The Meg: Jason Statham's shark thriller likely to have $40 mn opening weekend at North American box-office

The Meg  earned $16.5 million on Friday and is expected to have a $40 million opening weekend collection at the North American box-office, reports Variety. The film also managed to earn $4 million in Thursday previews itself. [caption id=“attachment_4938671” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from The Meg/Image from Twitter.[/caption] Jason Statham stars as Jonas Tyler, an expert deep sea rescue diver who is recruited by a Chinese oceanographer to protect the waters from a prehistoric 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. Dean Georgaris and Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber have scripted the film, based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Altan, while Jon Turteltaub is the director.

'#TheMeg' Devours $4M from Thursday Night Previews https://t.co/m4DRi2YP9r pic.twitter.com/A1AiewjRJl

— Box Office Mojo (@boxofficemojo) August 10, 2018

Friday #BoxOffice Estimates: #TheMeg $16.5m; #MissionImpossible - Fallout $5.3m; @SlenderManMovie $4.85m https://t.co/fiYfXeHCHc pic.twitter.com/iYYqsQ0GjT

— Box Office Mojo (@boxofficemojo) August 11, 2018

  However, The Meg has received mixed reviews and a 49 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.  The Hollywood Reporter writes that this film will beat Tom Cruise’s  Mission: Impossible Fallout , currently in its third weekend, estimated to add $19-20 million. The film also stars Winston Chao, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Page Kennedy, Jessica McNamee, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Robert Taylor, Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, and Masi Oka.