Yahoo Sports Tom Holland's box office reign continues with Uncharted
Tom Holland doesn't need his Spider-Man suit to dominate box offices.
Uncharted, Holland's latest adventure flick adapted from Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment's award-winning video games, struck gold at the domestic box office this weekend, debuting with an estimated $44 million by Sunday and a projected $51 million over the long Presidents' Day weekend, per Comscore.
Holland stars as Nathan Drake, a streets smart Indiana Jones-esque adventurer enlisted by treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to help recover lost fortune amassed by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, and Tati Gabrielle also star in the film.
Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Free Guy) had initially been attached to direct the film, but bowed out to do another video game-inspired feature, Free Guy with Ryan Reynolds, after some roadblocks. Speaking with EW on set of the latter in 2019, Levy discussed making a film that not only appealed to gamers, calling the notion of video game movie curses "pretty historically accurate."
Clay Enos/Columbia Pictures Mark Wahlberg's Sully and Tom Holland's Nathan Drake hunt for treasure in 'Uncharted'
"I think you're often obsessed with servicing the fans of that video game, understandably," Levy said. "We want a movie that will appeal to gamers, but we will have failed if we only appeal to gamers. We really want a broadly accessible movie."
Sony ultimately turned to director Ruben Fleischer, who recently told EW he was "completely blown away" by the script while discussing the making of the film: "I don't think I'm speaking out of turn when I say that it was a fast-moving train I was hopping aboard, but I was so stoked," he said, while Holland added, "It was stressful. We were all guns blazing."
The curse appears to be lifted with Uncharted, which was followed by Channing Tatum's Dog at No. 2. The family comedy film barked up an estimated $15.1 million following its Feb. 18 debut. The film centered on an Army ranger (Tatum) and his furry companion's hurried trip down the Pacific Coast to attend a soldier's funeral is eyeing a projected $18 million this long weekend.
Meanwhile, Holland's record-breaking Spider-Man: No Way Home continued to perch on the top five at third place, bringing in an additional $7.2 million by Sunday. Kenneth Branagh's murder mystery Death on the Nile and Jeff Tremaine's nostalgic slapstick comedy Jackass Forever rounded out the top five, bringing in an additional $6.2 million and $5.2 million, respectively.
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