Category: Looking at the Weekend

None of these films really seem like box office hits in the making and while I might suggest Snitch has a strong chance of doing well, I give the edge to the supernatural horror flick Dark Skies. Individual Commentaries Wesley Lovell: Nothing new this week piques my interests. Peter J. Patrick: Bless Me, Ultima looks…

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend and although the “holiday” falls mid-week, the romantic film usually tops the weekend. This time, we have two entries. One is far more heavily advertised than the other. In the end, the tween-centric Beautiful Creatures should outperform the more adult-oriented Safe Haven, both of whom will have to fight off the…

There are no other moronic comedies currently in release, so there should be little competition for Identity Thief. Individual Commentaries Wesley Lovell: None of the trailers for these films excite me, but Steven Soderbergh’s reputation alone makes me recommend Side Effects. Peter J. Patrick: The new Soderbergh (Side Effects) looks fairly interesting. The other two…

Unless you’re starring with other aging action heroes in an ensemble picture, you aren’t likely to get a lot of people to the theaters. When you’re facing off against a movie about zombies falling in love, you’re probably going to do worse. Individual Commentaries Wesley Lovell: This week’s new releases are largely unimpressive with the…

I have no idea which of the three dismal releases will take the top spot at the box office and I’m doubtful any of them will. The film that seems the most likely to top the other three is Parker if only because it stars Jennifer Lopez who has fans even if few of them…

The year is only three weeks old and we’ve already had a horror (or horrorish) film release every weekend. Will it be tops of the new releases again like its predecessors? Possibly, but I’m giving the edge to Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe. I know that Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn couldn’t do it this…

One has a trailer of pure excitement and features prominent young actors and the other has a terrible trailer that won’t appeal to even the most desperate of moviegoers. I think it’s clear that Gangster Squad will handily beat A Haunted House for the box office crown this week. Individual Commentaries Wesley Lovell: Even though…

There’s only one new release this weekend and it’s a horror film. The last such film didn’t do much at the box office, but this is a fairly well known franchise, so it will do well, but can it top the fourth weekend of the Hobbit or the second weekends of Les Misérables or Django…

This week, we’re looking at the weekend a couple of days early since we’re including two Christmas Day releases coming to theaters on Tuesday. While our thoughts include the subsequent weekend, this is almost a weeklong look at what’s coming. Next weekend, depending on how Christmas audiences like either Les Misérables or Django Unchained will…

It’s hard to know what films will tickle audience fancies, but after recent history suggests action films doing incredibly well in the pre-Christmas window, it’s very likely that Jack Reacher will be the top new release. The Guilt Trip could also surprise as could This Is 40. The most interesting player will be Monsters, Inc.…

We’ve been waiting three weeks for a knock-out box office debut and we’ll finally get it this week with the long-awaited prequel trilogy The Hobbit. How high it performs will depend on word of mouth and repeat business. Critics have been appreciative, but a bit underwhelmed, but that shouldn’t dissuade ardent fans. Individual Commentaries Wesley…

With nothing but holdovers to face as competition, Playing for Keeps has an open field to make an attempt at number one. The film only needs to bank around $10 million to achieve that, but considering how poorly Gerard Butler’s films have been opening, it might fail to top the umpteenth week of Breaking Dawn,…

The weekend after Thanksgiving is typically one of the dullest ever. It’s where studios dump genre flicks that they hope will pick up a few leftover scraps while the holdovers from Thanksgiving continue to dominate. While I can envision a situation where all four of these titles fail to break the top 5, The Collection…

We could have a record-breaking Thanksgiving on our hands. Not only is Breaking Dawn, Part 2 bound to hold over well, all three of the week’s new releases have the potential of blockbuster openings. The most likely recipient of high attendance is Rise of the Guardians. Family films should do very well on a holiday…

If this were nearly any other weekend this year, we would be talking about whether the week’s new releases could catch up to the likely stellar second week totals of Skyfall. Unfortunately, it will finish a distant second to the final chapter of the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. The paranormal romance novel has…