Tom Holland’s ‘Uncharted’ tops box office with $51 million US opening
Sony’s Uncharted movie has reportedly found treasure at the US box office, where it brought in $51 million on its opening weekend Friday (Feb. 18), including an estimated $44.2 million for the first three days.
Uncharted is based on the popular PlayStation game series from publisher Naughty Dog.
The video game adaptation stars Tom Holland, fresh from his Spider-Man: No Way Home stint as treasure hunter Nathan Drake, and Mark Wahlberg as friend and mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan in the buddy action-adventure flick reminiscent of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider.
Despite not being well-received by some critics, the film has managed to lure back some audiences to theaters amid the pandemic.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Uncharted did better than expected thanks to younger male audiences, a key demographic of the games. More than 60 percent of ticket buyers were male, while 71 percent of the audience was 35 and under.
A globe-trotting adventure that flies to new heights. @tomholland2013 stars in #UnchartedMovie, exclusively in cinemas February. pic.twitter.com/Guwm1tX4Ll
— Columbia Pictures PH (@ColumbiaPicPH) January 25, 2022
Internationally, Uncharted reportedly grossed $55.4 million from 62 markets for a worldwide weekend haul of $106.4 million. Including foreign revenue from last weekend, Uncharted is expected to finish Monday with $139 million in the bank. However, the figures don't include China, where the film won't premiere until March 14.
Philippine audiences won't have to wait long though, as Uncharted will be dropping in theaters this week, five days after its US opening.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Venom), the Uncharted movie was conceived as an origin story for the game series’ globe-trotting adventurer Nathan Drake, played by Holland.
In the film, Holland's Drake starts as a bartender before he is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Sully (Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago.
What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs.
Non-gamers who haven't played the Uncharted series will probably enjoy the Hollywood film's connection to the Philippines, as Drake and Sully search for "the biggest treasure that has never been found."
"Magellan did find tons of gold in the Philippines," says Holland's Drake in a teaser shared by Columbia Pictures International, the local distrubution arm of Sony Pictures in the country.
“Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg are brilliant together. Thank you to our sister company, PlayStation, for their incredible partnership, and all the many people who worked so hard to bring this film to life in a big, theatrical way,” Sony Motion Picture Group president Josh Greenstein said in a statement.
Watch the final trailer released by Sony Pictures for Uncharted below.
Uncharted will premiere in Philippine theaters this Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022.