2013 09 20 – Battle of the Year, Prisoners

Last weekend has shown two things. One, that US audience really likes marketing symbols (Friday 13th has tremendously helped Insidious Chapter 2 reach $ 40M level). And two, that I really should remember to look at the name of a production company of movies. If I did this, I'd see that in last four years Relativity didn't had a comedy R movie that gathered more than $ 3248 (this year's 21 and Over). Knowing that I would go even lower than I did with a shoot for The Family and score the red 10 per cent bracket. But hey, as usual -- I appreciate this lesson and use it next weekend.

This weekend we have two openings.

WEDNESDAY:  My shots per theater!

FRIDAY:  All shots!

MONDAY:  Official numbers!

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JOSH HOLLOWAY -- COOL, CHRIS BROWN -- MELTED

This one, Battle of the Year, is a drama PG-13 movie, from Sony.

Movies for teens and early adults need two things to be successful at box office: an attractive male lead, an attractive female lead. Josh Holloway fits this description (he is a bit over an age, though), Chris Brown doesn't. Oh, on the poster we can see the female lead, but do you know her name? Me neither.

Looking on new movies' openings in past years, this is definitely a low weekend. Opening weekends of previous four dance movies of the Step Up franchise also show decline. It is interesting to see that the first three Step Ups were produced by Walt Disney. The fourth one, the least profitable, landed at Lionsgate. Does Sony really think it can revive these dance movies subgenre? Well, they are in for a surprise.

If this movie makes more than $ 2560 per theater ($ 1110 on Friday, $ 890 on Saturday, $ 560 on Sunday), I will be surprised.

Shots:

$ 10 mln  --  Damon Houx, ScreenCrave
$ 9,2 mln  --  Ray Subers, BoxOfficeMojo
$ 9 mln  --  Donald Shanahan, Examiner
$ 8 mln  --  ThisIsNotMyName, BoxOfficePredictionsOnline
$ 7,4 mln  --  Sensei White Lotus, BreitBart
$ 7 mln  --  Gitesh Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru
$ 6,5 mln  --  Mitch Metcalf, ShowBuzzDaily
$ 6 mln  --  C.S. Strowbridge, The-Numbers
$ 6 mln  --  Laremy Legel, RopeOfSilicon
$ 5,14 mln  --  Mario Ludwinski, USBOPredictions2013  (2008 theaters, $ 2560 per theater)
$ 5,1 mln  --  Perri Nemiroff, Shockya
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$ 5 mln  --  Box Office team
$ 4,6 mln  --  the official weekend number of the movie  (2008 theaters, $ 2292 per theater)

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THEY LAUGHED WHEN I WAS PREPARING AN IMPERSONATION OF A FAMOUS ACTOR... AND THEN THEY LAUGHED EVEN MORE

This one, Prisoners, is a thriller/suspense R movie, from Warner Bros.

The trailer looks like a lazy ripoff from a 1999 movie with Mel Gibson, Payback: kidnapped girl(s), desperate father, strange cop, wallpaper mother.

But even worse are makeups of both actors. Hugh Jackman looks like Liam Neeson after watching some Phantom Menace or just before entering a competition for a TV entertainment program "I am Russian, I eat bears". Jake Gyllenhall is more sophisticated, he is just probably weeping after losing the Legolas role to Orlando Bloom, or after losing the Loki role to Tom Hiddleston.

In last four years Warner Bros. made just one thriller/susp R movie: Argo. They made some PG-13s in that genre, threw some good hope, two big checks for both leads, and watch this mixture explode.

This is a bad movie. It is not 1999 anymore. But at least they provide a good laugh excuse.

Shots:

$ 30 mln  --  Perri Nemiroff, Shockya
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$ 21 mln  --  Sensei White Lotus, BreitBart
$ 20,82 mln  --  the official weekend number of the movie  (3260 theaters, $ 6386 per theater)
$ 20,2 mln  --  Ray Subers, BoxOfficeMojo
$ 20 mln  --  Box Office team
$ 20 mln  --  Gitesh Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru
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$ 18,5 mln  --  Mitch Metcalf, ShowBuzzDaily
$ 18 mln  --  C.S. Strowbridge, The-Numbers
$ 18 mln  --  ThisIsNotMyName, BoxOfficePredictionsOnline
$ 17,5 mln  --  Damon Houx, ScreenCrave
$ 17 mln  --  Laremy Legel, RopeOfSilicon
$ 11,90 mln  --  Mario Ludwinski, USBOPredictions2013  (3260 theaters, $ 3650 per theater)
$ 7 mln  --  Donald Shanahan, Examiner

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