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Sony's The Woman King finished the theatrical weekend sitting atop the domestic box office standings with a higher than expected $19 million performance across its three-day opening slate. The Black female historical epic looked to earn between $15 and $18 million by the weekend's conclusion, but a star-studded cast and raving reviews allowed the film to outperform even the studio's expectation, which was a projected $12 million opening performance.
The Woman King comes from director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose directorial credits include some outstanding projects such as the Netflix original film The Old Guard. The Sony historical epic starred Academy Award-winner Viola Davis in the films leading role, alongside Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and notable Star Wars star John Boyega. The Bythewood-directed film was inspired by true events in the African kingdom of Dahomey.
Per Deadline, The Woman King officially arrived this past Friday and took home $6.8 million to conclude its highly-anticipated opening night. The film saw an uptick in numbers by the end of Saturday, earning $7.15 million before heading into Sunday, where the film earned $5 million to end the weekend. The film made an accumulated $19 million total to take the box office crown, which was good enough to dethrone last weekend's winner Barbarian, which earned $6.3 million to finish second.
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Other notable releases this past weekend included the brand-new A24 film Pearl, which comes from director Ti West. The film serves as a prequel to West's previous horror film from earlier this year, X, and centers around the origin story of the emblematic psychopath played by Mia Goth. The A24 film earned $3.12 million to end its premiere weekend, which was good enough to place third in the box office standings. The other notable brand-new release was the Searchlight film See How They Run, which generated $3.1 million to finish fourth.
How long The Woman King will reign at the box office remains to be seen, but the film is one of only two releases this year to earn an A+ grade from CinemaScore. The other film to accomplish such a feat was the ground-breaking Paramount film Top Gun: Maverick, which still stands as the year's highest-grossing film. The tide may change with the arrival of Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling this weekend, but the film's current 36% Rotten Tomatoes score may prompt some viewers to stay home and wait for the film's VOD release.
The Woman King is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Deadline