Weekend box office to host battle of the remakes

As VH1 would say: I love the ‘80s. Or rather, Hollywood does, rolling out three remakes of films that were popular 30-odd years ago. Even with RoboCop, About Last Night, and Endless Love stacking the bill, however, general consensus has last weekend’s champion, The Lego Movie, once again taking first place.

About Last Night will likely land just behind Lego, with Sony predicting returns somewhere in the mid-20 millions. It’s a romance flick opening on Valentine’s Day, and one that boasts a marquee actor who has already proven his box-office worth with films like Think Like a Man and the recent hit Ride Along, Kevin Hart. Both of which factors have led some pundits to believe Sony’s expectations are a little low. Think Like A Man, for example, opened to $33.6 million in 2012. Chances are good About Last Night will meet, if not exceed, that bar.

RoboCop opened a few days ahead of the weekend this past Wednesday night. Sony had predicted a debut of roughly $35 million for the Wednesday-Monday spread, but RoboCop got off to a rough start on Wednesday night, raking in just $2.8 million. Granted, much of the country was battling poor weather conditions, but underwhelming reviews and diehard RoboCop fan skepticism (the new color of the hero’s suit and the soft PG-13 rating are two points of contention) do not bode well for a considerable uptick through the weekend. It’s more likely RoboCop will earn between $20 and $25 million.

The final 1980s remake, Endless Love, will surely benefit from opening on Hallmark’s National Date Night, or Valentine’s Day, today. Similar titles The Vow and Safe Haven fared pretty well over this same weekend the past two years, and their demographic, teenage girls, will likely help Love earn solid figures. Even given the film’s lack of headlining stars (The Vow had Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum going for it) or recognizable name brand (Safe Haven was a Nicholas Sparks adaptation), eye-candy Alex Pettyfer and a tried-and-true star-crossed lovers storyline should nonetheless help Endless Love gross around $10 million.

Given Winter’s Tale cast – Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly – period setting, and heavily romantic plot, one would think the novel adaptation would be primed to easily beat Endless Love, if not the weekend’s other two new releases. Unfortunately, those stars about which Jessica Brown Findlay spoke so dreamily within the film have not aligned for its likely success. Director-writer-producer Akiva Goldsman’s labor of love has been almost universally panned, and there are many who believe the movie’s marketing has done a poor job explaining just what exactly the time-traveling tale is about. Returns should tally out to less than $10 million, which means Winter’s Tale will probably not crack the long weekend’s Top 5. Monuments Men should earn the No. 5 spot, dropping some 40 percent or so from last weekend to rake in $12 or $13 million.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Big names to dominate weekend box office

With a host of major releases bowing this weekend, moviegoers of every age, demographic and level of taste should have little trouble finding something to satisfy them. Sci-fi flick Ender’s Game has been generating the greatest amount of buzz as the first installment in a would-be franchise for Summit Entertainment (a company in need of another tentpole, now their Twilight series has faded). The adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s young adult novel has been tracking strong in pre-sales, with reviews just this-side of positive (63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes).  Odds are, Ender’s Game, which is opening in 3,407 theatres tonight, will likely score somewhere in the high $20 million range.

If Game is looking to draw a crowd of teenagers, Free Birds is after their younger brothers and sisters. It’s been all Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 all the time for the past few weeks, so far as kid features are concerned. Lacking any family friendly challengers the animated sequel has been doing solid business, consistently ranking among each weekend’s top five highest-grossing films. Although our critic Michael Sauter thought Birds was one mess of a turkey, parents who’ve already seen Cloudy 2 will most likely welcome the change of pace. Free Birds will debut very widely, in 3,736 locations. Look for earnings as low as $15 million and as high as $20+ million.

With brother in one theatre, and baby sister in another, you’ll most likely find grandpa down the hall in cinema 3 yucking it up at Last Vegas. You couldn’t ask for a better cast – Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, and Robert De Niro – though no one would fault you for wishing writer Dan Fogelman had invested his script with a little more wit or originality. Critics haven’t been falling for the comedy’s tried tropes and gags, but if you don’t mind a little derivativeness, watching the four leads throw self-seriousness to the wind is a hoot. In all likelihood Last Vegas won’t do banner business, but a respectable $14 million would be just that.

About Time will likely rank among the weaker of Friday’s major debuts, even with its director’s legions of faithful – young women capable of reciting every line of his beloved film Love, Actually – in attendance. Richard Curtis’ latest, about a young man with a nifty family gene that allows him to travel back in time, also boasts romance queen Rachel McAdams as the love interest. Between director and leading lady, About Time (175 theatres) is expected to draw a small, devoted crowd that may translate to roughly $2 million in sales.

