Notable Openings This Weekend: Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Dracula Untold, The Judge
We got a convoluted box office to cover this weekend, and I’m not just talking about the title to Alexander and the yadda, yadda, yadda. There are two potentially strong holdovers from last week going up against a couple potentially decent challengers. The key word here is potential. It’s hard to gain a reading on all these movies. The Judge looks painfully mediocre, but does Robert Downey Jr. have the star power to vault it to the top? Are enough people talking about Gone Girl for a repeat at #1? Well, let’s figure out, shall we?
First off, let’s get Alexander and the e;wokjdfnienflewefr@wgf out of the way first so we don’t have to make reference to that title anymore. Yes, I understand it’s an adaptation, so the title won’t completely hurt it, but come on – you are trying to sell kids on a book that was written back in the 1970’s. Really? Hollywood will jump on anything that used to be mildly popular for five minutes. Regardless, it’s a family film that looks harmless. It will make the money it needs to make.
The other big release this weekend is The Judge. Let me theorize on what happened with this one – the studio originally thought this was an Oscar bait film, then they saw it, realized it was an pathetic attempt at pandering for awards, and then promptly buried it in early October. Having said all that, I don’t want to make a declaration on a movie I haven’t seen yet. I guess it could be good. Who knows? What I do know is that the trailers are absolutely horrendous. This looks like bottom of the barrel, going through the motions, tugging at the heartstrings crap, and I feel as though the general audience is sensing that exact sentiment. This will make the top five, but the numbers will be disappointing.
Speaking of movies that look utterly boring and painful to sit through, we also got Dracula Untold. I’m going to make this short and sweet – nobody cares. This will join the ranks of The Legend of Hercules and I, Frankenstein as part of the Hollywood series of “People still give a shit about these characters, right?” No. We don’t.
How Will It All Break Down…
Gone Girl repeats, and I actually think it repeats pretty easily. It’s getting people talking, and is still far more interesting than any of the new stuff. Annabelle has a sizable drop off. The people who wanted to see it went and saw it. Dracula Untold flops and doesn’t make top five.
TOP 5 BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS
1) Gone Girl — $24.5 Million
2) Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day — $17 Million
3) Annabelle — $16.5 Million
4) The Judge — $12 Million
5) The Equalizer — $10 Million
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Daniel Cohen is the Film Editor for Pop-Break. Aside from reviews, Daniel does a weekly box office predictions column, and also contributes monthly Top Tens and Op-Ed’s on all things film. Daniel is a graduate of Bates College with a degree in English, and also studied Screenwriting at UCLA. He can also be read onwww.movieshenanigans.com. His movie crush is Jessica Rabbit. Follow him on Twitter @dcohenwriter.
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