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Reagan’ Wins Popular Vote As It Nears Domestic Box Office Milestone

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Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) wearing a cowboy hat in 'Reagan' — Image via ShowBiz Direct

Among the bigger surprises of the last few weeks, the biopic Reagan continued to draw crowds at the box office as it completed 10 days of release. In its second weekend, the film displayed impressive legs as it retained a spot in the top five and neared an important milestone. Directed by Sean McNamara and starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, Reagan also crept up the rankings of movies based on American Commanders-in-Chief.

With an estimated $5.2 million in its second weekend, the movie took its running domestic total to $18.5 million. Reagan opened with a healthy $7.6 million in its first weekend, successfully attracting its target audience in Middle America. The film’s 32% second weekend hold is the best in the top 10, although further down the list, M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap registered a 72% increase after going viral on TikTok. Similarly, Reagan actually saw an increase in its theatrical footprint as it entered its second week of release, going from 2,754 theaters to 2,770.

A few days ago, the movie overtook the $13 million lifetime haul of Oliver Stone’s 1995 biopic Nixon, and on Monday, the movie will overtake the $18.6 million lifetime haul of Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon. Both those films earned Academy Award nominations for their stars — Anthony Hopkins and Frank Langella. But with the kind of reviews that Reagan has opened to, Quaid would be wise not to expect similar accolades come awards season. Reagan was roundly trashed by critics upon release, and currently sits at a “rotten” 20% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Audiences Don’t Seem to Care that ‘Reagan’ Received Poor Reviews

But it’s the film’s audience score that’s driving business. The movie has earned RT’s newly announced “verified hot” badge of honor, on the strength of its phenomenal 98% audience score. This represents near-universal acclaim from the film’s target crowd, a phenomenon that has previously been observed in movies that are aimed at red state audiences. A couple of years ago, the movie Jesus Revolution went on to earn over $50 million domestically despite a 54% RT score, thanks to a near-perfect 99% audience rating.

Reagan’s life and tenure was previously dramatized in the television films The Day Reagan Was Shot and Killing Reagan. He also appeared in Lee Daniels’ The Butler, where he was played by the late Alan Rickman. 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.

Reagan

A drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.Release Date2023-00-00DirectorSean McNamaraCastSean McNamara , C. Thomas Howell , Mena Suvari , Jon Voight

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BobbyCan’t trust reviews today because the politics of the reviewers has started affecting their reviews. Possibly always been this way to a lesser degree but nothing like today. When there is a 78% difference between reviewer and audience score there is obviously something going on besides a disagreement on the quality of the movie.2024-09-09 23:50:5821
EdwaleniI was the original poster to this article and I said basically the same thing. It was deleted by the mods a few hours later. Hence my 2 character post later on. Now that the article has aged out, the mods don’t care.2024-09-10 13:21:20
BernardGood movie. If you are a far left partisan, not for you.2024-09-11 17:22:15
EdwaleniIi2024-09-09 22:56:59
CLMember“If Reagan were alive today MAGAs would definitely condemn him as a RINO.
FACTS:
Reagan granted amnesty for about 3 million undocumented persons in America.
Unlike Biden or Harris, Reagan actually called for an open border policy.
Reagan supported a ban of assault-type automatic weapons that have been used in so many mass murders in America.
As Governor, Reagan signed a bill prohibiting the carrying of any loaded weapon in public without a permit.
As early as 1978 Reagan came out in opposition to California’s Proposition 6 (backed by Anita Bryant & other right wingers) even though it was winning in the polls. The law would have banned gay & lesbian school teachers & staff working in public schools.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan relied heavily upon astrologer Joan Quigley for advice on important decision making while President.
Reagan despised the authoritarian rule of the Soviet Union and would never have praised Putin or taken Putin’s word over our own and our allies’ National Intelligence Agencies!
Reagan supported and practiced the peaceful transfer of power from one Governor to another, one President to another and accepted election results, including when he lost out the nomination to Gerald Ford in the GOP Convention.
And the Reagans used an astrologer for their daily direction; not very religious!”
As for the movie reviews, exactly like those who heaped tons of praise on “2000 Mules” by those who truly WANTED to believe it, it’s “facts” ended up being debunked in court, and the distributor having to make amends for the damage its false claims perpetrated upon innocent victims! Yep that was the film directed by the infamous Dinesh D’Sousa, who previously was a convicted felon with charges related to what else, election crimes! And of course Trump pardoned him. 2024-09-12 06:04:55
NoDecent article, but leaving “critics” unqualified is misleading. You spoke of the audience’s politics. Time to admit pro critics are overwhelmingly leftist and have been for a long time. There are funny memes going back years contrasting things like the RT scores of Michael Moore’s (high critics, low audience) and Dinesh D’Souza’s (low critics, high audience) films with side by side screen shots. Not that they ever necessarily had meaningful authority, but pro film critics today are basically bloggers whose opinions are no more relevant than any random person’s. I’ll only use them sometimes for info because they’ve seen something. I’ll sift through a review and discern WHY they liked or disliked something. They reason they pan a film will often make me decide it to see it because it could be good. Modern “critics” are extremely predictable.2024-09-10 01:06:081
Paul JohnThis movie was designed for republicans to shake their tallywacker to … And it is still a complete box office failure. It cost $25 million to make and needs to bring in between 50 to 65 million just to break even … Because there’s marketing costs and the movie theaters get at least half of the ticket sales. I estimate that this $25 million investment will lose about $20 million or so. Republicans are trying to make it sound like this is a smash hit … They are lucky it came out at a time when there is no competition so it is one of the better performing movies right now … Along with all the other ones that are barely making any money or are losing money. Congratulations on being one of the better flops of 2024. Is a completely inaccurate depiction of Reagan … Similar to a movie that Trump would make about himself. You can just imagine what that would look like….2024-09-10 21:22:57
CLMemberI was extremely pleasantly surprised by this movie. I remember Reagan well. He became president the year I graduated high school. This movie got pretty much everything correct. Reagan’s love for America and the American people were well represented and his toughness against the Soviet Union was near perfect to life. How they handled his Alzheimer’s late in life was very touching. This man loved America and loved the American people with all of his heart. I’ll definitely watch this movie again2024-09-10 18:14:20
DavidHa! keep in mind folks, the film cost 25 million to make. As of the time of this posting, the film has brought in 18.1 million. lol2024-09-10 19:16:23
warptekIt’s not that we usually don’t care for reviews, it’s more that we don’t care for thebad reviews from the so called “intelligentsia” who despise Reagan. Historically he was an extremely popular president. Not so with the government/media industrial complex who have always played down his successful presidency. Oh look, nobody cares what you say.2024-09-10 19:42:24
CesarReagan was the Mr Magoo of presidents. Lech Walessa and pope John PaulII started the fall and Reagan took the credit. Didn’t take the credit for the sales of arms to Iran funded by cocaine sales in South America. Oliver North should have stayed in prison forever. Reagan should have been impeached.2024-09-10 19:34:442
warptekBoohoo. Cry me a river. Nobody cares2024-09-10 19:43:10
Eugene T.You’re so wrong it’s astounding. Later butternut.2024-09-10 19:52:22