Last but by no means least (quite the opposite, in fact) specialty release Dallas Buyers Club will open in nine theatres, and 12 Years A Slave will expand to 410 theatres. Each early Oscar contender has received strong reviews and is expected to do very strong art-house business.

Rachel McAdams falls in love with a time traveler (again) in 'About Time'

If About Time is as sweet as it looks in the trailer, it might just redeem Rachel McAdams from appearing in the horrible time travel romance The Time Traveler's Wife. The two-minute preview sets up a plot that has just enough twists on existing time travel movies to make it interesting. Domhnall Gleeson plays a man who learns from his father (Bill Nighy) that everyone in his family has the gift of time travel. There's both Groundhog Day elements, where he uses his ability to time travel to redo moments with women where he messes up the first time, and larger thoughts about fate--in one scene, it's implied that the effects of a car crash can't be reversed, and in another, he meets the woman he's married in an earlier scene (Rachel McAdams), only to discover she doesn't recognize him. The above-average level of intricacy makes this sound intriguing.

 

There hasn't been a lot of Internet chatter about this release, which will come out November 8 through Universal. That's a strong time slot, which indicates that the trailer may be able to deliver on its promise. McAdams is already a proven romantic lead, with two big hits, The Notebook and The Vow, under her belt. But those movies co-starred Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum, respectively, who are male romantic stars in their own right. In this feature, the story is told from the man's perspective, and Gleeson isn't as well-known. The redhead actor first rose to fame with his role as the gawky Bill Weasely in the Harry Potter series. He's since appeared in the well-regarded Never Let Me Go and last year as Levin in Anna Karenina. In the movie, he plays down his looks in the Bill Weasley direction, making him appear like the guy who can never get the girl--at least until he has time travel on his side.

The screenwriter and sometimes director Richard Curtis is helming the project, which seems like a bonus. He both wrote and directed Love Actually, which is part of the romantic comedy canon for those who love the genre. He's also written the scripts for Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and both the Bridget Jones series and all the Mr. Bean movies. The combination of McAdams, Gleeson, and Curtis may add up to an end-of-year romantic comedy that actually delivers.

'Morning Glory' ready to blossom, 'Butter' churning

By Sarah Sluis

J.J. Abrams has been busy, recently re-upping his production company's contract with Paramount and signing on for a Star Trek sequel. Next on his plate, however, is producing the workplace comedy

Morning Glory. In a film packed with stars spanning multiple generations, Harrison Ford will lead the cast, portraying a past-his-prime anchorman who switches to a morning news show. There, he butts heads with the other host, Diane Keaton. Rachel McAdams plays the young producer trying to corral the stars in order to score recognition with her boss, Jeff Goldblum. Keaton and McAdams worked together on family-themed romantic comedy The Family Stone, but Keaton and Ford, aged 63 and 66, respectively, have yet to work with each other during the careers--maybe they'll have a nice chemistry onscreen. Director Roger Michell (Venus, Notting Hill) and writer Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses, Laws of Attraction) have an impressive amount of comedy and romance experience between them, making me suspect that Keaton and Ford's dislike of each other might turn into romance. Of course, there's also the possibility the movie emphasize the workplace over the romance, like beloved films Network or maybe even Working Girl. In these films, a job is more than simply a profession for the character to have as they carry on a romance out of the workplace (i.e. Katherine Heigl being an "E!" host in Knocked Up), but their true "love." I also adore behind-the-scenes movies, so I know I'll really relish watching what goes on at a "Today"-type show. Production starts this June in New York, so if the characters aren't spending too much time in the studio, I'll look for them filming on the streets of the city.

Another project that just got off the ground is Butter, a "Best in Show meets Election" that will star (and be produced by) Jennifer Garner. The screenplay by Jason Micallef landed him on the unofficial Black

Book of 2008, a list of unproduced screenplays that executives like best. Garner would lend her dimpled, endearing persona to the Midwestern tale, playing an adopted outsider who discovers a hidden talent for butter carving (an actual farm country endeavor, thus the screenwriter's inspiration). She proves an unlikely source of competition, earning the ire of the overachieving wife of the retired butter-carving champion, who is intent on winning the prize for herself. It sounds like a wacky role that I imagine Garner, who is both likeable and tough (as an action star in "Alias") excelling in. I also sincerely hope there is a hint of Drop Dead Gorgeous in the film, the mockumentary about a Southern beauty pageant that took regional stereotyping to hilarious extremes. Garner's project is being developed with Mandate, which produced Juno, another film Garner played a role in.