Box Office: ‘Cocaine Bear’ Takes on Marvel’s ’Quantumania,’ Aims for $15 Million-Plus Debut

Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man is taking on his scariest adversary yet: a 500-pound black bear on cocaine.Universal’s gruesome action-comedy “Cocaine Bear” won’t come close to “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” in terms of weekend ticket sales, but the drugged-up animal adventure is expected to start strong at the domestic box office.

“Cocaine Bear” hopes to take in $15 million to $17 million from 3,500 North American theaters, with a chance that positive buzz could propel initial returns to $20 million.The wild R-rated movie was budgeted at roughly $35 million, which was mostly dedicated to the CGI used to bring to life the coked-out grizzly alongside the human cast of Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Brooklynn Prince.

Elizabeth Banks directed “Cocaine Bear,” which is one of today’s rare original theatrical comedies.

Inspired by a stranger-than-fiction story about a drug runner’s plane crash, the film

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