This week’s box office predictions
As a recurring theme, I will be analyzing the box office every Thursday and giving personal estimates on how I think each film will be playing out. The following Sunday afternoons, when the studios release their numbers, everyone is invited to ridicule me on how off I truly was. This past month has been the highest grossing February in the history of cinema in terms of revenues for films. Movies without A list actors such as Taken, Paul Blart and Madea Goes To Jain opened with marvellous figures. Films like Slumdog Millionaire and Gran Torino crossing the 100 million mark showed that consumers want to see well made films. This week, the monstrous and over-hyped WATCHMEN opens.
Unlike a conventional superhero flick, Watchmen was deemed ‘unfilmable’ and inappropriate for theatres in a pre 300 and Sin City age. Nevertheless, the brilliant trailer that preceded The Dark Knight inspired fanboys and others alike to flock to message boards and discuss the film. Finally, March 6th has arrived and it is safe to say that Watchmen will be the first big blockbuster of the year. Looking at the enormous hype for the movie as well as sell out shows across the continent I’d predict that this film will take in 85 million over the Friday-Sunday weekend. Given its R rating and excessive length, it will prevent it from doing 100+ numbers.
Additionally this week, Madea will find herself dropping considerably as the first two weeks were made up of devoted fans. Slumdog Millionaire’s drop should be less and thus claim the 2nd place spot with about 10 million while Madea sits at three with 7. Without any new films for children and women specifically, holderovers for Jonas Brothers, He’s Just Not That Into You and Coraline should be relatively steady with 7, 5 and 3.8 million respectively.
Overall the box office looks to be healthy because of Watchmen’s powerful release and I’d suggest if you are going to see this film this weekend, get tickets beforehand and be aware that theatres will be crowded. Tomorrow night I’ll be posting my personal review of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU
Cheers.
It will easily beat Sin City, as for 300, it will likely beat its $71 million opening, but not by much. Because of the lack of competition, and hype I say 65-85 mil for Watchmen. My guess is 77 mil.
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