Underripe 'Oblivion' offers a taste of summer movie season

Oblivion is a visual effects-heavy sci-fi movie. It's releasing in IMAX. It stars Tom Cruise. Maybe a decade ago, these things would give the movie prime placement in the summer movie season. But now Cruise is clocking well over two decades in the movie business, and he's settling for slightly less competitive spots on the release slate. Our critic Daniel Eagan likes Oblivion (3,782 theatres), but he's also quick to point out that the "sleek, good-looking
sci-fi adventure [is] haunted by the ghosts of better films," and predicts it "should make a
splash at the box office until more mainstream blockbusters take
over." Oblivion could open in the high $30 million range in the U.S. Overseas, it's already racked up $77 million, affirming the international box office's interest in tentpoles with known quantities like Cruise.



With no other similar competitors, 42 is expected to hold strong. Its second weekend could be off by just 25%, which would give the Jackie Robinson biopic an impressive second-week total of $20 million. Although most school holidays are wrapping up, The Croods should earn over $10 million, which will bring it over the $150 million mark domestically and make it one of DreamWorks Animation's bigger successes.

The Place Beyond the Pines will expand to 1,542 theatres in its fourth week. The Ryan Gosling-led picture expanded into over 500 screens last week and maintained a $7,000 per-screen average. The humanistic crime drama should do at least as well this week as it did last week, bolstered by strong indie cred and the supporting performances of Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper.

Rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie will roll out his fifth film, The Lords of Salem, in 300 theatres. "Is Rob Zombie the Woody Allen of horror auteurs?" Our critic Maitland McDonagh speculates. Not only does he assemble an impressive cast, he "has the look of a
low-budget '70s horror film down cold, and it's packed with
allusions to genre classics and cult favorites." That may be enough to make the horror flick a hit among guts-and-gore afficianados.

On Monday, we'll see if Oblivion jump-started the summer movie season and if the solitary new wide release gave the returning pictures some breathing room.