Box Office: Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Mile 22’ Picks Up $1 Million on Thursday Night

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Mile 22” debuted to $1 million on Thursday night.

The STX release stars Mark Wahlberg, a shadowy CIA operative, who must extract a valuable asset. It reunites the actor with Peter Berg — the pair scored with 2013’s “Lone Survivor,” but “Patriots Day” and “Deepwater Horizon” — both released in 2016 — were box office disappointments. The hope is that “” will spark a new action franchise.

Before any sequels get the greenlight, “Mile 22” has to ward off some stiff competition from the second weekend of “The Meg” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” a critically adored rom-com that is doing some big business after launching on Wednesday.

“” topped the box office on Thursday, picking up $3.8 million to push its two-day total to $8.8 million. “,” a thriller about a giant shark, added $3.2 million on Thursday to its $62.6 million domestic haul.

STX said “Mile 22’s” preview results compare favorably to those of “American Made.” The Tom Cruise thriller opened last September to $960,000 in previews. Its initial weekend gross topped out at $16.8 million. “Mile 22” is expected to earn between $17 million to $18 million in its inaugural weekend. That should put it just behind “The Meg,” which is projected to add another $20 million to its gross.

The weekend’s big winner should be “Crazy Rich Asians.” The film is the first Asian-led studio pic to hit theaters since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club,” making it a major cultural touchstone and a testament to the box office potency of inclusion. It is expected to pull in more than $30 million over its first five days in theaters.

Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, Ronda Rousey, and John Malkovich round out the cast of “Mile 22.” The movie carries a budget of $35 million, a relatively modest price tag for a star-driven actioner.

“Alpha,” an Ice Age adventure yarn about a boy and his wolf, will also open in wide release. The film is backed by Studio 8 and distributed by Sony. It earned $525,000 in Thursday preview and is expected to debut to just north of $10 million. That’s a middling result for a movie that cost more than $50 million to make.

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