“Reagan” is the first feature film about the former president's life. Ronald Reagan, Box office results during the film's opening weekend exceeded expectations.
“Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president of the United States, closed the Labor Day weekend from September 30 to August 2 with an estimated box office gross of $10 million. Box Office MojoThe film came in third behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus.
The biographical drama “nearly doubled expectations that it would make $5 million in its opening weekend,” The Oklahoman reported Monday morning, when the film was expected to gross $9.2 million.
“Reagan” was well received by audiences, earning a 98% rating. Rotten Tomatoes As of Tuesday, however, critics, especially in the left-leaning media, panned the film.
New 'Reagan' movie shows president's strength and why he's best remembered for fighting 'evil'
“Reagan” star Dennis Quaid said the film is not a “political movie.” (Showbiz Direct)
The far-left website The Daily Beast called “Reagan” “the worst movie of the year.”
“If you suspected this MAGA-tinged hagiography was total trash, it turns out you weren't lowbrow enough,” entertainment critic Nick Shager wrote in The Daily Beast.
Ahead of the film's opening weekend, scathing reviews also appeared in The Washington Post, Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter.
“The believers for whom 'Reagan' was made are unlikely to find it a hagiography as rosy and shallow as a Kremlin May Day parade. As pop-culture propaganda, this film is purely for true believers. As history, it has no merit,” wrote The Washington Post's Ty Burr.
At The Wrap, critic William Viviani also called Reagan an “embarrassing presidential biopic.” [that] It treats the president, played by Dennis Quaid, as a second afterlife.”
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Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller as Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (Rob Batzdorf/Rawhide Pictures)
Ahead of the release of “Reagan,” Quaid dismissed concerns that he would be “canceled” for playing a Republican president.
“It's a biopic. It's a love story. It's a story about America as it was, about all of us,” Quaid told Fox News Digital in August. “A lot of it has been distorted by what people think it should be. So, yes, they've tried to cancel me a few times, but so what?”
While Reagan may have been a controversial figure to some on the left, Quaid said the film about his life is not “political.”
“When Reagan was president, everyone called him a warmonger, but he was the guy who ended the Cold War and made peace with the Soviets, but we needed a Cold Warrior… and everyone called him a third-rate actor and all that,” Quaid said.
“Reagan was like a father figure to everybody when he was president,” he continued, “and like any family, you either looked up to your father or you rebelled against him. And a lot of those feelings still remain. That's what we're going through in this country today with politics and so forth, and a lot of people are connecting that to Reagan and wanting to make this a political movie, but it's not.”
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“Reagan” The film is directed by Sean McNamara and produced by Marc Joseph, and also stars Penelope Ann Miller and Jon Voight.
Fox News' Elizabeth Stanton and Larry Fink contributed to this report.
