“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is slowly getting ready to take a bite out of the weekend box office. It earned $575,000 from 3,453 theaters in Thursday previews, while David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam” picked up $550,000 million from 3,005 theaters.
Sony’s live-action/CGI hybrid, co-financed by TSG, is a family-friendly movie about a singing crocodile, starring Grammy-nominated artist Shawn Mendes as the titular reptile. The studio projects an opening haul of $11 million to $12 million, with some projections belting out upwards of $15 million. With a budget of $50 million, it will need plenty of support from kids and families over the fall to snap up a profit. The cast includes Javier Bardem as Hector P. Valenti, Lyle’s flamboyant owner, Brett Gelman as Mr. Grumps and Constance Wu, Scoot McNairy and Winslow Fegley as the Primm family. The Primms move to a new house in New York City, where they discover Lyle, a saltwater crocodile with the voice of a high-end recording artist, living in their attic.
There are no crocodiles to be found in “Amsterdam,” but it has nearly every other A-list actor in Hollywood. The 20th Century Studios historical drama, directed by David O. Russell, boasts a cast of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Robert De Niro, Rami Malek and more. It’s projected to take in $10 million in the opening weekend, which is a bleak outlook for a film that cost $80 million to make. The film follows three friends (Bale, Robbie and Washington) who are embroiled in the murder of a U.S. senator in the 1930s.
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is likely to beat “Amsterdam” over the weekend, but it may not be enough to overtake last week’s No. 1 film “Smile,” a horror that opened to $22.6 million.