The number is the best-ever opening for director Scorsese and star DiCaprio, the latter of whom had reached the
mark only once (with “Catch Me If You Can,” more than seven years ago).
Many box-office experts had predicted an opening in the low-mid
But perhaps an even more decisive factor than its two high-profile collaborators was the calendar.
The film also rode a wave of promotion in high-profile television events.
“As we got into the movie and saw how commercial it
was, we thought we could go for a broader audience than the October
release, when it would have been positioned as an adult drama and
academy movie,” said
“In this release window you have giant promotional opportunities like the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.”
While it raised some eyebrows at the time, the gambit worked.
While “
Though a big success in its opening weekend, “
The movie cost nearly
The 1954-set story of a
detective (DiCaprio) investigating a mysterious disappearance at an
island-bound insane asylum, also attracted a female audience that
doesn’t typically come out to genre films. Indeed, moviegoers were
split almost evenly between men and women, as DiCaprio’s presence
helped boost the “
The Scorsese pedigree was also likely part of the
reason older viewers came out to the thriller in droves, as the numbers
were also evenly split between filmgoers above and below age 25.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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