'The Avengers' aims for a record opening weekend

There's no question The Avengers (4,349 theatres) will do well this weekend. The super-superhero movie brings together the all-stars of comic books: Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, and Hawkeye. Most importantly, the tentpole has already earned $281 million overseas, where it released last week. The U.S. is no longer the first market when it comes to mega-budget movies, but stateside it hasn't done much to lessen the anticipation or make audiences feel cheated. In fact, the atmosphere online indicates people are more excited to see the Joss Whedon-directed film.

Critics are often tougher to satisfy than audiences, so FJI's Frank Lovece's proclamation that "The Avengers is everything you could want in a superhero movie" indicates the picture really delivers. He praises the "larger-than-life feats" that are "believably and meaningfully executed," as well as the emotional explorations, like "the loneliness of being different," that add depth to the story. Releasing in well-done 3D, along with IMAX, the action picture could earn at least $150 million this weekend.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (27 theatres) has also released overseas already, where it has earned over $70 million. The British film centers on U.K. retirees who end up in not-quite- what-expected retirement lodgings in India. FJI critic Shirley Sealy praised the talented cast who give the film its "charm and considerable zest for life."

Also on the menu in selected theatres this week is First Position (5 theatres), a "truly exhilarating" documentary about a ballet competition for young dancers, according to Doris Toumarkine. Kate Hudson does her free-spirited leading lady bit in A Little Bit of Heaven (11 theatres), a "tone-deaf dramedy" about her character's search to find love after a grim cancer diagnosis, as described by THR's Frank Scheck. Finally, the exact opposite of a Catholic's vision of The Perfect Family (5 theatres) is on display in the Kathleen Turner starrer. The comedy features her character trying to win "Catholic Woman of the Year"  in spite of her lesbian daughter, philandering son, and alcoholic husband.

On Monday, we'll see if The Avengers breaks the opening weekend record of $169.2 million, set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.

Audiences return in force for 'Paranormal Activity 2'

By Sarah Sluis

Bowing the week before Halloween, Paranormal Activity 2 debuted at $40.6 million, an exceptional open that proved it was not like Blair Witch 2, which flamed out in its second incarnation. With numbers like these, it's virtually assured there will be a third installment in the series. Who knows, Paranormal could be the next Saw. The majority of the movie's traction, however, came from midnight screenings late Thursday night and Friday, which comprised almost half of the weekend's total--a sign that this movie will fall quickly. The sequel to Paranormal Activity combined a heavy marketing campaign with a reported $3 million production budget, so Paramount will see a hefty return on its investment.

Jackass 3D, which exceeded the success of Paranormal 2 in its opening weekend, fell 57% in its second weekend. That still gives the movie $21.3 million, as well as a near-guarantee that it will top the $100 million mark within the next couple weeks.

Clint Eastwood's take on the supernatural, Hereafter, mixed adrenaline-filled action scenes (tsunami!) with tear-jerking moments (a boy loses his twin!). The formula earned $12 million in its first week of wide expansion. While that number was under some of Eastwood's more successful films, 80% of the audience was over 30, indicating that that film will have some staying power, since teens, not thirty-pluses, tend to turn out opening weekend.

Conviction, which expanded to just 55 theatres, went up 196%, giving it a two-week total of $444,000. Higher up on the list of specialty releases, Waiting for "Superman" kept steady, earning three-quarters of a million dollars for the second week in a row, for a five-week total of $3.7 million.

Financial crisis documentary Inside Job went up 98% to $170,000 as it more than doubled the number of theatres in its release. The Robert De Niro and Edward Norton drama Stone pulled in $361,000, a 57% increase from the previous week.

This Friday, Saw 3D will draw in Halloween audiences, Monsters will lure indie scare-seekers, and the Swedish-language The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest will begin a limited rollout.

'Avatar' continues its reign with the highest-grossing third weekend ever

By Sarah Sluis

Three weeks into Avatar's run, the movie has kept its altitude when most other movies would have dropped off by tens of millions by now. Cue box-office records falling. This weekend it grossed $68.3 million, and broke the records for top gross on New Year's Day, as well as the highest-grossing third weekend ever. It's now the #4 top-grossing movie worldwide, below Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. While James Cameron's Titanic ended up with $1.8 billion worldwide and won't be unseated anytime soon, his Avatar only has to earn another $100 million before it assumes the #2 spot worldwide: give it a week or so.

