‘The Magnificent Seven’ Won Weekend Box Office With $35M Debut

"The Magnificent Seven" picked up an estimated $35 million worth of ticket sales making it top last weekend's box office. The reportedly exceeded Warner Bros. "Storks" which came in second place with $21.8 million. Sully which reigned the box office for two weeks, on the other hand, was easily surpassed by "The Magnificent Seven" and ended with $13.8 million.

"The Magnificent Seven" is a remake of the classic 1960 western film by John Sturges. Sturges' film is also a remake of the original 1954 classic film "Seven Samurai" of Akira Kurosawa. Antoine Fuqua directed The Magnificent Seven which takes place six years after Sturges' remake, Statesman reported.

"The Magnificent Seven" plot is centered on the group of seven outlaws, gamblers, gunslingers and bounty hunters who later found themselves fighting over something more than money. The seven mercenaries were initially employed by a woman for protection against bandits lead by the town's baron.

"The Magnificent Seven" director revealed that it was Roger Birnbaum, former co-chair and co-CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who initially gave the idea to work on "The Magnificent Seven" film remake, Inquirer.net reported. Fuqua said that he wanted to give out a new perspective on screen that people have not seen yet. "So I said, 'What about Denzel Washington?'," Fuqua said in an interview. The director continued to say that people in the room went quiet and suddenly burst into reactions asking if Washington would accept the role.

"The Magnificent Seven" production purportedly cost nearly $90 million according to the Statesman report. The film was distributed by Sony Pictures which teamed up with MGM, LStar Capital and Village Roadshow to finance the production cost. "The Magnificent Seven" cast includes Washington, Chris Pratt, Josh Faraday, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel-Garcia Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett and Peter Sarsgaard.

Watch the official trailer of "The Magnificent Seven" below.