
This weekend at theatres, moviegoers are offered 4 new releases. Romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You arrives in time for Valentine’s Day, comedy sequel The Pink Panther 2 slinks into theatres, new kid flick Coraline opens and teenage boys can look forward to the sci-fi action movie, Push.
He’s Just Not That Into You with its huge cast including Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connolly and Justin Long is the film to beat this weekend. With Valentine’s Day next week and no real competition in this genre, this is the perfect date movie. The movie also has a built in audience from the best selling relationship book of the same name and of course that magnificent cast. Expect He’s Just Not That Into You to debut to about $26M this weekend and for it to have a nice hold next weekend with Valentine’s Day falling on Saturday.
Steve Martin returns as bumbling Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther 2. The first Panther movie had a decent opening of $20M and went on to gross a total of $82M. Generally the rule with sequels is that the opening spikes up from the original due to its built in audience. I don’t think that will be the case here as I really don’t think audiences have been clamoring for a sequel. In fact, I would expect The Pink Panther 2 to open smaller than the first and make less money overall. The Pink Panther 2 will steal about $14M at the box office this weekend.
Dakota Fanning voices the titular character in the animated kid’s flick, Coraline, based on the hit novel by Neil Gaiman. Coraline tells the tale of a young girl who discovers a secret doorway in her house that takes her to an alternate world where life is much better, but things soon turn bad as she realizes that everything is not what it seems. Coraline is done in stop motion animation like Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and may have a tough road ahead of it due to its scary nature. I think Coraline will open to about $12M.
The last new release of the weekend, Push, also stars Dakota Fanning along with Chris Evans as operatives with supernatural powers who turn against the government agency that controls them. Push seems to be an inferior version of X-Men and has a distinct B-movie feel to it. I’m not expecting too much out of this one. Look for Push to make about $9.5M in its debut frame. To see the rest of my predictions, check out the chart below.
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RANK
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TITLE
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BILL’S PREDICTION
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1
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He’s Just Not That Into You
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$26M
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2
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Taken
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$17.3M -30%
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3
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The Pink Panther 2
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$14M
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4
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Coraline
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$12M
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5
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Paul Blart: Mall Cop
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$9.8M -30%
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6
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Push
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$9.5M
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7
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Slumdog Millionaire
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$6.4M -15%
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8
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Gran Torino
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$6.2M -25%
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9
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Hotel For Dogs
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$6M -30%
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10
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The Uninvited
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$5.7M -45%
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