Gran Turismo could race to top of the box office with the help of advanced previews and National Cinema Day

Sony’s decision for advanced previews could help the movie reach number one. As well as National Cinema Day’s prices.

As the summer movie season comes to a close, it seems quite stacked on the backend, and yet, nothing has been coming close to Barbie‘s numbers. Since the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, cinemas have seen the release of Haunted Mansion, Talk to Me, Meg 2: The Trench, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Strays, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and most recently, Blue Beetle. The DC superhero has not put up flashy numbers; however, it did become the first film to reach number one since Barbie had released.

This week, Gran Turismo enters the race. According to Deadline, the Neill Blomkamp video game adaptation that’s based on a true story is tracking to cross the finish line at the top this week with $12 million upon opening, which is a fallen projection from the original $15 million. Sony’s marketing department is taking a small cue from The Flash out of necessity due to the Screen Actor’s Guild strikes forbidding the movie’s stars from promoting the film. The studio is relying on good old-fashioned word of mouth to help generate hype.

Gran Turismo was originally scheduled to open on August 11, but the studio would instead opt for a two-week preview screening prior to its release this week. The buzz being garnered from the previews is estimated to add $3 million extra to the opening gross. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes has shot up to a rating of 98% while critics have been less kind with an aggregate rating of 59%.

The coming weekend also sees the celebration of National Cinema Day, in which ticket prices call back to the golden age of just $4 for every showing of every movie. Last year, business for films like Top Gun: Maverick and Bullet Train shot up Friday to Saturday with +26% and +117%. This year, it only falls on Sunday, but with a huge crowd out to take advantage of the holiday, the newest release could seemingly benefit the most.

So, could the audience reception be the decider? Our own Chris Bumbray’s review does think it is a worthy enough big screen experience, saying, “One thing’s sure; Gran Turismo is a movie made for the big screen. In this streaming era, it’s hard to get people out to theatres for a non-franchise film, and basing this one on a video game is a sneaky way of doing a classic sports movie while still having the advantage of known IP.”