'Internship' and 'Purge' fight for first in quiet summer weekend

Going into the weekend, The Internship (3,365 theatres) would seem like the frontrunner. The comedy stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, whose Wedding Crashers opened to $33 million in 2005. Yet the story about technologically clueless sales guys finding a niche at Google has been receiving terrible reviews, with our Nick Schager calling the movie a "fawning tribute to Google." What starts out as a fun fish-out-of-water premise, a la Legally Blonde, devolves into a boring intern competition that was a lazy, tired way to organize a script, at least from my point-of-view.  Because of the poor reviews (only a third of Rotten Tomatoes critics are coming in "fresh") and the fact that workplace comedies are often a tough sell even without the branded entertainment feel, The Internship won't be coming in first in the class--in fact, it may not exceed $20 million.

The little speculative thriller that could, The Purge (2,536 theatres), may go over $20 million and grab first place this weekend. The premise is this: The government decides to allow a 12-hour period once a year where all crimes will go unpunished. One year, a security consultant who has profited from protecting people during the crime spree finds himself in hot water, in part because his kids don't quite understand the risks (and reasoning) behind the one-night rampage. Although The Purge has only slightly better reviews than The Internship, the picture will benefit by drawing in both horror fans and those who prefer broader suspense. It also has people in really creepy masks, the better to create goosebumps among viewers.

Writer/director Joss Whedon goes from The Avengers to Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing (5 theatres), to which both critics and Whedon fans have alighted. "While cleaving away some of
Shakespeare’s more dragging plot points, Whedon hews to the
original text," critic Chris Barsanti reports. "This refusal to juice
the material with gimmickry pays out handsomely, as Whedon’s
crackerjack cast, drawn mainly from his troupe of TV actors, spins
as fine a web of delicate comedy as will grace movie screens this
year."

Also in the mix this week is Tiger Eyes (13 theatres) an adaptation of Judy Blume's novel about a teen recovering after the sudden death of her father. Directed by Blume's son Lawrence, Tiger Eyes surprisingly has some clumsy screenwriting, according to critic Marsha McCreadie, but a great message about "going home again" and a focus that is "unquestionably a film about family."

On Monday, we'll see if the novelty of The Purge won over the branded comedy of The Internship.