While Sully opened to an incredibly strong $35 million during its opening weekend, Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon — which tells the true story of the 2010 BP oil spill — just opened to a mere $20 million, and came in second to Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.
Sully also cost roughly $40 million less to produce than Deepwater Horizon, making Eastwood’s film a much more cost effective venture as well.
What makes the financial success of Clint Eastwood’s Sully even more impressive is the fact that it has effectively siphoned off the box office power of other true stories of the same ilk.