Go, Joe! Jon M. Chu’s G.I. Joe sequel, Retaliation, got off to a fast start heading into the Easter weekend. Numbers shared with Deadline claim that Paramount’s popcorn blockbuster banked $10.5 million thanks to a handful of Wednesday night screenings and a full day of Thursday screenings.
The $2.5M earned by Retaliation on Wednesday evening was “a little more than we expected,” a studio source shared with Deadline, who also pointed at positive tracking in order to summarize, “Maybe we do have a shot at $50M in the U.S.” Deadline notes that CinemaScores posted by exiting audience members averaged at “A-” – and improvement over the “B+” earned by the first G.I. Joe movie, The Rise of Cobra.
But how did Rise of Cobra perform at the box office? Though it opened at the tail end of a busy summer movie season (meaning it’s not easy to make a fair comparison), Stephen Sommers’ G.I. Joe film had crossed the $22M mark after one full day of screenings, and earned $54M over its opening weekend. Retaliation will have a head start on its predecessor, having essentially four days to earn its opening number. But at first glance, the addition of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis was worth its weight in gold for Paramount and the Joe franchise.
“Now the key is how much we go up on Good Friday,” a Paramount exec told Deadline. We’ll continue to track Chu’s sequel throughout the weekend, but tell us: Are you’re planning on going? Will you pay for 3D? And tell us what did you think of the new G.I. Joe when you get back.
