Laremy is under the weather so I am taking over the writing portion of this week’s box office predictions. The numbers, however, are still his (Lord knows I’m not taking responsibility for those), but you can’t blame him for any of the mindless chatter I spew in the next few paragraphs.
First off, the week’s new release Chappie will be targeting that #1 spot rather easily seeing how last weekend’s number one release in Focus was rather soft on arrival and looks to dip just a shade under 50% this weekend with Laremy spotting it $9.7 million. Chappie, however, he sees coming in around $22 million.
Budgeted at only $49 million, Sony is actually low-balling this one, suggesting they see a $15-16 million opening, but that’s just a means to say it overperformed when it tops those numbers. Early reviews have it pegged at 50% on RottenTomatoes as I type this and my review (coming later today) won’t be any kinder. I flat out did not enjoy this movie, but more on that later.
Laremy is betting big on the new Vince Vaughn and Dave Franco comedy Unfinished Business, going with a $13 million prediction, presumably believing people are going to spend money on something as all of the year’s previous releases continue to slide. I like Franco and actually would have wanted to review this movie before the weekend, but the screening was set up opposite Chappie and I made my choice.
Finally, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a screening I flat out skipped. As I always say in situations like these, “I didn’t see the first one so I would have been lost.” The first film, however, did quite well at the box office, bringing in $46.4 million domestically. That’s a nice number considering its widest release was 1,298 theaters. The sequel opens this weekend in 1,572 theaters, which is already a jump on the first and Laremy sees it coming in with $7.3 million. Reviews have been accepting of the sequel so this is one that might actually stick around for a little while and generate a nice little sum for Searchlight, especially considering they stuck right around that $10 million budget from the previous film.
So, that does it for me. All of Laremy’s predictions are below. Get yours in as well and we’ll see how this shakes out on Sunday morning.
SIDE NOTE: Some of the theater numbers below are estimates. We’ll have the actual counts in Sunday’s wrap-up article.
