Sacha Baron Cohen’s R-rated comedy Brüno opened on Friday to an estimated $14.2 million and Universal Pictures is projecting that the film will gross $35.8 million for the weekend. That’s well ahead of what the studio had predicted heading into the weekend and would put the pic within the top 5 biggest R-rated comedy openings ever.
The film also is performing well internationally, with Deadline Hollywood Daily’s sources reporting: “It looks to be performing very similar to Borat in major markets,” one Uni exec tells me. “International numbers are also great. We’re estimating $23M for our markets — 15% ahead of Borat in those same markets.”
