Long-term tracking estimates at Box Office Pro have Detective Pikachu, Ryan Reynold’s forthcoming live-action/animated Pokemon movie, opening at around $75 million in North America, with an estimated total domestic haul of $250 million by the time it leaves theaters. That is a big number for a movie expected to bow in the third week of Avengers: Endgame‘s theatrical run, when that movie will almost certainly still have staying power. It will be opening opposite a pair of modestly-budgeted films aimed at women and older audiences and hoping to capitalize on the Mother’s Day holiday, which means that it is virtually guaranteed to run away with the “new this week” money.
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The smart money has Detective Pikachu earning around $75 million in its first frame, while The Hustle — Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson’s remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — earns around $10 million and Diane Keaton’s Poms earns somewhere between $10 and $15 million. The two may split the Mother’s Day audience somewhat, with younger viewers likely to see The Hustle and older viewers leaning toward Poms, but casual audiences in all demographics are still likely to have Avengers on their mind. Those are the only new movies in wide release that week, though; the following week will see John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, and the week after that is the live-action take on Disney’s Aladdin.
Promotion for Detective Pikachu seems to have taken some notes from Reynolds’s Deadpool; the irreverence drips off the screen and much of the social media conversation around any given piece of footage that comes out is some variation on “wow, live-action Pokemon are terrifying.” Directed by Rob Letterman, and co-written by Nicole Perlman, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is currently scheduled for a release on May 10. The film stars Ryan Reynolds (as the voice of the titular Pikachu), Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe, Khary Payton, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, Chris Geere, Rita Ora, and Omar Chaparro. The official synopsis for Pokemon: Detective Pikachu reads as such:
“The story begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.”
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