‘Cocaine Bear’ Snorts Up $23 Million Opening Weekend in the United States

A strong genre hook is almost always a win at the box office, so it’s no surprise that Universal’s Elizabeth Banks-directed horror comedy Cocaine Bear enjoyed a nice debut weekend.

Outpacing early projections in the days prior to release, the film snorted up $23 million domestically and $28.4 million worldwide in its debut this past weekend. This put the movie in the #2 spot for the weekend, not far behind Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The only catch? Cocaine Bear carries a production budget of around $30 million, so it’s going to need to do a bit more blow before it starts being profitable. But with strong word-of-mouth, it’s likely that the film will continue to make money in the coming weeks. Will it ultimately be enough to hit the point of profitability? We’ll keep you posted as numbers come in.

‘Cocaine Bear’ Review – A Raucously Entertaining and Gory Horror-Comedy

The movie is inspired by true events that took place in Kentucky in 1985, and it was written by Jimmy WardenPhil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) produced.

The basic gist of the story is that a 175-pound black bear was found dead from an overdose after ingesting massive amounts of cocaine dropped into the woods by a drug smuggler.

Deadline details, “The movie finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow … and blood.”

Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson and Jesse Tyler Ferguson star in the movie. Brian Duffield (Underwater, Spontaneous) is also on board to produce.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks from a screenplay by Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen), Cocaine Bear is produced by Oscar® winners Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. The Machines) and Aditya Sood (The Martian) for Lord Miller, by Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman (Pitch Perfect franchise) for Brownstone Productions, and by Brian Duffield (Spontaneous). Robin Fisichella (Ma) will executive produce.

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