Brad Pitt’s star power and the man-and-his-dog survival hook in David Ayer’s *Heart of the Beast* anchor trader expectations for a modest debut, yet pre-release tracking from Boxoffice Pro pegs the domestic opening in the $15–25 million range. The September 25 wide release from Paramount faces head-to-head competition from Universal’s animated *Forgotten Island* (projected $20–30 million) and the second frame of Sony’s *Resident Evil* re-adaptation, which fragments family and action audiences. Historical benchmarks—Pitt’s *Bullet Train* ($30 million) and *F1* ($57 million) versus Ayer’s recent mid-teens openers and the comparable *Dog* ($14.8 million)—create a wide probability band. With no reviews or final presale data available days before release, market-implied odds cluster tightly across the $14–23 million buckets, reflecting uncertainty over whether strong word-of-mouth can lift the film above its baseline tracking.