TNU Box Office Preview: Hit Girl strikes back

After two extremely long weeks at the top of the box office, I believe those damn Turtles are about to come crashing down. But the long-awaited Sin City sequel, won’t be responsible.

That’s right kids: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are about to have their butts kicked by a dame.

As crazy as it sounds, “If I Stay” is poised to top the weekend box office. Based on the 2009 Gayle Forman novel, “If I Stay” is directed by R. J. Cutler, based on the novel of the same name by Gayle Forman. The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Stacy Keach, and Aisha Hinds.

Yeah, yeah, it’s another young adult adaptation. But unlike say “The Giver” and countless others YA adaptations, this one has a fighting chance.

“If I Stay” is opening at 2,907 theatres, and it should bring in the same crown that made “The Fault in our Stars” a big hit earlier this summer. To be clear: I don’t think Stay ill open as high as “The Fault in our Stars” ($48 million), however it should open around $25 million, more than enough to smack down the competition.

Almost nine and a half years after “Sin City” opened to $29.8 million, the sequel everyone wanted in 2006-2007 finally arrives in theaters. Seriously, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, what the hell took so damn long?

Based on the acclaimed comic series by Frank Miller, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” reunites cast members Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. The sequel adds Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Jamie Chung, Dennis Haysbert, Marton Csokas, Christopher Lloyd, Julia Garner, Juno Temple, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach (him again?!), Christopher Meloni, Alexa PenaVega, Lady Gaga, Jeremy Piven and Crystal McCahill.

*whew* Gimme a sec while I catch my breath…

The film is opening at 2,894 locations, but due to the long gap between films, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” will earn nearly half of its predecessor. Dame should land in second place with around $15 million.

Finally, football drama “When the Game Stands Tall” will likely wind up in fifth place if its lucky. Playing at 2,670 theaters, the drama stars Jim Caviezel as high school football coach Bob Ladouceur, who led the De La Salle High School Spartans to a 151-game winning streak. Not that many people know this, since none of the advertisements tell you about the streak.

That being said, the film does have one or two things going for it: the movie has a faith-based angle, as De La Salle is a Catholic high school. And “When the Game Stands Tall” should do better than other recent sports films “Million Dollar Arm” ($10.5 million) and “Draft Day” ($9.8 million).

TNU Box Office Rewind: Space, the final frontier…

Well, shows you how much I know. On Friday, I predicted bio-flick “Captain Phillips” would win the weekend, and crush defending champion “Gravity.” Boy was I wrong!

WEEEEEEEEEE!

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are dominating the Fall box office. After setting an October opening weekend record, “Gravity” dropped just 21 percent to an estimated $44.3 million.  But even more impressive, “Gravity” earned $9 million in IMAX, which is the highest second weekend ever for the format. putting “Gravity” slightly  ahead of “The Dark Knight Rises”  which held the record with $8.99 million. After only 10 days, “Gravity” has earned an impressive $123.4 million domestically, and another $68,000,000 in foreign markets.

Clearly, I underestimated Gravity’s strong word-of-mouth. When I saw “Captain Phillips”  on Friday night, people were buzzing about “Gravity”. Apparently, seeing the movie on the big screen in 3D is an event. For what its worth, the film’s 3D share was 82 percent this weekend, up from 80 percent in its opening weekend.The movie is likely to keep up this momentum at least another couple of weeks.

But In early November, “Gravity” will lose some IMAX and 3D screens to “Ender’s Game” and “Thor: The Dark World.” Even so, for “Gravity” the sky is the limit, and th $300 million mark could be within reach.

 

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, I wonder where, my glove will go?

“Captain Phillips” did strong business in its opening weekend, but it didn’t come close to Gravity’s numbers. Playing at 3,020 theaters, “Captain Phillips” opened to a very good $26 million. While that’s not record-breaking, it is better than the openings of 2012 award season darlings “Zero Dark Thirty” ($24.4 million) and “Argo” ($19.5 million), both of which opened on the same weekend last year.

$26 million is also one of the better openings for star Tom Hanks, who needed a box office boost after disappointing box office performers like “Cloud Atlas,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “Larry Crowne.”

According to reports, the audience for “Captain Phillips” was 52 percent male and 62 percent over the age of 35. I believe that, because I was the definitely youngest person in the theatre on Friday night. The film had a $55 million budget, and it should easily cross that once the movie opens in foreign markets. “Captain Phillips” won’t be a blockbuster, but it should earn around $75 million when all is said and done.

 

I thought you said this was a three hour tour.

In third place we find animated sequel “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.” The film fell 32 percent to an estimated $14.2 million. To date, the animated film has earned $78 million, which is a bit below the original Cloudy through the same point. With little competition, this movie should keep on rolling.

The bomb of the week landed in fourth place. “Machete Kills” was dead on arrival, earning just $3.8 million. This is one of the worst openings ever for a movie playing in over 2,500 locations, and it’s also one of the worst openings of 2013. I bet Robert Rodriguez is counting the days until the Sin City sequel hits theatres.

It would seem adding Mel Gibson, Sofia Vergara, Lady Gaga and “Carlos Estevez” did little for the sequel. “Machete Kills” opened to one-third of the first Machete’s $11.4 million, which is an incredibly steep decline for any sequel. “Machete Kills” received a”B-” CinemaScore, which is better than I would have guessed. With heavy competition on the way, “Machete Kills” is unlikely to hit $10 million at the box office.

