Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans’ Christmas movie Red topped the domestic box office chart on Friday with nearly $11 million. The question now is whether it can achieve its goal and pull off a $30 million opening.

Amazon MGM Studios has always believed that the movie is a Saturday and Sunday play, rather than a Friday (a big distraction on Friday was the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight on Netflix, although the majority, or 54 percent, of the Red ticket buyers on opening day were men).

Red is playing in a total of 4,032 North American theaters this weekend, including Imax, Dolby Cinema and other premium large format screens. While many critics didn’t care for the action-adventure film, audiences felt the opposite and gave it an A-CinemaScore. Amazon originally planned to send the film straight to its streaming service Prime Video, but gave it the theatrical treatment in hopes of boosting exhibitors.

Heading into an otherwise quiet weekend, tracking showed the film would open between $30 million and $35 million domestically. Warner Bros. Pictures distributes the production of Seven Bucks abroad Red opened to $28 million to avoid a direct confrontation with Paramount’s Gladiator IIwhich launches at the international box office this weekend, a week ahead of its domestic debut. (Ridley Scotts Gladiator sequel could gross as much as $80 million or more in its overseas arc.)

RedIts box office performance will be closely watched as it cost $250 million to produce. A major legacy studio in the same situation would be under scrutiny if a movie with that price tag opened to those numbers, but Amazon insists its business model is different and driven by subscribers and not just the box office. It is also counted on Red to play throughout the end-of-year holidays and become a holiday classic for years to come.

Nevertheless, it would be a disappointment if $30 million is not released.

Red is the first real Christmas film to hit theaters since the pandemic The Grinch opened in 2018.

The family-friendly pic follows what happens when Santa Claus – whose code name is ‘Red One’ – is kidnapped and the North Pole’s head of security (Johnson) must team up with the world’s most notorious bounty hunter (Evans) in what Amazon MGM describes as a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

Directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by Chris Morgan and a story by Hiram Garcia. Red Also starring Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel and JK Simmons. It’s rated PG-13 in the US, where the reviews aren’t kind.

Red is the first in a series of end-of-year tents that are preparing to open and, if all goes well, put the box office back on Santa’s nice list after a bad fall due to lack of product. Universal Bad and Paramount’s Gladiator II both debut on November 22, followed by Walt Disney Animation’s Moana 2 on November 27. (Many have dubbed the high-profile corridor “Moanapocalypse” or “Glicked.”)

The figures will be updated on Sunday morning.