After a slow weekend at the box office, business is about to pick up with two new releases. Warner Bros. has compiled an all-star cast for the ensemble romantic comedy New Year’s Eve [NYEVE], the spiritual follow-up to Valentine’s Day which opened to $63.1 million, a record for the 4-day President’s Day weekend. Directed once again by Garry Marshall [GAMAR], the PG-13 rated New Year’s Eve boasts three Oscar winners in Robert De Niro [RDENI], Hilary Swank [HSWAN], and Halle Berry [HBERR] as well as Ashton Kutcher [AKUTC], Jessica Biel [JBIEL], Katherine Heigl [KHEIG], Sarah Jessica Parker [SJPAR], Zac Efron [ZEFRO] and many more. With moviegoers busy for the holiday season, New Year’s Eve is unlikely to approach the opening of the more timely Valentine’s Day. Celebrating in 3505 theaters, New Year’s Eve may drop with $25 million.
Jonah Hill [JHILL] tests his drawing power as a solo artist in The Sitter [SITER], basically an R-rated update of Adventures in Babysitting. The rating will keep teens out of the audience, which also hampered the R-rated boy-switching comedy The Change-Up. Get Him to the Greek opened to $17.6 million with Russell Brand as his co-lead. The Sitter looks to earn $13 million from 2749 theaters.
Heading into its third weekend, Hugo [HUGO] adds 768 more locations to push its total to 2,608 theaters. The 3D awards contender could chime in with $8 million.
After a spectacular debut, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 [TWLI4] has been fading quickly than a vampire in sunlight. The fourth installment may gross another $8 million.
After banking $18 million in limited release, Fox Searchlight expands The Descendants [DSCND] wide to 857 theaters. The George Clooney [GCLOO] starrer has generated strong word of mouth not to mention buzz as one of the favorite of the award season. The drama could bring home about $7 million.
That’s the whisper from the trading floor.
Tag(s): NYEVE, GAMAR, RDENI, HSWAN, HBERR, AKUTC, JBIEL, KHEIG, SJPAR, ZEFRO, JHILL, SITER, HUGO, TWLI4, DSCND, GCLOO