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Forbes has the numbers for “The Post”‘s box office since its wide release this Friday: The critically-acclaimed (but not quite award-drenched) Steven Spielberg drama, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, had earned $4.2 million in platform release over the last few weeks beginning on Christmas weekend. Sure, the Washington Post/Pentagon Papers journalistic thriller/drama played great to the film nerd crowd, but how would it do in general release? Well, if this weekend was any indication, pretty damn well! The $50m-budgeted 20th Century Fox release earned a solid $22.2 million over the long holiday, including $18.6m over the Fri-Sun frame. That gives the film a $26m domestic total and a nice headstart should it parlay the buzz into Oscar nominations. If it’s merely as leggy as Bridge of Spies (platform release notwithstanding), we’re looking at a $90-$95 million domestic total. But this should be the kind of movie that plays huge to your parents and grandparents who will seek it out at their convenience, so a total closer to Captain Phillips ($125m) if not quite Lincoln or Hidden Figures ($170m) wouldn’t shock me in the least. It’s a coin toss as to whether The Post will be the first straight Steven Spielberg drama since Amistad in 1997 not to get a Best Picture nomination. Either way, this one is a rock-solid studio programmer, so I expect long legs as our parents and/or grandparents check it out at their convenience. There is a tragic irony, in that Spielberg was among those who created the modern popcorn blockbuster and now is among the few that can both make and profit from adult-skewing character-driven, star vehicle dramas in 2018.
