'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters' to lead late-January releases

It's pretty unusual to have two wide releases open over the weekend with minimal advance reviews. If you want a sign that January is Hollywood's dumping ground, this is it.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (3,372 theatres), which may have the best title since Snakes on a Plane, will likely come up first this weekend, with a projected weekend gross around $20 million. Originally scheduled to release last March, the pic will benefit slightly from increased
awareness of star Jeremy Renner. Since his breakout role in The Hurt Locker, he's appeared in The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy, making him more of a draw. Gemma Arterton plays Gretel in this tale, which posits that Hansel & Gretel grew up to seek vengeance (and collect bounty) on witches. If it sounds ridiculous, that's because Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are two of the producers, after which the idea starts to make more sense. "Lots of anachronisms and tongue-in-cheek
dialogue establish the spoofy nature of this violent venture. All
that’s missing is a genuine sense of wit," THR's Stephen Farber reports.

Movie 43 (2,023 theatres) also moved around release dates a number of times before settling for the January doldrums. The cast includes dozens of big names ranging from Seth MacFarlane to
Kate Winslet, with many pitching in on writing and directing. The spoof comedy should get close to $10 million, but could be hurt by the scattered impressions of what this comedy actually is.

Parker (2,224 theatres) is the sole new wide release that screened more than a day in advance for most critics. There may be a reason for that: our critic Daniel Eagan raves that the role of Parker, a character in Donald Westlake novels, "fits action star Jason Statham like a glove." The pacing is also top-notch. "The first hour has a propulsive energy that has
been sadly missing from recent thrillers," Eagan declares, and a lag afterwards is redeemed by a "climactic heist and showdown."
However good Statham is in his action movies, they've been opening below $10 million lately, and a similar debut is expected for Parker.

With so many good movies from December now expanding their release, allowing viewers from all over the country to finally catch them in their hometown, there isn't much new product. However, Music Box Films will release the documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, which Werner Herzog re-edited and narrated from a Russian film, and then taking a co-directing credit for his work. I recommend the movie as "a welcome antidote for coddled city dwellers who need a reminder that humanity survived before Internet connections," although I don't care if you eventually see it on Netflix instead of in a movie theatre.

 On Monday, we'll see if any of the three new wide releases exceeded their modest projections, and if any Oscar contenders picked up steam from the box office.

Audiences swarm for 'The Green Hornet'

By Sarah Sluis

Whoever at Sony decided to push The Green Hornet to a January release is getting a nice pat on the back right now. The post-holiday release opened better than Little Fockers and not far under action fare like Tron: Legacy. Though the movie won't have the high weekday earnings of the December releases, the four-day weekend gave it a chance to rack up $40 million in four days ($33.7 million came from the three-day weekend).

The marriage/adultery-themed romantic comedy The Dilemma finished in second place, laughing up $20.5 million over the four-day period. Star Vince Vaughn's previous film, Couples Retreat, earned twice as much its opening weekend, making this debut a disappointing one.

The King's Speech and Black Swan both added around 750 theatres, giving each film a boost even without the holiday factored in. Right now, The King's Speech is the up-and-comer, with its three-day gross up 43% and a per-screen average of $7,200. Black Swan, which has been out a week longer than The King's Speech, has reached its near-saturation point (2,300 theatres to King's Speech's 1,500). The ballet thriller brought in $10.3 million to the historical film's $11.1 million. In terms of cumulative gross, however, Black Swan is the winner, with a total of $75 million to date vs. The King's Speech's $48 million. Elsewhere in the top ten, The Fighter dropped theatres, falling 27% over the three-day period. The biographical film still earned another $5 million, and its decision to go big early has allowed it to accumulate $65 million in six weeks.

With the school holiday, family films dropped minimally. Yogi Bear earned $7.4 million over the four-day period and Tangled scooped up another $5.4 million, making this Disney princess tale one of the most lucrative in recent history.

This Friday, the romance-sex comedy No Strings Attached will lead the pack, with more targeted releases for The Way Back and recession drama The Company Men.

