A quartet of films enter the already-overcrowded American box office marketplace this weekend, each reaching out to a different demographic in the hopes of grabbing a share of the cinematic pumpkin pie.The biggest of the quartet has to be Sony Pictures' well-received horror comedy "Zombieland", which lands on nearly 3,000 screens. Directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, "Zombieland" is the story of four people trying to survive in a world overrun by the living dead. The 81-minute arrives in theaters benefiting not only from a great ad campaign (the trailer was hilarious), but also from something rarely attached to a horror film: strong praise from critics (the film has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes). With Halloween a mere 29 days away, the time is right for "Zombieland" to strike at the box office. After a big $9 million Friday launch, watch for the film to nab roughly $24-27 million this weekend.
Michael Moore is back in action, this time taking on the corporations and financial institutions largely responsible for the global economic free fall that has happened over the past couple of years. "Capitalism: A Love Story" is what you've come to expect from the Flint, Michigan filmmaker: an op-ed piece straight from the left guaranteed to rile up those who despise his work. It is also quite entertaining, at times deeply moving and thought provoking. The film's blockbuster grosses from 11 screens last weekend show that people may not be tired of Moore's views or films yet. And since everyone can pretty much relate to being dicked over by a bank or large corporation at least once or twice in their lifetime, Moore's scathing indictments might prove to be a bit cathartic. After grossing $1.6 million on Friday from 962 theaters, "Capitalism: A Love Story" might yield $6 million this weekend.
It's been a decade since we last saw Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy on the big screen, and this weekend brings the duo and all their friends back to the big screen in 3-D Digital with the double feature of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2". With the third film coming out next June (a trailer is attached to this twin spin), what better time to get the promotional ball rolling than to reissue the originals to reacquaint audiences with the series. The three-hour running time of the double feature will limit showtimes and might prove to be just a little too much for the young ones to sit still for. Still, that won't stop them from begging their parents to take them to see the films. Friday saw a strong $3.8 million gross on 1,745 screens, which should allow the first weekend of the 2-week run to pull in roughly $13 million.
Ricky Gervais, the man who gave us the original version of "The Office" and the hysterical HBO series "Extras", takes another stab at a lead role in a motion picture with the new comedy "The Invention Of Lying", a film he co-directed. I missed his first shot at big screen stardom, 2008's blink-and-you-missed-it "Ghost Town", but I heard good things about it and do plan on seeing it one of these days. I had toyed with the idea of seeing "Invention" last week at a screening, but the ads Warner has been playing have been outright awful. Of course, I now hear that the film is actually quite good. Guess I can add this one to the "one of these days" lists as well. While I might procrastinate seeing the film, others might not. Friday saw a surprising gross of $2.7 mil from 1,700 screens, which might bring "Lying" to roughly $9.5 million.
The final new film opening wide this weekend is the Drew Barrymore-directed film "Whip It", which stars Barrymore, Ellen Page and Juliette Lewis. The reviews have been generally favorable from critics, and sneak previews held last Saturday across the country were well-attended. Yet, the film only pulled in $1.7 million from roughly 1,700 screens, which might yield the film around $5.5 million for the weekend. The lower-than-expected gross may prove yet again that no matter how good the film, there are just some subjects -like Roller Derby- that people don't want to pay $10 to watch in a theater.
As for the holdovers from last weekend, watch for Sony's smash hit "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" to pull another $20 million following Friday's $5 million gross to bring its total to a huge $85 million to date. Watch for the big-budget Bruce Willis flop "Surrogate" to pull in $6 million and MGM's DOA remake of "Fame" to gross $4 million before each completely vanish from theaters next weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment