‘Logan’ Roars Into Theaters with $88 Million Opening Weekend

UPDATED 3/6/17 (5:20PM, PST): Logan outstripped weekend projections once more and posted a mammoth $88.4 million opening weekend take. This is a raise from the Sunday afternoon projection of $85.3 million lifted by Sunday evening performances. Logan boasts the largest R-rated opener in the month of March as well as the biggest take for Wolverine standalone film – performing stronger than both X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). It’s also the biggest opening yet for any title so far in 2017, easily taking the top slot following the $53.0 million opener of last month’s The LEGO Batman Movie. Worldwide the film has raked in $247 million in ticket sales to date.

UPDATED 3/5/17 (5:20PM, PST): Logan soared mightily over its first weekend in theaters, netting $85.3 million in ticket sales at the domestic box office. Easily, Logan topped the charts for the largest opening weekend so far this year and also can boast the highest R-rated opener for the month of March – on terms of all-time opening records for R-rated films, Logan ranks as the fifth highest (the top being Deadpool‘s gargantuan $132 million take last year.) So far, the film’s worldwide take is $237 million.

EARLIER: Friday saw the opening of Logan, one of the most hotly anticipated titles of the year. And it appears to be off the races with a strong opening weekend haul as early projections have the film set to earn an estimated $74 million in North American box office receipts in its first frame. The film, an extension of the X-Men film franchise and the third (and final) Wolverine standalone project, has amassed strong reviews (check out our 5-star take) and plentiful goodwill seeing as the movie is likely the cinematic farewell for Wolverine portrayer Hugh Jackman (as well as Patrick Stewart aka Professor Xavier), who has been with franchise since the very beginning 17 years ago.

Logan took in a strong estimated take of $9.5 million in Thursday night previews and is looking toward a mighty $28 million take in its first full day of release. Estimates have been a little all over the place ahead of its release as some prognosticators pegged the film could earn as much as $80 million in its opening weekend while distributor Fox countered with a more conservative mid-$60 million take. Either way – and most importantly – Logan will surely be the highest opener of the year thus far, easily raking in more than The LEGO Batman Movie‘s $53 million debut.

As you can see in the chart above, Logan comes in somewhere in the middle when it comes to openers within Fox’s X-Men universe but notably earned more than The Wolverine, the last standalone Jackman picture. That film – also directed by Logan helmer James Mangold (Walk the Line) – had tougher bar to climb considering it succeeded X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first standalone Jackman film which failed to score with critics and audiences. Logan notably also took the R-rated path following last year’s blockbuster Deadpool.

Logan follows a weary Wolverine living off the grid who attends to an ailing Professor X when he is thrust into action to help protect a young mutant with whom he shares a surprising connection to – she is played by young breakout Dafne Keen.

Logan is in theaters now. We will stay tuned to how high it may soar.