'Daybreakers,' 'Leap Year' finish behind holiday releases

By Sarah Sluis

Avatar led the pack for the fourth week in a row, posting a gross three times higher than its closest competitor, $48.5 million. Its week-over-week drop totaled just 29%, compared to drops in the in the 35-55% for the rest of the top ten. Its international gross, a few times that of its domestic gross, helped push the film to a wordwide $1.3 billion. It's the international market, not the domestic one, which will give this movie its best chance at beating the $1.8 billion worldwide record of Titanic--also directed by James Cameron.

The three films debuting this weekend cumulatively made less than Avatar. Vampire pic Daybreakers fared the best of the bunch, earning $15 million and the #4 spot.

Below Daybreakers, Amy Adams romance Leap Year finished sixth with $9.1 million. It failed to exceed the gross of its three-week-old competition, It's Complicated. The Nancy Meyers-directed romantic comedy earned another $11 million, bringing its three-week total to $76 million.

Youth in Revolt opened ninth with $7 million. With just 1,873 theatres in its release, the movie made efficient use of its screens, finishing with a per-screen average of $3,700, higher than half the movies in the top ten.

Many of the end-of-the-year specialty releases are expanding through January, posting significant increases in their grosses from week to week. The Young Victoria added 311 theatres for a 476-theatre release. The humanizing look at the budding monarch brought in $1 million, a 23% boost from the previous week. Fox Searchlight's Crazy Heart went from 12 to 33 theatres and earned $460,000.

After shedding theatres for the past two months, The Men Who Stare at Goats added back 120 theatres, boosting its gross 189% to $120,000. The week before, it jumped 30% unexpectedly--perhaps viewers are paying attention to those "For Your Consideration" ads?

The most successful of the films positioned as awards winners, Up in the Air, has grossed $54.7 million so far for Paramount. This week it enjoyed a $7.1 million gross and settled into its fourth week in the top ten. Its timely success at the box office could give it that extra push come awards season.

This Friday, The Spy Next Door (Jackie Chan + children) will compete with dystopic sci-fi tale The Book of Eli, as well as an expansion of The Lovely Bones.

'Leap Year' and 'Youth in Revolt' add laughs to the box-office lineup

By Sarah Sluis

This weekend gives us the first wide releases of 2010. Falling into the fairly recognizable genres of romantic comedy, teen comedy, and vampire (I'm counting that as a genre now), these films should open in the middle of the top ten. Christmastime releases like Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel still have enough steam to finish ahead of the new offerings.

"As fresh as a hunk of week-old

soda bread," Leap Year (2,511 theatres) is one of those predictable romantic comedies usually released during an off time of the year. Watching the trailer pretty much gives away the whole plot, including a twist that happens at least an hour in, so it would be a good choice for those who...well...like to talk during a movie? Like knowing that all of the fighting between Amy Adams and Matthew Goode is just an hour-long procrastination before their inevitable union? The romcom is predicted to finish below Daybreakers but above Youth in Revolt.

Daybreakers (2,523 theatres) brings viewers to a futuristic world where vampires feed off an ever-diminishing group of human survivors. While our critic Maitland McDonagh praises the movie for details like "coffee bars where cups of

java come with blood instead of milk, she finds "the story under this rich surface is simplistic and derivative." The most likely candidates to buy tickets for this vampire dystopia will be young, male frequent moviegoers who have already seen Avatar and Sherlock Holmes.

A fresh installment in the teen comedy genre, Youth in Revolt (1,873 theatres) will have particular hold among teens and twentysomethings. With plenty of laughs and an unrealistically adult level of dialogue, Michael Cera does what he does best: acting like a nerdy, preternaturally aware teen. Cera has been doing extensive web and viral promos, including one with the cast of breakout hit "Jersey Shore," which may give the movie an edge at the box office. It's currently tracking to finish the lowest out these new releases, so an upset could indicate an underestimation of these viral efforts.

On Monday we'll circle back to see Avatar inching toward Titanic's all-time record, the top returnees adding even more coin to their flush pockets, and if Daybreakers, Leap Year, and Youth in Revolt finish in their expected order.