“Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” opened in royal style last night.
The last of the trio of films post-TV series had the best preview night of the three. “DAGF” brought in $2.6 million.
That’s more than double the prior installment, in 2022. And $500,000 more than the original “DA” film in 2019.
All signs point to a pretty swell weekend, with a possible $17 million take.
The new film is creator Julian Fellowes’ piece de resistance, and Focus Features knows it. They threw him and the cast an old fashioned premiere Monday night with a screening at Jazz at Lincoln Center followed by a lavish party at the NY Public Library.
You always know the studio means business if they take over the Library, by the way.
Fellowes was there, eating, meeting, and greeting. He’d never met Tony nominee Kristine Nielsen, who plays Mrs. Bauer on his HBO hit, “The Gilded Age,” and was thrilled when she came to say hello.
Other “Gilded Age” cast included Christine Baranski, aka Aunt Agnes, who came over from a fundraiser for the American Theater Wing.
There was plenty of “Downton Cast” on hand to celebrate including director Simon Curtis and his wife, Elizabeth McGovern, aka Lady Grantham, as well as Laura Carmichael (Edith), Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham), Michelle Dockery (Mary), Alessandro Nivola (he plays a sexy scoundrel), Paul Giammatti (Lady Grantham’s sad sack brother from America), Kevin Doyle (Mr. Moseley), and so on.
At the screening, Curtis and Fellowes gave a special shout out to Bob Balaban, who got all this started. In 1995 he went to famous director Robert Altman with the idea for what became “Gosford Park,” which he and Fellowes wrote and was a smash hit. “Downton” is really the TV version. So all kudos to Balaban, who was there with wife Lynn Grossman.
Fellowes has written every word of “Downton.” With “Gilded Age,” he gets ‘final pass’ on the scripts. He told me he’s completely stunned about how “Gilded Age” has taken off. No one was sure it would happen. In “Downton” Mr. Moseley — who’s now a screenwriter — makes several inside jokes about writers and actors, who’s most important, and so on. It was ironic, then, that Fellowes and Baranski disagree about the imperious Aunt Agnes — he thinks she does things for the right reasons. Her portrayer is a lot harder on her. Interesting.
After 16 years, I will really miss all these people. The “Downton” crowd was the nicest — except for “The Sopranos” — we ever dealt with. Every one of them was a pleasure to interview and review. But at least they’ve given us this one, last great send off.
PS When you see “The Grand Finale” this weekend, bring tissues. The ending deserves a whole box!
