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Featured Image Credit: A24.
Topics: Brendan Fraser, TV and Film, Celebrity
Rachel Lang
Brendan Fraser's new movie The Whale is already knocking it out of the park at the box office.
The actor's comeback movie has been dubbed as the 'Brenaissance' and fans are already flocking to see the film.
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According to Deadline, A24's The Whale has crashed into the box office like a wave, with the film nabbing the record for the biggest limited opening of the year in New York and Los Angeles over the weekend.
It's been so big that it's knocked another A24 film, Everything, Everywhere All At Once, who previously held that accolade.
Fraser's foray back to Hollywood sold out tickets to all six US theatres that showed it over the weekend.
That grossed about USD$360,000, which equates to a per screen average of USD$60,000.
Yep, you did read that correctly.
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Only a handful of cinemas brought in USD$60,000 for the film, which is a limited release at the moment.
Showings will expand to more cinemas on December 21, according to Deadline, at roughly a further 500 theatres across the US.
The highly-successful weekend at the box office means The Whale is the highest grossing PSA of 2022.
But, with Mother! director Darren Aronofsky at the helm of the film, we're not exactly surprised its earning ticks across the board.
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It's also second largest limited opening since 2020 and Aronofsky’s best movie opening since Black Swan.
Impressive stuff.
It could be a serious awards contender, which looks even more likely considering the critical acclaim and audience reception as per the above figures.
Fraser received a standing ovation at both the Venice and Toronto film festivals for his role of a 270kg man named Charlie who is slowly eating himself into an early grave.
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In the film we see Fraser's Charlie struggle with his spiralling binge eating which has been brought on by the guilt of leaving his family for a gay lover, who later died.
The movie also follows Charlie's attempts to reconnect with his seventeen-year-old daughter, played by of Stranger Things' Sadie Sink.
Sink recently said Fraser was her ‘favourite human’ after working with him on The Whale.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, she said: "I don't think I'd ever done a project that had that much character work.
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"[Director] Darren Aronofsky is obviously brilliant, and working with him was a really formative experience, and Brendan is so incredible in it, and also just probably my favourite human on the planet.”
The Whale premiered in US cinemas on 9 December, before its UK release on 3 February 2023.