‘The Color Purple’ rakes in $18M, the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since ’09

By Rebecca Rubin, Variety

“The Color Purple,” a vibrant adaptation of the book-turned-beloved-movie-turned-hit-Broadway-musical, dominated at the box office on Christmas Day.

The film has outperformed expectations with $18 million from 3,152 North American theaters. It’s the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009, and the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.

[…]

Boosted by positive reviews and a glowing “A” CinemaScore, “The Color Purple” marks the first musical in some time that’s resonated at the box office. The film, backed by Warner Bros. and directed by Blitz Bazawule, collected more in a single day than recent stage-to-screen stories — including “West Side Story” ($10.5 million), “In the Heights” ($11 million), “Dear Evan Hansen” ($7.5 million) and “Cats” ($6.6 million) — earned in their opening weekends. Of course, “The Color Purple” benefitted by premiering on Christmas Day, one of the most popular days of the year for moviegoing. But this is a promising start for the $100 million-budgeted musical, which should benefit from word of mouth in the coming days.

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