Movies

Dennis Quaid’s ‘Reagan’ Poised to Top ‘Nixon’ After Big Domestic Box Office Debut


After exceeding expectations in its opening weekend, the presidential biopic Reagan had an excellent Labor Day, which helped push its domestic total past a major early milestone. Directed by Sean McNamara and starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, the movie opened to terrible reviews, but appears to have balanced them out with exceptional audience reception. Reagan is reportedly performing stupendously in middle-America, and is poised to continue drawing crowds as the country prepares for the presidential elections.




With an excellent $2.6 million haul on Monday, its fourth day of release, Reaganhas now hit the $10 million mark domestically. The movie was produced on a reported budget of $25 million, and is being distributed nationwide by ShowBiz Direct. Reaganopened to terrible reviews, and is currently sitting at a “rotten” 22% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. But the film’s audience score represents a dramatic difference in opinion. The movie has been deemed worthy of RT’s newly announced “verified hot” badge, on the strength of its incredible 98% “popcornmeter” rating. It also earned an excellent A CinemaScore from opening day crowds.


Reagan’s life was previously dramatized in a handful of made-for-television films, such as The Day Reagan Was Shot and Killing Reagan. He also appeared in Lee DanielsThe Butler, in which he was played by the late Alan Rickman. Biopics of American presidents have historically been rather hit-or-miss among audiences. While Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln won acclaim for Daniel Day-Lewis’ central performance, and ended up grossing over $275 million worldwide, it took two movies about George W. Bush’s presidency — Vice and W — to generate a combined total of $70 million domestically.


Is There a Chasm Between Critics and Audiences?


Interestingly, Reagan has a strong chance of overtaking two films about Richard NixonRon Howard’s Frost/Nixon, which tapped out with $18 million domestically in 2008, and Oliver Stone’s Nixon, which grossed $13 million in its domestic run in 1995. It must, however, be noted that both those films were far more mainstream than Reagan, which is directly targeting a very specific demographic in the run-up to the elections. Also starring Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, Robert Davi as Leonid Brezhnev, Lesley-Anne Down as Margaret Thatcher, and Creed frontman Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra, Reagan is playing in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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