Box office: ‘Bullet Train’ costs $4.6 million in Thursday previews

Sony’s “Bullet Train” left the station and grossed $4.6 million at the domestic box office in Thursday night’s previews.

With star Brad Pitt in the conductor’s chair, Bullet Train hopes to make it through the weekend with a grand total of $30 million and a #1 spot on the box office. Sony spent $90 million producing the high-octane action film and millions more on marketing, so Bullet Train has to be punching tickets all summer to justify its price tag.

From David Leitch, the director and producer behind action-packed films like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Nobody and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, follows Bullet Train. Assassin named Ladybug (Pitt) who faces a deadly assassin team aboard a Tokyo-Kyoto bullet train. Cutthroat mercenaries include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock, and Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny.

“Bullet Train” is aimed at grown men who are hitting theaters full force but are mostly into the latest superhero movie (like “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”) or Sequels (like Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion).

This weekend will be a good test of how eager the public will be to try original dishes. Along with Bullet Train, Universal’s comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy, is also targeting a $5 million to $7 million premiere in its debut weekend. A24’s teen slasher “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Lee Pace and Pete Davidson, also gets a limited release in New York and Los Angeles.