The NFL's battle with perception took a small victory on Friday.
Village Roadshow's "Concussion," starring Will Smith, is off to a muted start at the box office. The NFL drama is projecting a $4-5 million gross on opening day from 2,841 locations, per Hollywood Reporter. That projects to a $10-12 million weekend.
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Initial tracking suggested the movie would open in the high-teens, but looks to fall well short of that projection.
Turns out, people care more fictional space and Will Ferrell than the most life-threatening epidemic in sports since the steroid baseball era.
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"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" could earn $35-47 million from 4,134 theaters on Friday, making it the biggest Christmas Day gross of all time. "Daddy's Home," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, will finish second with $10-13 million from 3,271 locations.
Much of that has to do with the film's inability to tackle CTE properly.
The reviews are as underwhelming as the film's gross.
"Perhaps the most important thing to note about Peter Landesman's "Concussion" is that, despite some pre-release hand-wringing, worries that it would represent a whitewash of professional football's concussion epidemic are completely unfounded," Andrew Barker of Variety wrote.
"Unfortunately, pre-release hopes that it would do for crusading forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu what Michael Mann's "The Insider" did for big tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand are equally unfounded, as the film's attempt to marry an earnest public-health expose with a corporate-malfeasance thriller and a sweet immigrant love story never comes together in a satisfying way."
Hollywood's first attempt at derailing football's momentum 0-1 NFL.
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‘Concussion’ shines light on brain injuries and football - @BlakeNBC https://t.co/kn8JSTBMEX
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) December 26, 2015
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