Box Office: Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Tammy’ Opens To $1.3M Tuesday Night

Melissa McCarthy’s latest comedy Tammy opened to a promising $1.3 million Tuesday night.

The R-rated film, marking the feature directorial debut of her husband, Ben Falcone, premiered at 8 p.m. across the country. It is one of the four films that will be opening everywhere – in over 3,350 theaters – on Wednesday on the eve of the Fourth of July weekend. The others include family film Earth to Echo, supernatural horror title Deliver Us From Evil, and Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary America.

Relativity’s Earth to Echo and Screen Gems’ Deliver Us From Evil are eyeing modest debuts. The former, about a group of teenage buddies who discover an alien, will open in over 3,200 screens on Wednesday and should gross less than $20 million over its first five days. The studio is predicting between $16 million and $19 million.

Deliver Us From Evil, about a police officer tracking paranormal forces, will debut in approximately 3,045 theaters. It is estimated to deliver about $23 million over the five-day period.

Despite the upcoming releases, Transformers: Age of Extinction is still expected to dominate after its $100 million No. 1 opening last weekend.

The debut number for Tammy is more than double the amount earned by the comedy The Other Woman ($550,000), as well as last year’s The Heat ($1 million), which starred McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. It also beats McCarthy’s Identity Thief, which earned $450,000 in 2013.

Reviews for the latest Warner Bros. film are rather negative at this point, with a current 25 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Numbers are likely to change.

The Hollywood Reporter’s film critic, Todd McCarthy, writes in his review of Tammy that, “the film progresses from merely unfunny to unconvincing to dull. It’s a waste of a good cast as well as a serious trip wire for McCarthy, who may know what’s best for her talents but, on the evidence, needs a deft-handed outsider to make sure she’s maximizing them.”

Regardless, the studio and analysts believe the film, which had a $20 million production budget, will take in more than $40 million this weekend.

The film’s official synopsis:

Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a bad day. She’s totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a greasy burger joint and, instead of finding comfort at home, finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It’s time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she’s broke and without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), is her only option-with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls. Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma riding shot gun, it may be just what Tammy needs.

The road-trip comedy co-stars Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney and Dan Aykroyd alongside McCarthy.

Are you going to check out Tammy for yourself this Fourth of July weekend? Watch the trailer below!