Box Office: ‘Baywatch’ Dives in With $1.25 Million on Wednesday

Courtesy Of Paramount

“Baywatch” got a head start on the competition by opening in previews on Wednesday, before it goes wide early on Thursday ahead of Memorial Day Weekend.

After its first night of earnings Paramount’s comedy made $1.25 million at 2,554 locations. Previews began at 7 p.m.

For its opening weekend, “Baywatch” is pegged at about $40 million from an eventual 3,647 locations. The summer comedy carries a $60 million production price tag.

Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron star in the comedy that spawned from the 1990s NBC drama starring David Hasselhoff and a team of lifeguards who patrolled the beaches of Los Angeles. This time around it’s Johnson, an experienced and devoted lifeguard, who butts heads with a new recruit, Efron, until they uncover a criminal plot.

Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Jon Bass, Kelly Rohrbach, and Ilfenesh Hadera also star. Seth Gordon directed the film based on a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Thomas Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant all have story credits.

“Baywatch” will face stiff competition this weekend from Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” The fifth film in the franchise stars Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem and Orlando Bloom. It is expected to haul around $80 million.