Slow weekend ahead with 'The Words,' 'Cold Light of Day'

This weekend should be one of the slowest of the year. Both new wide releases, The Words and The Cold Light of Day, should finish under $10 million.

The Words (2,801 theatres) is the story of an aspiring writer (Bradley Cooper) who passes off a
found manuscript as his own. "Hardly as deep as it pretends to be," critic Kevin Lally notes, the movie is the "middlebrow" result of an "ambitious tri-level narrative of stories within stories."

The Cold Light of Day (1,511 theatres) hasn't yet screened for critics, and the Summit-distributed picture should end up with a blip-on-the-radar $2 million, despite a
recognizable cast list that includes Sigourney Weaver, Bruce Willis, and Henry Cavill. The thriller centers on a regular guy who becomes a wanted man all over a missing briefcase. Pretty familiar plotline, if you ask me. Early Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this movie don't look good.

"As toxic as a Drano cocktail," Bachelorette (47 theatres) released on-demand a month ago, so its theatrical performance will serve as a test for the pre-theatrical VOD release plan. Reviews have generally been giving the
comedy unfavorable comparisons to Bridesmaids, another wedding-themed movie revolving around female friendships. Our critic David Noh is one of the comedy's detractors, complaining that the "bitchiness" of the characters "becomes exhausting and airless," and just seems like an "increasingly
forced attempt to shock." Still, this movie has plenty of buzz behind it, which could help its opening weekend.

On Monday, we'll see how the wide releases fared, and if Bachelorette does well in spite of its mixed reviews and on-demand pre-release.