Can the Captain break an April record?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier flies into 3,938 theatres today, by all indications readying itself for quite the stunt landing. This latest installment in the increasingly crowded Marvel cinematic universe has already broken the record for most advance tickets sold, according to Fandango. Overseas, the film has grossed more than $100 million.

Can Captain America break $100 million at the domestic box office this weekend? Between advance sales and positive reviews (87 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) it’s certainly possible, although most pundits are predicting slightly lower returns, in the still-magnificent $80-$90 million range. The Winter Soldier has a few things going for it: The return of Avengers crossover characters Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) as well as an association with the familiar S.H.I.E.L.D. organization (itself the subject of a TV series – media hybridity at its best), and the introduction of a new hero, Falcon (Anthony Mackie). The WWII period setting that dominated much of the first film has been swapped in favor of a contemporary Washington, D.C., backdrop. An ultra-modern conflict involving wiretapping, national security, and that thin line between necessary protection and unlawful invasion of privacy also lends the movie a topical boost. Critics certainly like it. All in all, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is poised to set a new April record. (Fast Five currently holds the title of Strongest April Debut, having opened to $86.2 million in 2011.)

The much delayed Halle Berry vehicle, Frankie and Alice, also opens this weekend in limited release. The movie has been ready and yet collecting dust on the shelves since 2010, even though Berry won an award for her portrayal of a woman suffering from multiple-personality disorder that year. From distributor Freestyle Releasing, Frankie and Alice changed hands to current distributor Code Black, which is a division of Lionsgate.  Even given the draw of Berry’s name, it’s unlikely Frankie and Alice will earn more than $500,000.

Holdovers Noah and Divergent should round out the weekend’s top three just behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

'Thor' strikes down 'Fast Five'

By Sarah Sluis

The (pre-)summer box office continued to heat up with this weekend's release of Thor. The comic book-based action extravaganza easily soared to $66 million, beyond timid estimates that put the movie at $50 million or so. Compared to Fast Five last weekend, Thor attracted a younger audience, but a less ethnic one. The car-centered sequel has a diverse cast, while Thor's comic book and swords-and-sandals elements made it popular among younger viewers.

Fast Five ran low on gas its second week, dropping 63% to $32.5 million. These kinds of drops are the price movies pay for opening at $86 million, however. With over $300 million worldwide in two weeks, I'm sure no one at Universal is complaining.

Romantic comedies Jumping the Broom and Something Borrowed both overperformed, coming in at $13.7 and $13.1 million, respectively. Jumping the Broom, centered on two African-American families, had an added boost from faith-based audiences. One of the executive producers, Bishop T.D. Jakes, heads a megachurch, and the leading lady reportedly finds love after embracing abstinence. Both films attracted audiences around 70% female.

This weekend was a bad one for specialty films, with no release posting over a $5,000 per-screen average. The moody "will-they-or-won't-they" cheating film, Last Night, opened to just a $3,200 per-screen average. Mel Gibson may unleash a tirade over the performance of The Beaver, which opened to a $4,700 per-screen average. There Be Dragons, a Spanish Civil War-themed thriller, did the best of the bunch, averaging $2,660 per screen but earning $689,000 by releasing on 259 screens.

This Friday, Bridesmaids leads in hype, promising a female version of The Hangover. Vampire horror flick Priest (3D) will feed horror fans and Will Ferrell will make a blip in the dark indie comedy Everything Must Go.

Record-breaking 'Fast Five' has high-octane finish

By Sarah Sluis

Universal celebrated its highest opening gross, ever, with a release that didn't even occur during the "peak" summer and holiday weekends. Fast Five sped to first with $83.6 million, the highest opening weekend of the year. Theatre owners have been suffering through a terrible slump in recent months, so this influx of ticket buyers should help assuage concerns. The action sequel played well across all audiences, and its positive reviews should give the Vin Diesel/Paul Walker vehicle mileage in coming weeks.

Prom opened below expectations, finishing with just $5 million. Disney invested just $9 million in the movie's production, however, and it's sure to be a successful staple of Disney Channel programming in coming years. The audience was young and over 80% female, so it's possible some families opted for the more universally appealing Rio.

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil also disappointed in the blockbuster-dominated weekend, earning just $4.1 million. With two better-known CG toons in the top ten, Rio and Hop, it's no wonder this movie failed to spark to audiences. Rio enjoyed its perch at number two with a sub-50% drop and another $14.4 million. In its first post-Easter weekend, Hop fell precipitously, losing 79% of its audience to finish with $2.5 million.

Director Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, had an impressive $25,000 per-screen average on five screens. As one of the first in the indie/documentary genre to be filmed in 3D, the film should inspire curiosity and drive viewers to see the movie in theatres, not on Netflix.

Horror comedy Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, which had a fairly aggressive 875-screen release, failed to attract viewers. It averaged just $1,000 per screen for a total of $885,000.

This Friday, rich-poor wedding comedy Jumping the Broom will hit theatres, along with rom-com Something Borrowed. The real behemoth will be Thor, the Greek god/comic book action extravaganza. It may be spring, but summer movie season has begun.

'Fast Five' revving up for a blockbuster weekend

By Sarah Sluis

It's not even May yet, but this weekend should bring the first summer-size blockbuster hit, Fast Five, which will saturate the market with 3,643 theatres. Pundits are predicting the film could haul in up to $70 million, tens of millions more than anything that's hit the box office this year. What's more, despite being both the fourth sequel and a car chase action movie, critics are singing their praises, giving it an overall 78% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. FJI critic Daniel Eagan singled out the movie's "delirious action sequences" and concluded that it "condenses everything good about the series into a state-of-the-art thrill ride."

Many high schoolers are just weeks away from their own proms, so what better way to prepare than to catch Disney's Prom (2,730 theatres)? In fairness, the scrubbed-clean Disney version of Prom (no lose-your-virginity pacts la American Pie) will probably attract an audience more tween than teen. According to critic Kirk Honeycutt, the movie has "a cheerful good nature and a solid cast of youngsters," and will probably please the intended audience, but not adults. Disney estimates the movie will open just under $10 million.

Five years after Hoodwinked, the Red Riding Hood redux film Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil will hit 2,505 theatres, 72% of them 3D. Hayden Panettiere voices the lead role, taking over for Anne Hathaway. Critic Frank Lovece acknowledges that the first film was a hit according to independent animation standards, but he's not so kind to the sequel, faulting the "primordial" CG animation and "hackneyed pop-culture references," which date back to the last couple of decades. Like Prom, this animated sequel should debut under $10 million, a relic of when the Weinstein Co. lost its momentum.

Finally, the horror-comedy spoof Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (862 theatres) will target itself toward horror buffs. Based on a comic book, the movie centers on a detective that specializes in the undead (zombies, vampires, etc.). His business card reads "No pulse? No problem."

Those that like a splash more blood can check out director Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins (3 theatres). Technically a samurai pic (jidaigeki), Miike's latest effort "bathe[s the genre] in a steady downpour of blood, mud and filth," according to critic Maitland McDonagh.

After receiving a warm reception on the festival circuit, Werner Herzog's documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams will start its release with 5 theatres. Shot in "terrific" 3D, critic Doris Toumarkine enjoyed his footage of the Chauvet Caves, and found Herzog's "enthusiasm and awe...contagious."

On Monday, we'll see if Fast Five can get up to that 70 MPH box-office figure, if tweens show an iota of their High School Musical devotion for Prom, and if Hoodwinked Too! is able to steal some thunder from Rio.