 

Your top five movies this weekend:

1. Gravity – $44.2 million

2. Captain Phillips – $26 million

3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $14.2 million

4. Machete Kills – $3.79 million

5. Runner Runner – $3.73 million

I guess this means no Machete Tres?

 

 

TNU Box Office Preview: Ganando, con Carlos Estevez

Two very different movies are hitting theatres this weekend. Normally, this would be bad for movie studios, but the good news here is that “Captain Phillips” and “Machete Kills” won’t really be competing against each other. Shall I explain?

Each movie is aimed at a different audience, something which will help both movies to a certain degree. Okay, so its going to help “Captain Phillips” a lot more than it will Machete, but that’s beside the point. The real competition for the top spot this weekend will be between “Captain Phillips” and “Gravity.”

I did the space movie thing way before Clooney!

Poor Tom Hanks, the two-time Oscar winner has had a rough go at the box office the last few years. Let’s see there was “Larry Crowne,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” and “Cloud Atlas.” All of which under-performed in theatres, some quite badly in fact. A losing streak like that would damage most acting career, but this is Tom Hanks we’re talking about, and he’s no ordinary actor.

Sony spent $55 million on the picture, which is based upon the true story of a U.S. cargo ship captain who protected his crew from Somali pirates in 2009. The drama is playing in 3,020 theaters, and has received some great reviews and buzz. As of friday morning, the film sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Captain Phillips” should break Hanks’ losing streak at the box office, and it should win the weekend with around $35 million. “Captain Phillips” is directed by the Bourne trilogy’s Paul Greengrass,

I swear, Cloud Atlas wasn’t my fault!

Last week “Gravity” scored an impressive $55.6 million on its opening weekend, setting a new October record. Warner Bros. must be thrilled with how well the film has held up during week. The Sandra Bullock/George Clooney space drama has already earned over $73 million in six days, and it could cross the $100 million mark this weekend. I still believe this movie will have legs in the coming weeks, but its reign at number one is over. Everyone who wanted to see this movie in theatres has done so, so I expect “Gravity” will dip to second place with around $30 million.

 

The we have “Machete Kills” which is opening at 2,538 theaters, The sequel opens over three years after the first Machete, which was a spin-off from 2007’s “Grindhouse.” I really enjoyed the first Machete flick, Yes, I was the one person who liked “Machete.” I thought it a fun over-the-tp action flick. Plus, ‘ll watch anything with Danny Trejo , even “Bubble Boy.”  Sadly, the first movie never found a theatrical audience, and finished its run with a meager $26.6 million.

Gimme back my machete!

Although I liked the first film, I’m as surprised as anyone to see a sequel hitting theatres. At this point, I seriously doubt “Machete Kills” will match its predecessor box office gross. Maybe director Robert Rodriguez had this in mind when he loaded the movie with a, shall we say, interesting cast. “Machete Kills” features Lady Gaga, Mel Gibson, Sofia Vergara and Carlos Estevez (aka Charlie Sheen). Stunt casting aside, if this movie get anywhere near $8 million this weekend, I’d say its a win.

 

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

 

Also opening this weekend at 461 theatres, is Relativity Media’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Not that anyone cares about the umpteenth big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic, but I thought I could share a Nerds Uncanny story.

Way back in eighth grade we had to read Romeo and Juliet in English class. It took a couple of weeks, but we finally made it to the end. As a reward, the teacher decided to let us watch the 1968 film version of the play. “Romeo and Juliet” starred Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, and featured voice work by Laurence Olivier. I think the movie even won a couple of Oscars. Not that any of that mattered to us. All we cared about was the nude scene at the beginning.

I see London, I see France..

Our English teacher tried to fast forward the film, but the scene was a bit longer than he realized. Of course all the guys in the class loved it, and the girls liked that Romeo was nekkid too. As luck would have it, our teacher was absent the next two days, and each day we had a different substitute teacher. Both days, the subs asked where we had left off in the movie, and both times we told them we hadn’t started it yet. So we kept going back to the nude scene.

Ahhh, silly teenagers. Tricks are for kids.

Well, crud

*sigh*

If you were excited to see the new Sin city movie in October, you’re out of luck. “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” the long-awaited sequel to 2005’s “Sin City” won’t be released until August 22, 2014. Delaying any movie by 10 months is a big deal, so why the wait?

It could be because  director Robert Rodriguez is releasing “Machete Kills” in mid September. Maybe Rodriguez  doesn’t want his movies overlapping in theatres, that may hurt business. Or it could be to give the filmmakers more time to work on the sequel’s special effects. Perhaps production is taking longer than expected.

Whatever the reason, 2014 will host two comic adaptations, “300: Rise of an Empire,” and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.” Both movies star Eva Green, and both flicks are based on Frank Miller comics. I’d say that’s rather interesting, wouldn’t you?

“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” features the character of Dwight (played by Clive Owen in the original film) now played by Josh Brolin. Dwight is a physically altered man who is “hunted down by the only woman he ever loved … and then watches his life go straight to hell.” That woman is Ava Lord, played by the wonderful Eva Green.

In addition to Brolin and Green, the movie stars Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach and Julia Garner.