and $137.7 million worldwide against a $25 million budget.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Half a dozen movies in, and the bloodletting hasn’t eased up — or gotten less popular. “Scream VI,” the latest installment in the long-running horror series, looks to slash its way to new opening weekend heights at the box office. Paramount is releasing the film in 3,670 North American theaters on Friday. Based on early estimates, “Scream VI” is projected to debut to at least $35 million and as much as $40 million over the weekend. As of now, 2000’s “Scream 3” remains the franchise’s top opener with $34 million. Records aside, the newest entry is expected to improve upon the start of last year’s hit “Scream” (not to be confused with 1996’s “Scream”), which scored a solid $30 million debut in January. By bringing back franchise stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette — and adding in newcomers Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega and Dylan Minnette — to the quiet town of Woodsboro, 2022’s “Scream” earned positive reviews and ended its box office run with $81 million domestically and $137 million. Not too shabby, considering it cost $25 million and was released amid the omicron COVID surge.

UPDATED, Friday PM: Amazon, as it re-embraces theatrical with its acquisition of MGM, will easily see the company’s biggest box office opening ever with Creed III, which is headed to a franchise record start of $45.5 million after a $20M Friday (including $5.45M in previews). Creed III‘s opening day alone is bigger than any previous box office weekend for an Amazon title.

projected to pull in $40 million its opening weekend. MGM is projecting $35 to $38 million, on par with “Creed II”s $35.5 million opening. The 2018 sequel brought $3.7 million from preview screenings that took place on a Tuesday night ahead of the extended Thanksgiving weekend in 2018.“Creed III” must take in more than $115 domestically and $214 million worldwide to beat its predecessor, while the first installment in the franchise made $109 million in the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Sugar23 has signed rising star Brooklynn Prince, on the heels of her new film Cocaine Bear‘s opening weekend triumph, with a current worldwide gross of $28M+ at the worldwide box office, against a production budget of roughly $30M.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The cocaine bear in Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” is an impressive feat of visual effects wizardry, but there was an actual person behind the 500-pound, drug-addicted beast. Meet Allan Henry, the motion capture performer who played the bear on set so that actors such as Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, and Alden Ehrenreich had something real to interact with during scenes. When Liotta fights the bear in the film’s third act, for instance, he was actually facing off with Henry on set. Henry is a motion capture veteran who already has experience playing animals thanks to his work on the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy. But the actor said said in an interview with /Film that “Cocaine Bear” was a different beast because the eponymous animal is not as humanistic as the apes in “Planet of the Apes.”

“‘Nobody likes to watch people getting eaten by lions”

“Cocaine Bear” is barreling into theatres in a big way.

a briliant binge of comedy horror.” Here’s what you need to know about the movie, which is directed by Elizabeth Banks and stars Keri Russell, Ray Liotta and O’Shea Jackson Jr.It was released on Friday, Feb. 24 by Universal Pictures.Like other Universal, DreamWorks, Illumination, and Focus Films, it will stream exclusively on Peacock within four months of its theatrical debut.

“Cocaine Bear” is barreling into theatres in a big way.

Arguably an early contender for the wildest movie of 2023, Elizabeth Banks‘ “Cocaine Bear” is based on the true story of a 175-pound Black Bear who overdosed on cocaine after ingesting the drug in 1985. While the bear did not kill anyone and died shortly after consuming cocaine, Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden fictionalize a story where the bear goes on a killing spree while massively high on cocaine.

Universal’s R-rated Elizabeth Banks campy genre pic Cocaine Bear lifted $2M last night from previews at 3,000 theaters that began at 5PM.

Jordan Moreau “Cocaine Bear” is snorting up a solid opening weekend. The R-rated action-comedy earned $2 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It opened in 3,000 North American theaters Thursday night and will expand to 3,534 on Friday. Universal’s bloody, real-life tale about a black bear on a cocaine-fueled rampage is projected to open with $15 million to $17 million this weekend. Some predictions have it opening with as much as $20 million, thanks to its positive word-of-mouth (or word-of-snout) and memeability online. The mid-budget film cost roughly $35 million, with much of it used on the CGI bear, so a launch in the upper teens would be a good sign.

Stretching the phrase “inspired by true events” to its bare limits, Cocaine Bear (★★★☆☆) takes off from the stranger-than-fiction real-life tale of a Kentucky drug runner who, in 1985, dumped bundles of cocaine from a plane over Georgia, then perished trying to parachute after the drugs, a large, expensive portion of which were found and somehow consumed by a 500-lb. black bear deep in the Georgia woods.Anyone interested in the dead-serious facts of the case can grab a copy of Sally Denton’s comprehensive chronicle The Bluegrass Conspiracy, originally published in 1990.This movie, on the other hand, takes a bold leap off that plane with Thornton’s duffel bags full of brown paper-wrapped bricks of blow, and never looks back.Directed by Pitch Perfect mogul Elizabeth Banks, and scripted by Jimmy Warden, Cocaine Bear leaves no gruesome gag unturned, no outrageous one-liner untold, serving up the sort of anything-goes big-screen comedy that comes along rarely.Mid-rampage, the coke-fueled bear snorts a line off someone’s severed leg.

“A bear did COCAINE!” screams a frazzled Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), trying to explain a patently absurd concept like a rational person – and exposing the vast capacity for humor that lies between the two. “Cocaine Bear,” a film that really puts the high in high-concept comedy, contains promise and peril in its premise.

Cocaine Bear is a dark action-comedy film set in a small town in Georgia.READ MOREThe synopsis reads: “After ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine, a 500 lb American black bear goes on a killing rampage in a small town of Georgia where a group of locals and tourists must join forces to survive the attack.”Directed and co-produced by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear features an ensemble cast that includes  Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta in one of his final performances before his death in 2022.Oh, absolutely. According to the official website, Cocaine Bear is “inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it.”Dubbed Pablo Eskobear (after “the king of cocaine” Pablo Escobar), the real life bear was a 150lb American black bear who was discovered on a hillside in Fannin County, Georgia next to a duffel bag and 40 half-consumed packs of cocaine.Well, rather than heading out “on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow and blood,” Pablo Eskobear overdosed on cocaine and was found dead on the scene.According to the Washington Post, an autopsy found the bear had around three to four grams of the drug in its blood stream. The narcotics investigators who made the discovery believe the drugs were ditched months earlier by trafficker Andrew Carter Thornton II who had planned to return.However, Thornton died after falling out of a plane in September 1985.