UPDATE: Angel Studios isn’t waiting around — Jon Erwin has already announced a Young Washington sequel, 1776, before the weekend even wrapped. Full details on the sequel announcement here.
Hollywood spent the holiday weekend performing autopsies on a Minions movie that opened to a franchise low and on Supergirl, which fell off a cliff.
The one movie that needed no explaining was the one nobody was tracking.
Young Washington, the Angel Studios and Wonder Project historical epic about the French and Indian War years of the future first president, is opening to an estimated $20.85 million from just 2,700 theaters, per BoxOfficeReport’s Sunday figures.
RELATED
Young Washington Sequel 1776 Announced Before Opening Weekend Even Ended
In Hollywood, a sequel greenlight takes months: parsing the legs, running the write-down math, workshopping a confidence statement for the town hall….
Watch the estimate climb: the trades projected $15 million going into the weekend. Friday night estimates had it at $16-17 million. Deadline’s Saturday morning update bumped it to $18 million. The Sunday number blew through all of them, nearly 40% above projections.
The Numbers Hollywood Didn’t See Coming
Young Washington made $7.6 million on Friday alone, more than double what Supergirl managed on its entire second Friday ($3.6 million).
It lands in third place for the weekend, behind only Minions & Monsters, which bombed to a franchise-low $39.5 million three-day opening, and Toy Story 5 in its third weekend.
On a per-theater basis, it’s punching way above its footprint: roughly $7,700 per screen from 2,700 locations, in the same neighborhood as the Minions’ ~$9,900 average across 4,000.
And it more than doubled Supergirl, which collapsed in its second weekend — now an estimated full 80% dive — to an $8.5-9 million. A $170 million DC tentpole just got lapped by a movie that cost around a tenth of that, in its second weekend, on the Fourth of July.
Chris Pratt: ‘A Star Is Born’
The word of mouth got a rocket booster on Friday when Chris Pratt — with roughly 55 million followers combined on Instagram and Facebook — posted a video from his car, fresh out of a screening.
“Get off your ass and run to the movie theater and go see Young Washington,” Pratt says in the clip, comparing it to The Revenant, Pride and Prejudice, and Braveheart “all combined.”
In the caption, Pratt wrote, “Celebrate America’s 250th birthday at the box office!!!” and called the film “Braveheart for Americans,” praising director Jon Erwin and star William Franklyn-Miller by name: “Remember the name! A star is born!”
RELATED
The Terminal List Season 2 Premiere Date Announced By Prime Video
Prime Video has announced The Terminal List Season 2 will premiere on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. All eight episodes will drop at…
The funny part: in the video, Pratt admits he didn’t know the young lead’s name yet. “Mark my words. Very soon, everybody in the world will know his name,” he says.
Franklyn-Miller, the 22-year-old British actor playing Washington, popped into the comments to thank him, a reply that alone racked up over a thousand likes as the post cleared 82,000.
“What a sleeper,” Pratt said. The Sunday estimates say he called it.
Audiences 94%, Critics 58% — Sound Familiar?
Critics shrugged at Young Washington: 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences handed it a 92% score, an A CinemaScore, and an 81% definite recommend on PostTrak.
Hold that 81% up against the other big opener: Minions & Monsters posted a 58% definite recommend — the exact stat fueling the theory that Illumination made the movie “too smart” for its own audience — despite earning the best reviews in franchise history.
Same weekend, opposite directions. The franchise with a 91% critics score opened to a franchise low. The movie critics rated rotten beat its projection by 40%.
The scoreboard that matters — the one where people buy tickets and then tell their friends to — belongs to George Washington.
The Sound of Freedom Playbook, Again
None of this is an accident.
Erwin (I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution) and Angel timed the release to America’s 250th birthday and openly campaigned since October to make it the No. 1 movie in the country on July 4th.
The budget is estimated in the $20 million range, meaning Young Washington roughly matched it in just three days, with an A CinemaScore promising legs through the summer.
Angel has run this play before. Sound of Freedom opened July 4th weekend in 2023 to a $19 million three-day start that Hollywood dismissed, then legged out to $250 million worldwide on a $14.5 million budget.
Audiences keep telling Hollywood exactly what they’ll pay for, and this weekend they said it three different ways: a franchise low for the brand that changed its formula, a 76% collapse for the $170 million tentpole they rejected on sight, and a 40% overperformance for a $20 million movie about George Washington.
The only people still calling these movies “surprises” work in Hollywood.
Matt McGloin is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Cosmic Book News, the independent entertainment news site he founded in 2008. He covers movies, comics, TV, video games and pop culture and has reported major industry scoops over the years, including revealing the Avengers: Endgame title ahead of its official announcement. Through Cosmic Book News, he helped Marvel Comics promote Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova through exclusive previews, artwork, and interviews, with the site also quoted in solicitations and on comic covers. He also reported on Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again retooling before it was later confirmed by the trades.