'Cinderella' Eyes $70 Million Opening Weekend After Taking $23 Million On Friday

Kenneth Branagh’s live action reboot of Cinderella, starring ‘Downton Abbey’s’ Lily James looks set to rule the US box office this weekend, after taking $23 million on Friday. The film, which also stars Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett has earned positive reviews from critics and currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 84%.

Cinderella will easily beat its only competition this weekend, which came from Liam Neeson action flick Run All Night, which looks on track to take just $11million, according to Variety. The film, which stars Neeson as a hit man who’s forced to betray his boss to save his son, is the actor’s weakest opening in some time, with his last outing Taken 3 having opened to $39.2 million in January.

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Last May Disney’s previous live action fairytale retelling Maleficent (based on Sleeping Beauty) opened to $69.4 million, just under Cinderella’s projected number. Starring Angelina Jolie, the reviews for Maleficent were considerably less positive than Cinderella’s, but the film still went on to earn $758.4 million worldwide thanks to the actress' starpower.

Fighting for the number three position will be Will Smith’s Focus and Colin Firth’s Kingsman: The Secret Service who are neck and neck for third place. Crime caper Focus is estimated to take $5.8 million by Sunday, while comedy Kingsman is likely to come out on top with $6 million-plus by the end of the weekend.

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The top five should be rounded out by _The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hote_l, starring Judi Dench and Richard Gere which will nudge out last week’s number one Chappie. Chappie should then land in sixth place after taking just $1.55 million on Friday, putting it on course for a $5.3 million this weekend.