With The Wolf of Wall Street vacating this slot and not opening until Christmas, there is only one new wide release in the weekend between Thor: The Dark World [THOR2] and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The Thor sequel performed as expected, but did not break out for more. The word of mouth is not excellent enough to prevent the usual frontloading suffered by blockbuster sequels. Thor: The Dark World could drop around 55% to $39 million in its second weekend.
In 1999, The Best Man opened to $9 million and became a $34 million sleeper hit. The romantic comedy made stars out of Taye Diggs [TDIGG], Terrence Howard [THOWA], Morris Chestnut [MCHES], Nia Long [NLONG], Sanaa Lathan [SLATH] and Regina Hall [RHALL]. They have reunited with director Malcolm Lee for the belated sequel The Best Man Holiday [BESM2]. With its African-American ensemble cast, the R-rated film is targeted primarily at older women in urban markets. The Universal release faces little competition for that demographic. Opening in 2024 theaters, The Best Man Holiday should be able to clear $20 million.
Third place looks to be another three-way race between Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa [JCKA4], Free Birds [TURKY] and Last Vegas [LASTV] at around $6.5 million.
That’s the whisper from the virtual trading floor.
Tag(s): THOR2, TDIGG, THOWA, MCHES, NLONG, SLATH, RHALL, BESM2, JCKA4, TURKY, LASTV
