Killers of the Flower Moon Tracking for $24 Million Box Office Opening Weekend

Martin Scorsese's acclaimed crime drama opens in theaters Oct. 20th.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Killers of the Flower Moon is tracking for a rich $24 million opening at the October box office, according to Deadline. Martin Scorsese's R-rated, 206-minute western crime saga telling the true story of the Osage Indian murders was originally planned for a limited theatrical release on October 6th before eventually landing on Apple TV+. Instead, after rave reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival, Apple Original Films and Paramount Pictures opted for a wide theatrical release that will see Killers of the Flower Moon open exclusively in theaters (including Imax) on October 20th.

A $24 million domestic start would come in just under the $26.8 million that Scorsese's own Oscar-winning drama, The Departed, opened to in October 2006. Killers of the Flower Moon opens during a crowded October: it comes two weeks after Blumhouse's The Exorcist: Believer and Amazon's sci-fi thriller Foe, and one week after the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film, which is on track for a record-breaking $100 million-plus opening weekend. (That would be the highest-grossing October opening ever, topping the $96.2 million haul of the R-rated Joker in 2019.)

Killers of the Flower Moon has a 97% fresh approval from critics on Rotten Tomatoes since debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. Early reactions have praised Scorsese's "masterpiece" (Rolling Stone) as the filmmaker's "most innovative and best movie in decades" (GQ), with leading man Leonardo DiCaprio delivering "the best performance of his entire career" (IndieWire).

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Directed by Scorsese and written for the screen by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune) and Scorsese, based on David Grann's bestselling book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone lead a cast that includes Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser. 

Killers of the Flower Moon opens only in theaters October 20th. Tickets are on sale now.

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