Cool prospects for 'Season of the Witch'

By Sarah Sluis

In the second post-Christmas weekend at the box office, the holiday releases are expected to reign supreme. True Grit closed the gap between itself and Little Fockers last weekend, and this weekend the Coen Brothers' Western remake could rise to first place, especially since it recently started beating Fockers at the weekday box office.

The only new wide release this weekend is Season of the Witch (2,816 theatres), Relativity Media's first outing as a distributor. Well, they can only go up from here. Nicolas Cage stars in this 14th century witch-hunting, witch-saving "jocular bromance," as described by critic Maitland McDonagh. The historical adventure "can by no stretch of the imagination be called a good movie," McDonagh concedes, before noting the movie is "weirdly entertaining." The guess for this film is somewhere north of $10 million.

Country Strong debuted two weeks ago for an awards-qualifying run in a couple of theatres, but this week it expands to 1,424. The awards release may have been in vain, however, considering the film's received scathing reviews (The NY Post dubbed it a "Twang Wreck") and a mere 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. According to critic Rex Roberts, the blame should rest on writer and director Shana Feste, who "smothers [Paltrow's] perfectly fine performance with so much red-eyed gravy we can't take her or any of the characters seriously."

After an opening weekend that ended with a $48,000 per-screen average, Blue Valentine expands to ten times as many locations (40 theatres). If it can hold on to half its opening average, the drama of a fading romance will be in excellent shape. Black Swan, The Fighter, and The King's Speech, which were rounding out the top ten, have risen to spots in the top six during the week. They may have difficulty holding onto that improvement over the weekend, when more families will return to the theatres.

On Monday, I'll determine if Season of the Witch was more of a flop than Cage's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, if audiences liked Country Strong more than the critics did, and if the Oscar-seeking elite held onto their top ten positions.