2013 07 26 – The Wolverine

Another crazy weekend is behind us. I planned to get a 50 per cent hit rate with my shots in July. Two slight misses on Pacific Rim and R.I.P.D. (that's okay) blew this away, but there is still one thing left breathing. It is always him. The Wolverine. How good will he perform?

This is the only wide opening we have this week.

MONDAY UPDATE:  The official weekend number!

FRIDAY UPDATE:  All the shots!

TUESDAY UPDATE:  My shot per theater!

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DO THESE ABs CAN LIE?

This one, The Wolverine, is an action PG-13 movie, from Fox.

Probably we will never get the true Logan from comic books or animated movies (Wolverine vs Hulk). The character whose actions (I mean -- killing opponents by 'mistake with a smile') were making nervous wrinkles on Professor Xavier's head. We, Wolvie's fans, have to settle with this PG-13 image of our hero and look only on an entertainment factor of his screen adventures. The question is not, then, 'Is it great Wolverine movie', not even 'Is it great X-Men movie'. We ask: is it some nice time with claws and abs?

I watched the trailer six times, I think the answer is 'yes'. Logan walks very often without any shirt and this is wonderful as a mental image for our own exercising efforts. What is more, he gets into trouble. Trouble with him, a person with super healing powers, should be very big. And it is. He doesn't heal -- a bad thing if you are surrounded by lots of deadly ninja warriors.

As you see, a lot depends on your knowing about Wolverine's character. If you get it, the movie's premise looks interesting. If you are not, you will not pay money to see this.

This raises a question about shooting the weekend number. X-Men: First Class opened with $ 15,134 per theater. It had both Magneto and Professor Xavier on board. This movie has just one, shirtless, clawed warrior. It won't be enough to get to that number, but a counter will stop close to it.

Shots:

$ 79 mln  --  Sensei White Lotus, MovieCriticAssassins
$ 74 mln  --  C.S. Strowbridge, The-Numbers
$ 74 mln  --  Donald Shanahan, Examiner
$ 72,5 mln  --  Ray Subers, BoxOfficeMojo
$ 72 mln  --  Box Office team
$ 70 mln  --  Gitesh Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru
$ 66 mln  --  Laremy Legel, RopeOfSilicon
$ 65,1 mln  --  Perri Nemiroff, Shockya
$ 65 mln  --  Damon Houx, ScreenCrave
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$ 54,54 mln  --  Mario Ludwinski, USBOPredictions2013  (3924 theaters, $ 13,900 per theater)
$ 53,11 mln  --  the official weekend number of the movie  (3924 theaters, $ 13,536 per theater)
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