A week after WB fires the first big salvo at the awards season box office with “A Star Is Born,” Universal will enter the fray with the Apollo 11 biopic “First Man,” directed by “La La Land” filmmaker Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling as famed astronaut Neil Armstrong.Early tracking for the film dropped on Thursday, with independent trackers projecting an opening weekend in the low $20 million range.
The film is reported to have a net production budget of $60 million after tax incentives, double the budget Chazelle had for “La La Land.”However, that opening projection could easily rise to $30 million or higher as the film’s release gets closer.
“First Man” has already received strong reviews from its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, with critics praising the film’s gritty depiction of the famed mission to send a man to the moon, as well as Gosling
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