Ryan reynolds & john krasinski original movie ‘if’ shaping up for $40m opening – box office early look

Paramount’s all-audience movie _IF, _starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by John Krasinski, is heading for a $40M-plus opening on May 17 — which is very good for a non-holiday in May and for

an original movie. Krasinski produced, directed and wrote ___IF_. The PG movie is hot with parents, kids and the 17-34 crowd, especially female. _IF_ arrived on three-week pre-release

tracking with a very-high 16 “unaided” — that’s the category where those polled express interest in a movie without being prompted. That’s higher than what DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s

_Kung Fu Panda 4 _arrived on tracking with; that fourthquel debuted to $57.9M. Comps are tricky for _IF_: Hello?! When was the last PG-rated live-action conceived tentpole based on an

original property? There was the Jennifer Aniston-Owen Wilson 2008 dog romance _Marley & Me, _which debuted to $36.3M, but that doesn’t count. There also was 2004’s Nicolas Cage action

title _National Treasure ,_which debuted to $35.1M. Remember, Reynolds has been great at launching original, franchise-potential fare before: He had _Free Guy _as we were coming out of

Covid, which opened to $28.3M and legged out to $121.6M. WATCH ON DEADLINE Hands down, it’ll be another No. 1 win for the Brian Robbins-run Paramount, which has already delivered _Mean Girls

_($28.6M opening) and _Bob Marley: One Love _($51.5M opening) as the Melrose Lot remains in exclusive talks with Skydance/Red Bird for potential takeover. RELATED: SKYDANCE STILL IN POLE

POSITION FOR PARAMOUNT AS TWO HASH OUT TERMS; SONY AND APOLLO WAITING IN THE WINGS Also hitting three-week in advance tracking this AM is Focus Features’ Amy Winehouse biopic _Back to Black,

_which is eyeing $6M-$8M, the movie already having bagged $15M-plus in its offshore release, as well as Lionsgate’s horror movie _The Strangers: Chapter One _from filmmaker Renny Harlin,

and starring _Riverdale_‘s Madelaine Petsch which has a swing from $6M-$10M in its 3-day. The key to success for all these movies are there multiples as they play into the Memorial Day

holiday weekend.