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!

 

"I choo-choo-choose you": On Valentine's Day, 'Safe Haven' and 'A Good Day to Die Hard' compete for date-night audiences

Three of this week's wide releases are getting a jumpstart on the weekend, opening today, Valentine's Day, instead of Friday in order to capitalize on couples celebrating and singles in search of a girls' or dudes' night.

Safe Haven (3,223 theatres) is the most heart-tugging offering of the bunch. Nicholas Sparks, reigning romance specialist, devised this tale. Julianne Hough plays a woman with a past who moved to a small town and finds herself enchanted with a storekeeper and single dad (Josh
Duhamel). Critic David Noh predicts this "appealing,
compelling romance that will no doubt thrill the ladies, and not be
too terribly much of a chore for their menfolk to endure."

For others, nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a bunch of guns. Those people can check out the fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard (3,552 theatres). After all, wasn't the original Die Hard a love story in disguise, as John McClane walked on glass in order to save his ladder-climbing corporate wife from terrorists and
show her that it took a real man to get things done? Unfortunately, this outing doesn't even warrant cultural commentary. According to critic Daniel Eagan, the Russian terrorist centered plot "unfolds on a gargantuan scale, but
the stunt work and pyrotechnics can't hide how dull and pointless
this story is. In previous entries, McClane fought to free his
family; here, he's largely a bystander in a plot that makes almost
no sense." Especially when movies like Taken, which centered on Liam Neeson's daughter being kidnapped, have been such big hits, it doesn't make sense that family jeopardy would be removed from the equation. The name "Die Hard" will "muster a strong turnout followed by weak word of
mouth," Eagan predicts.

Targeted at a younger audience, Beautiful Creatures (3,000+ theatres) is the latest
supernatural teen romance. The film is "atmospherically shot, with two appealing leads," says FJI critic Frank Lovece, who expects that actors Alice Englert and  Alden Ehrenreich should be on everyone's radar before long. Like Safe Haven, it centers on a romance between  a girl with a dark secret and a boy, but in this case her secret is supernatural--she's a witch, or "caster." It's unlikely this will do anywhere near the business of Twilight, but a good performance could spawn a sequel.

Tomorrow, there will be the first wide animated release since Rise of the Guardians during Thanksgiving. That may be enough to secure a strong opening for Escape from Planet Earth, which will open in over 3,000 theatres. It's never a good sign when the writers or directors of a project sue their producer, but that's what happened here. Of course, long-delayed, lawsuit-ridden Margaret ended up being a pleasure, at least among select critics, but the February release date does not demonstrate much faith in the animated work.

On Tuesday, we'll see how these releases fared and if they wooed audiences out from the post-holiday slump at the box office.