Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon is now playing in theaters. How will it do alongside the second weekend of Taylor Swift’s massive The Eras Tour movie? Per the latest projections, the true crime drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro may not necessarily make blockbuster numbers or anything, but it’s certainly ready to hold its own.
Over the summer, expectations surrounding the commercial viability of a three-hour historical drama blew the industry away when Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had an $80 million domestic debut next to Barbie, which was amplified by “Barbenheimer” double features. According to Deadline, Killers Of The Flower Moon won’t go head-to-head against the father of the atomic bomb. It will reportedly make around $24 million in its debut weekend.
The projected opening weekend will place Killers Of The Flower Moon at No. 2 behind The Eras Tour concert movie, which is conversely expected to make $32 million in its sophomore weekend. This follows a record-breaking first weekend that scored the singer the best opening for a concert film ever with $97 million domestically and an overall $123.5 worldwide.
The projections for Scorsese’s latest movie aren’t mind-blowing, especially when one factors in its reported $200 million production budget, but Flower Moon does sit at three hours and 26 minutes and tells the story of the Osage murders that took place during the 1920s, after all. The movie beats the runtime of recent long blockbusters like Avatar: The Way Of Water (3 hours and 12 minutes) and Avengers: Endgame (3 hours, 2 minutes). Plus, Scorsese’s movie is set to become available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription at some point, but the service has yet to announce an official at-home release date.
Killers Of The Flower Moon may perform modestly to its potential due to the movie opening during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike as well. As the actors union continues to picket Hollywood studios in hopes of fair compensation in the streaming era, Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro were barred from promoting the movie. The cast also boasts Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser, who all would have normally taken part in a press tour to get the word out about the Hollywood release.
Despite quite a few factors acting against Flower Moon, across the board, critics seem to love Scorsese’s latest movie, with CinemaBlend’s own Killers of the Flower Moon review awarding the film a perfect five out of five stars. The new release has been a longtime passion project of Martin Scorsese’s considering the filmmaker has been working on it since 2017. The writer/director adapted David Grann’s nonfiction book with Eric Roth and worked closely with Osage Nation’s Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, along with numerous consultants. You can check it out in theaters now.