Will it be possible for Avatar to submerge Titanic? At this point, it's outpacing Titanic's first three weeks, but then again, so were the movies in the #2 and #3 spots for worldwide gross. All the buzz and projections have the movie placing behind Titanic when the dust settles, but the sci-fi spectacle could end up getting closer than predicted. It's also worth noting that although the movie has placed #4 worldwide, it's still #15 domestically, where stalwarts like Star Wars and E.T., released before foreign box office had as big of a share, remain.

The only new release of the week, Sony Picture Classics' awards contender The White Ribbon, grossed $20,000 per location in a three-theatre release. Another one of the distributor's releases, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, came away with the highest per-screen average of the weekend, $32,000.

Most of the returnees in the top ten posted minimal drops or modest gains. The worst-off was Sherlock Holmes, which fell 38% to $38 million. The biggest gain came from The Princess and the Frog, which added 11% to its total to finish with $10 million, followed closely by a 10.3% gain from The Blind Side, which finished two spots higher than Frog with $12.6 million.

Awards favorite Up in the Air also generated a healthy number of ticket sales, going up .7% from last week to make $11.3 million in ticket sales.

This Friday a romance, comedy, and vampire movie will debut in theatres, but don't expect any of them to grab the top spot from Avatar.

'New Moon' to bring fangirls to the box office

By Sarah Sluis

The Twilight Saga: New Moon will open in over 4,000 theatres at midnight, 600 more screens than the first Twilight. Movietickets.com reported that over 2,150 screenings of the vampire romance have sold out, and the film has surpassed franchise films like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to become their #1 advance seller of all time. The reviews are coming in, but it's doubtful the fan base will even care. This movie is all about reliving the book with the added visuals of Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and the swoons and shrieks of your friends and fellow audience members. Plus, the sequel combines Vampire-mania with Werewolf-mania, throwing heroine Bella into a love triangle between the two man-creatures.

The Blind Side, which many have called Precious with a white, Republican savior (and thus appealing to that demographic) will open in 3,100 theatres. Sandra Bullock is in top form, but critic Michael Rechtshaffen wished that "Oher [the black homeless teen Bullock's character and her husband took in] had been presented as something other than essentially a large prop." Further separating itself from a movie like Precious, The Blind Side sticks to "proven inspirational sports-movie/fish-out-of-water

formulas while holding the inherent sociological issues to the

sidelines," despite the fact that "there also was room for more thought-provoking substance."

Planet 51 (2,600 theatres), a kind of E.T. in reverse, revolves around an astronaut who has landed in a suburban alien town. Grade-school joke: they think he's the one who's funny looking. The "Sci-Fi Lite" movie, according to critic Kirk Honeycutt, has "gentle jokes and cornball battles," and is geared more towards children than the adult-children mix more frequently seen in today's animated movies.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans opens in 27 theatres, and if you are near one--you need to see it. Genre-wise, it's a story of a corrupt cop (Nicolas Cage) in love with a prostitute (Eva Mendes), but director Werner Herzog takes this story places you have never even imagined. The screening I was in prompted several moments where everyone broke out in shocked laughter--whether it was because Cage was so outrageously bad, mad-scientist crazy, or because the movie did things you just aren't supposed to do on film, including alligator point-of-view shots.

Also moving into theatres on Friday is Red Cliff. Directed by John Woo, the American version compresses the two-film arc into one historical epic critic Daniel Eagan called "teeming with characters and plot twists," but "told in such a direct and vigorous style that it is never confusing."

New Moon is the hands-down winner for this weekend, but its narrower fan base is always a liability. Everyone will be watching to see how much the film drops Saturday and Sunday after its Friday open. Precious and Fantastic Mr. Fox will be expanding this runs, and Planet 51 needs to bring in audiences before The Princess and the Frog opens over Thanksgiving (though, thankfully, in a limited run).