This weekend, the Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston-led flick The Upside has proven to pul figures bigger than what was expected as it opens up at No. 1 at the North American box office. The film was one of the last to be made by Harvey Weinstein's before the disgraced filmmaker's downfall and managed to come through with a tally of $19.6 million to beat out Aquaman. It's a strong showing in comparison to the $9 million to $12 million window it was expected to hit.
It marks the first No. 1 opener for STXfilms, which partners with Lantern Entertainment to distribute the movie and marks the second-biggest debut for STX, following behind the Bad Moms flick of 2016.
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The film as certainly been preceded by plenty of controversy. It originally premiered in 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was set to debut worldwide in March of 2018. However, the scandal surroudning Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse and assault of women in Hollywood caused the film to be shelved.
For the film, the audience was primarly made up of women who account for 59 percent with 48 percent of all ticket buyers being Caucasian while African-American viewers made up for 23 percent.
The Upside slides into the spot previously held by Aquaman, which is now housed at No. 2 with $17.3 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $288 million and pushing past the $1 billion mark in global sales. With that accomplishment, Aquaman is the first DC superhero movie to hit such a figure since 2012's The Dark Knight Rises.