Notable Openings This Weekend: The Best of Me, The Book of Life, Fury
I’m back with Box Office Predictions, as I try and lick my wounds at declaring Dracula Untold to not finish in the top five (it finished second with almost $24 Million). You know what, I don’t blame myself. I blame all of you. Maybe I was trying to will Dracula Untold to fail, but all you rapscallions went and saw it. Now Universal is probably fast tracking a sequel. Great job, everyone. We’re moving on though, because this weekend we got Nicholas Sparks going up against a big ass tank! Fury and The Best of Me are the big openings this weekend, so grab a grenade and a “notebook,” and let’s do some predicting!
There really isn’t much to say about Fury. I personally think the trailers look mediocre, but it’s Brad Pitt in a big World War II action flick with big tanks, so it should do pretty well. With Gone Girl already out two weeks, there isn’t much competition here. There’s also the added bonus of David Ayer directing, the guy who was just tapped for DC’s Suicide Squad, so we got that going on as well. The smartest marketing they’ve done though is hide the fact that Shia LaBeouf is in this. Uh oh, was I supposed to say that?
Nicholas Sparks needs no introduction. The Notebook. Anymore questions? The last movie based on one of his novels was Safe Haven, which brought in just over $21 Million. That was also on Valentine’s Day weekend though, so I don’t think The Best of Me will quite get there, but it will make the money it needs to and move on.
Then we have The Book of Life, an animated movie that looks Coraline-ish, but it’s not. This one is produced by Guillermo del Toro. I’m surprised they were able to pry him away from the 900 other films he’s attached too, but here we are. I’m not sensing much buzz on this one. The last animated kid’s movie to open was The Boxtrolls, which clocked in at just over $17 Million opening weekend. The Book of Life will crack the top five, but will fall short of Boxtroll money.
How Will It All Break Down…
Brad Pitt’s tank rolls over everything, but Gone Girl should hold strong at #2, and continue to stick around in the public consciousness for Oscar time.
TOP 5 BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS
1) Fury — $28 Million
2) Gone Girl — $18.5 Million
3) The Best of Me — $15 Million
4) The Book of Life — $13 Million
5) Dracula Untold — $11.5 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 on www.movieshenanigans.com. His movie crush is Jessica Rabbit. Follow him on Twitter @dcohenwriter.
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