It looks as though “Cocaine Bear” will be exceeding projections this weekend at the box-office. Last night, the R-rated action-comedy nabbed a more-than-decent $2 million in Thursday previews.
Its Friday total is expected to be around $8.1M — this sets “Cocaine Bear” up quite well for an opening of $22-24 million. Very, very good. The ridiculous trailer and self-aware marketing did wonders for the $35 million-budgeted film.
“Cocaine Bear” will still have to settle for second place, though, as last week’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” despite an expected drop of about 60-65 percent, should total about $40 million in its second weekend.
The reviews for “Cocaine Bear” haven’t been too bad. It has a 73% on RT. It’s what I expected. Fact of the matter is that “Cocaine Bear” could have been so much more, but director Elizabeth Banks refused to play it straight.
Banks is fully aware that her movie is preposterous and so it turns into a total meta affair with self-aware dialogue and goofy performances. She doesn’t embrace the genre she’s tackling, instead mocking it. A real shame.
As I wrote yesterday, “Cocaine Bear” falls way short of turning into some kind of cult classic. What we have to settle with is a mildly amusing romp that falls short in terms of execution.