Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington stars in the newly released film The Equalizer. Directed by Antoine Fugua, who directed Washington in Training Day for which Washington won that Oscar statue in 2001, The Equalizer has already proven to be a box office hit. It’s expected to make $30 million this weekend. Denzel’s last 10 wide releases have averaged a $28 million opening. When was the last time Washington made a “small” movie without toting a gun? Answer: In 2007, he starred in and directed the sleeper biopic The Great Debaters. (Fellow Oscar winner Forest Whitaker co-starred, and Oprah produced it but it only made $6 million in its first weekend.)
Regardless of what movie critics say about The Equalizer — The Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl who called The Equalizer “gloriously dumb” and “hilariously violent” — most Americans love that Denzel Washington is “still kicking ass at age 59.”
