After a forgettable May in movies, June hopes to break the gloom with a quartet of new releases. However, none of the four appears to have the buzz to topple Shrek Forever After [SHRK4]. A decline of 45% from over the holiday weekend would bring in about $23.5 million, which should be enough for the green ogre to rule the box office for a third consecutive weekend.
Russell Brand [RBRAN] leads for the first time in the R-rated comedy Get Him to the Greek [GHGRK] reprising his role of Aldous Snow from 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Also getting top billing is Jonah Hill [JHILL] as the straight man trying to shepherd the rock star from London to Los Angeles for a concert. The two are unlikely to open the film on starpower alone, so Universal has been generating buzz with clips showing its edgy humor. Booked into 2696 theaters, Get Him to the Greek could tally up $19 million in admissions.
Ashton Kutcher [AKUTC] and Katherine Heigl [KHEIG] pair up in the poorly titled Killers [5KILR]. Lionsgate decided not to screen the PG-13 rated action romance knowing the two leads are not popular with critics. Moviegoers on the other hand should find the coupling more appealing and the film's success depend on their screen chemistry. Killers could take away around $17 million from 2859 theaters.
Marmaduke [MARMA] is the latest comic strip to get the feature treatment. Voiced by Owen Wilson [OWILS], the Great Dane enters the land of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which opened to $29 million. Unfortunately, Fox is not quite the marketing machine as Disney on family films. Marmaduke is also as not as well known as Garfield, whose first film opened to $21 million in 2004. Although Marmaduke is getting the most new theaters at 3213 theaters, the PG-rated doggie flick may dig up roughly $15 million.
Although Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time [PRSIA] opened better any previous video game adaptation, the film still performed under expectations due to its pedigree. The male-targeted action adventure is likely to fall more than 50% in its second try to $14 million.
Sex and the City 2 [SATC2] was an even bigger disappointment as fans of the first film did not even turn out for the sequel. The comedy proved extremely front-loaded as gross has declined every single day since its debut. A 60% freefall would likely to bring in just $12 million.
Dark Castle picked up the sci-fi horror Splice [SPLIC] at this year’s Sundance and Warner Bros. quickly slotted the release to capitalize on the buzz. However, marketing has been inconsistent on the R-rated cautionary tale about genetic engineering starring Adrien Brody [ABROD] and Sarah Polley [SPOLL]. Opening in 2450 theaters, Splice could generate $10 million.
That’s the whisper from the trading floor.
Tag(s): SHRK4, RBRAN, GHGRK, JHILL, AKUTC, KHEIG, 5KILR, MARMA, OWILS, PRSIA, SATC2, SPLIC, ABROD, SPOLL