With Warm Bodies, Chronicle and The Woman in Black all opening above $20 million within the last two years, Hollywood no longer treats Super Bowl weekend as a dead zone at the box office. Focus Features targets young couples with the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment [AWODT]. Originally produced by FilmDistrict, the marketing campaign has played up its R-rating with the raunchy antics of its likeable trio of rising stars: Zac Efron [ZEFRO], Miles Teller [MTELL] and Michael B. Jordan [MBJOR]. The premise should appeal to both males and females. Showing in 2809 theaters, That Awkward Moment could score about $13 million.
With its main audience focused on the Super Bowl, Ride Along [RDLON] may declined close to 50% in its third outing, but still finish second with $11 million.
Although Frozen [FROZE.BW] has remained a juggernaut at the box office, Disney will goose the box office by adding a song-along version of the Oscar-nomination film this weekend. Frozen looks to add another $7 million to its current haul of $350 million.
Paramount targets older women with the romance Labor Day [LABRD] starring Kate Winslet [KWINS] and Josh Brolin [JBROL]. Opening in 2584 theaters, Labor Day is director Jason Reitman’s [JREIT] widest release, yet ironically his worst reviewed film. There’s little buzz on the PG-13 rated drama, which was shut out during award season. Labor Day may manage to eke out $6 million.
After a soft opening, I, Frankenstein [IFRNK] looks to decay around 55% in its second weekend to $4 million.
That’s the whisper from the virtual trading floor.
Tag(s): AWODT, ZEFRO, MTELL, MBJOR, RDLON, LABRD, KWINS, JBROL, JREIT, IFRNK