Jordan Peele’s Nope appears to be hovering at the lower end of its projected box-office weekend but still appears on track to beat opening numbers for the director’s record-breaking debut, Get Out. Initial projections going into Nope’s opening weekend hovered in the $45 to 50 million range, The Wrap reports; based on Friday’s numbers ($19.5 million earned from 3,785 theaters) Universal/Monkeypaw now expects an estimated $44.5 million opening. The A sci-fi horror starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and one terrifying UFO, Nope might be Peele’s most divisive work yet—which could present an uphill battle at the box office. Still, it seems poised for a healthy take—and Get Out, which earned $33.3 million during its opening weekend in February 2017, proved that one should never discount Jordan Peele when it comes to breaking records and shattering expectations. Still, The Wrap notes, Nope is already underperforming Peele’s sophomore release, Us—which brought home a whopping $71 million during its first weekend in April 2019. And Nope, with its $68 million budget, will need to earn significantly more than Get Out (which carried a $4.5 million production budget) or Us ($20 million) in order to match their financial success. Stranger things have happened...
