The forecast is looking better than good for Lee Isaac Chung‘s summer tentpole Twisters.
The Universal film — featuring a high-wattage cast that includes Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos — is tracking to open to $55 million over the July 19-21 weekend in North America, according to market leader the National Research Group. Universal is being more conservative in suggesting $40 million to $45 million considering that tracking has been off as of late in some cases. Some believe it could do more than even $55 million, such as research firm The Quorom, which is predicting $54 million to $61 million.
Twisters opens 28 years after filmmaker Jan de Bont’s Twister, starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, whipped up a Category 5 storm at the box office. Universal and Chung have been clear in saying that the new film isn’t a sequel, but a “current day-chapter” of the first film.
The standalone story sees Edgar-Jones star as Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by an encounter with a tornado during college. After studying storm patterns on screens safely in New York City, she’s lured back to the open plains by a friend, Javi (Ramos), to test a new tracking system. Once she arrives, she crosses paths with Tyler Owens (Powell), a charming and reckless social-media superstar who thrives on posting his storm-chasing adventures. As storm season intensifies, terrifying phenomena are unleashed and the competing teams find themselves in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over Oklahoma.
“I’ve been fascinated by tornadoes all my life,” Chung said at CinemaCon in April, adding that he grew up in Arkansas, where tornadoes were just a way of life. “When Twister came out in 1996, I was in high school, and was absolutely mesmerized.” He said in creating the world in his film, “We really want to bring audiences up close to things that are bigger than us and also create an experience with things that bring us fear, awe and reverence.”
Twisters also stars Kiernan Shipka, David Corenswet, Sasha Lane, Maura Tierney, Katy O’Brian, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Harry Hadden-Paton, Nik Dodani and Tunde Adebimpe. Chung, who broke out with the Steven Yeun starrer Minari, directs from Mark L. Smith’s script.
Patrick Crowley, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg serve as producers on Twisters, which opens one week before Marvel and Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
