The early numbers are in and it’s turning into a bad weekend for nearly everything being released by Hollywood. Three new movies opened this weekend in wide release: Dream House, What’s Your Number?, and 50/50. While all three movies have received very different reactions from critics and audiences, all three are headed for instant failure at the box office.
Instead, current estimates have three weeks old Moneyball winning first place on Friday with the equally long in the tooth top box office competitors Dolphin Tale and The Lion King 3D battling it out in the second and third spot. The numbers are close, but it seems almost certain at this point that one of those three movies, and not any of those new releases, will be the box office champ for the weekend, when the final tally roles in on Monday morning.
In fact, those new wide releases probably won’t even be able to claim the fourth spot. Right now that’s held by Courageous, a semi-wide release religious film which, truth be told, almost no one has even heard of, outside of fliers being handed out next to church pulpits. Courageous seems headed for the Fireproof model of success.
The truly surprising thing here is that stellar reviews and a great cast couldn’t get people interested in seeing the Seth Rogen, Joeseph Gordon-Levitt cancer comedy 50/50. The film currently has an amazing 92% fresh rating on the review compiling site Rotten Tomatoes. Originally titled I’m With Cancer they re-titled the film to make it more audience friendly, but I guess there’s just no way to make a deadly disease an appealing way to spend your weekend money.
Less surprising is the performance of What’s Your Number?, the Anna Faris fueled comedy which critics and audiences alike seem only to eager to dismiss. Faris’s film had the worst debut of the weekend’s three new releases. On Friday the film earned only $2 million, and even that’s barely enough to beat Abduction for seventh place.
All three new wide releases made between $2 and $2.8 million on Friday to fill out the bottom of the box office chart. Expect to see them still there, at the bottom, come Monday morning.
