Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk Expected to Soar at Box Office

The Mel Gibson-directed Flight Risk is flying to an $11 million to $12 million opening at the domestic box office, according to Friday returns. If those estimates hold, the action-thriller film will come in on the higher end of expectations, or even ahead.

It’s the first film Gibson has directed since 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge.

From Lionsgate, Flight Risk stars Mark Wahlberg as a pilot transporting an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) accompanying a mob-connected witness (Topher Grace) to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem — including the pilot.

Reviewers haven’t taken to the modestly budgeted movie. Ditto for audiences, which slapped it with a C CinemaScore.

While noting that it does provide some thrills, THR reviewer Frank Scheck writes, “its clunky dialogue, uneven performances and less-than-grade-A special effects ultimately make it the Spirit Airlines of airborne thrillers.”

Sony and TriStar’s female-fronted comedy One of Them Days, now in its second weekend, and Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, now in its sixth, are, now in its sixth, are in a close battle for No. 2 with $7 million to $8 million. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, also in its sixth weekend, is likewise holding in and is expected to take in another $5.1 million to place forth.

There’s also a close race brewing between new Stephen Soderbergh’s haunted horror-thriller Presence and Disney’s Thanksgiving animated blockbuster Moana 2 for fifth place with around $3 million each.

Soderbergh’s new specialty film has been praised by critics, while audiences only gave it a C+ (horror-themed pics can often receive a C grade).

Filmed in a single setting, Presence stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and newcomer Callina Liang star in this haunted house chiller about a family that appears on the brink of falling apart.

Numbers will be updated Sunday morning, along with a full top 10 and specialty box office report.