While the western genre was once a staple of the movie industry, it has since fallen on hard times. However, the newest attempt to revive it may be a bigger hit than anybody expected. The Magnificent Seven is seeing more advance ticket sales than any film that either star Denzel Washington or director Antoine Fuqua have ever made. That should set the remake up for a great opening weekend.
Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua have worked together before. They made the action film The Equalizer together along with the Academy Award winning Training Day. However, according to Fandango, The Magnificent Seven is outpacing everything the two have made together, or apart, when it comes to presale tickets. It's also outpacing any other films being released this weekend, although the animated film Storks is looking to have a good weekend as well.
Part of the reason for the anticipation may simply be that the movie is full of major names. In addition to Denzel Washington, the movie co-star's Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D'Onofrio, among others. That's some solid star power, regardless of genre.
Back in the 1950s and 60s it seems that every other film was a western, what's more about every other one of them starred John Wayne. The original Magnificent Seven took Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and transplanted the action into a western cultural setting. It also had the benefit of all-star cast, thanks to names like Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, and Steve McQueen. It's become a classic. Whether the remake will do as well remains to be seen, but at least there's a trailer that can make it feel that way.
While The Magnificent Seven is likely to win the weekend, it remains to be seen how big it will be when it does so. The fact that the studio held off on this one until late September certainly implies that there was a feeling it wouldn't be able to compete with the big summer action movies, but being released now means it may be able to pick up a much larger share of the audience.
While our own review of the film did not necessarily agree that the seven are, in fact, magnificent, there's certainly some great western action to be had at the movies this weekend. Are you one of the people who already picked up their tickets to see The Magnificent Seven this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.
