Hollywood whines there’s a lost moviegoing audience in the middle and southern part of the U.S. that the industry doesn’t make movies for.

Well, then make movies for them. That’s exactly what Universal, Warner Bros., and Amblin did in rebooting Twisters to a grand stateside start of $80M, an awesome 60% ahead of its $50M+ forecast.

Hooking the middle of the country with this movie about a weather phenomenon that impacts them frequently was, of course, an immediate priority here for Universal. The studio smartly attached Arkansas native and 2x Oscar nominated Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung to paint a portrait of the folks he grew up with — a move that speaks to its yield at the weekend box office.

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But there was something else in the ether working to Twisters‘ overperformance this weekend, and that was people’s need to escape from the house and be entertained following the tragedy of the Donald Trump assassination attempt, the former POTUS remaining the No 1 choice for U.S. President this November. As a movie marketing maven told us this past weekend about Uni’s campaign, “They sold fun”.

When it comes to a movie about several tornados that appear during the course of two hours, it’s easy to broach climate change. But such left-leaning words didn’t come up during the feature, Uni also keeping the sell on this movie as apolitical as possible.

Of all the marketing lynchpins that heightened the movie’s profile was its country-infused soundtrack. What a pop Dua Lipa-Billie Eilish laced soundtrack did last summer for Barbie, a country fried one was essential for Twisters, with 29 tracks by such artists as Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Bailey Zimmerman, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett, Shania Twain, Charley Crockett, Flatland Cavalry, Tyler Childers and Megan Moroney. Speaking of Barbie, when Uni was meeting with record labels, they decided to work with Atlantic’s West Coast President Kevin Weaver over a Nashville-based company, as the exec was coming off the success of the Barbie soundtrack. Weaver has also assembled such soundtracks and cast albums as Hamilton and The Greatest Showman.