The Ronald Reagan biopic exceeded expectations with a huge box office success in its opening weekend, despite being panned by liberal critics.
Regan earned $7.4 million in box office receipts from Friday through Sunday, and had an estimated running total of $9.2 million, including projections for Labor Day Monday. According to the Christian Post.
It finished third at the box office over the holiday weekend, behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien, and earned a 98 percent approval rating among moviegoers. on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is in stark contrast to the dismal 18 percent approval rating it earned among film critics, marking the largest gap between critics and audiences in Hollywood history.
“We’re thrilled to be in the top five with our first film in a competitive market over the holiday weekend,” said Kevin Mitchell, president of the newly launched Showbiz Direct, which released the film on 2,750 screens.
Regan earned $7.4 million in box office receipts from Friday to Sunday, and had an estimated cumulative total of $9.2 million.
It also earned a 98 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, despite a 22 percent critics approval score.
“We expect the film to continue to grow in the coming weeks, especially in the South and Midwest,” he said.
The film follows Reagan’s journey from his humble childhood in a small town to Hollywood stardom and eventually to becoming the 40th President of the United States.
It focuses on his resilience and the support of his wife, Nancy, and is narrated by a fictional former KGB agent whose life intersects with Reagan’s during his time as a Hollywood star.
But the biopic had faced problems almost from the beginning.
It was originally scheduled to be released in 2023, but Reagan faced production delays due to COVID-related lockdowns and the actors’ strike.
Dennis Quaid, who plays the titular president, also said there were “a couple of attempts to cancel me” during the film’s production.
Dennis Quaid, who plays the titular president, told podcaster Joe Rogan that people tried to cancel him during the film’s production.
He then he told podcaster Joe Rogan that Facebook even censored online promotion of the film for fear it could “influence an election,” although the platform later blamed the “error” on its “automated systems.”
“This happened because our automated systems wrongly determined that content about President Reagan required pre-clearance under our policies for ads about social issues, elections or politics,” a spokesperson for the social network said. He told Newsweek after sharing a letter from Quaid.
“This was a mistake and the restriction on advertising has been lifted.”
Following the film’s release this weekend, critics also slammed it for its portrayal of the Republican president.
‘Regardless of what you think about Ronald Reagan the president, most will agree that this biopic is a preachy, plodding, unfunny sermon,’ said Nick Schager. wrote for the Daily Beast.
He said it was “disgusting and transparent” that it looked like embarrassing propaganda.
Similarly, Boston Globe critic Odie Henderson wrote that “It’s so sanitized that it looks like Darryl Zanuck or Reagan’s old boss, Jack Warner, put it on screen in 1940.”
The film focuses on Reagan’s resilience and the support of his wife, Nancy, and is narrated by a fictional former KGB agent whose life intersects with Reagan’s during his time as a Hollywood star.
Henderson said the film “pleases evangelicals.”
“This means you have to sit through moralistic nonsense about how Reagan was ordained by Jesus to defeat those godless communists and student protesters in Berkeley,” he criticized.
Robert Abele also wrote for the Los Angeles Times that Quaid is “just a puppet, a high-voltage shell masking a hollow portrait, tailor-made for religious conservatives with a superficial knowledge of history and no tolerance for nuance.”
But many who saw the film over the holiday weekend praised it.
“Very patriotic,” wrote one audience member on Rotten Tomatoes.
Another said it was “a biopic (that) looks at many important experiences in Reagan’s life.”
“There are many facts that are disconcerting to the left, but as a biography it is very good,” he wrote. “There are not many presidents who deserve this kind of movie.”
A third viewer also said that he loved this movie.
“What a man of convictions and courage!” said the critic about the former president.
“He stood up for what he believed in and was not moved by the political consequences.”
Actor Dennis Quaid attributes the film’s success to Reagan’s popularity in both parties.
Quaid now attributes the film’s success to Reagan’s popularity in both parties.
“The real objective is to engage in dialogue,” he said.
“I think that’s what we need to get back in this country,” Quaid continued. “We all seem to want it and we’re looking for ways to do it.”
“It’s been so long, there’s been so much division. It’s like we can’t have these conversations.
“It’s okay if you have a different opinion because we all want the same thing,” he continued. “It’s just the way we do it that’s different.”
DailyWire CEO Jeremy Boreing also suggested to the Christian Post that the left tends to label any opposition as divisive.
“Reagan was the most unifying figure to run for president in the lifetimes of most of us here today. Who can claim to be the champion of 49 states in a re-election campaign?” he asked.
Boreing went on to speak about right-wing censorship, saying: “We have never seen an expression of informational political power in this country like what we are witnessing in the events of the last 45 days.
“It’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to lose hope. It’s easy to look around the world and see the worst examples of where these kinds of things can lead and think that we’re doomed to repeat them.
“I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think we are called to be optimistic.
“And to see the success within living memory of a figure like Reagan, I think that should remind us all.”
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