“Unbroken” Angelina Jolie’s war drama has launched respectably with $850,000 in Christmas Eve showings at 1,979 North American theaters.
Universal Pictures expects “Unbroken” to gross approximately $17 million to $19 million at the box office by the end of the Christmas weekend and thus is expanding “Unbroken” into 3,131 locations on Christmas Day amid serious competition from four new films — including Sony’s “The Interview” — and holdover “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”
“Unbroken” depicts the life of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini, portrayed by Jack O’Connell. Zamperini, who died in July at the age of 97, survived in a raft for 47 days after his bomber was downed in WWII, and was sent to a series of prisoner-of-war camps. Universal has been estimating that “Unbroken,” will finish the four-day Christmas weekend in the $17 million to $19 million range.
The film, co-produced by Legendary Entertainment, faces a trio of other wide releases — Disney’s “Into the Woods” at 2,440 sites, Paramount’s “The Gambler” at 2,478 and The Weinstein Co.’s “Big Eyes” — and Sony’s opening of “The Interview” at more than 300 independent theaters.