At last, young kids have had a reason to go to the movies. (July’s G-Force was the most recent opportunity and some parents are still reeling from the experience.) Sony Pictures’ PG-rated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs will open this weekend in 2-D, 3-D and IMAX and is destined to lock into the number one spot over three other new films: Love Happens, The Informant!, and Jennifer’s Body. How will those movies open? Now that’s where it gets interesting. Megan Fox — the controversial ‘It’ girl of summer – is exploiting her assets in the Karyn Kusama-directed, Diablo Cody-scripted horror film Jennifer’s Body while Aaron Eckhart chases Jennifer Aniston’s body in the romantic drama Love Happens. And Matt Damon dons a mustache and glasses for his Ocean’s director Steven Soderbergh in the R-rated comedy The Informant!
Overall, the weekend should handily beat out last year, when Samuel L. Jackson’s thriller Lakeview Terrace was number one with $15 million. Read on for my predictions.
1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: $30 million
Sony bowed the animated flick Open Season in September 2006 and scored $23 million with it. While Cloudy veers significantly from the original book, it’s still has name recognition thanks to the popular children’s story that’s been floating around libraries for the past 30 years. That, coupled with its slew of 3-D and IMAX venues, should boost the movie starring the voice talent of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, and Mr. T to the number one spot easily.
2. Jennifer’s Body: $12 million
Sorority Row’s attempt at mixing hot girls with horror didn’t work last weekend but that was without the star power of Fox and screenwriter Diablo Cody. This film will prove whether or not Fox is a box-office draw or just a sultry, outspoken celebrity. Reviews have not been kind but that may not matter as Twentieth Century Fox is clearly playing up the racy girl-on-girl kiss between Fox and a geeked-out Amanda Seyfried to lure in teen boys — and girls — to the film.
3. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself: $10 million
Tyler Perry’s movies often fall in the 60 percent range. This one looks to be following the same trajectory despite the starring efforts of Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson.
4. The Informant!: $9 million
This one is rather confusing. On the surface, a Matt Damon-starrer from director Steven Soderbergh should do huge business. But somehow this one feels like it’s going to disappoint. Reviews have been decent (we gave it a B), but that may not be enough. Damon looks like a plumped-up version of his character from the Oceans movies and he’s doing comedy — nothing like Jason Bourne. Perhaps that’s just too far afield from how audiences want to see him. It’s unlikely this does much more than low double digits.
5. Love Happens: $8 million
Jennifer Aniston has sure been busy, releasing three films over the past nine months. While Marley and Me was a huge hit, this romantic drama with the incredibly generic title doesn’t seem to have much buzz. The marketing materials seem to tell the whole story of the film, which might prompt audiences to wait for it to hit cable rather than rushing to the theater. And, since it’s bowing in only 1,800 theaters, getting to double-digits may be close to impossible.
Also opening:
Jane Campion’s Bright Star opens in very limited release this weekend but has already generated big buzz from its film festival debuts. The film stars Abbie Cornish as the lover of poet John Keats, played by Ben Whishaw.
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Wow you are WAY off in your projection for Jennifer’s Body. I can easily see it grossing $25+ million. A buzz movie with a rising star, a film that will appeal to female horror fans and male Megan Fox fans… seems like a recipe for success to me.
@ Ramo
The tracking for Jennifer’s Body has been horrible among women 16-34 which is the core horror audience – as far as boy’s going to see one lesbo kiss – well, that rarely works in the real world – add the blacklash to both Diablo and Megan and it might bomb big time.
$25+ million. LOL!!! It made only $2.7 million on friday.
I love horror movies but won’t support Diablo Cody. I’m letting my subscription lapse to EW when it’s up too. I just don’t like having her on board as a columnist. ON top of that, Jennifer’s Body just doesn’t look that great and I’ve been burned too many times recently with shitty horror movies!
I left EW after the umpteenth issue of Twilight.
Wow…Diablo Cody and EW probably won’t be able to sleep tonight since you don’t like them anymore!
Diablo needs to be removed from EW!
Agreed. not only was Juno overrated, but the fact is, she can’t write without coming off as a pretentious “wannabe hipster”. The idea she could even read horror let alone write it is the biggest joke about Jennifer’s Body.
I’m a woman who usually has no interest in horror movies, and I want to see Jennifer’s Body. It looks funny. Ebert liked it.
I think Ebert also liked Indiana Jones and the Curse of the CGI Monkeys.
Wow, you pointed out one debatable review! That clearly means Ebert is a waste of critical space.
I think the Trailer for “Love Happens” is amazing! For the first time in this genre, I am excited for this one!
How come EW hasn’t reviewed Jennifer’s Body?
Because she’s a columnist, and the movie is probably so bad they don’t dare review it.
I think Jennifer Aniston’s film is going to open much higher. She took a dead dog film to number one on Christmas Day. Do not underestimate her Aniston Power!!
Aniston has proven herself to not be much of a box office draw. I guarantee you Marley and Me would have done just as well with anyone else. It was a popular book and got dog loving audiences. She’s not as big as the tabloids would lead you on to thinking. Remember Rumor Has It? Management? Derailed?
Aniston is terrible, her movies are terrible. The only reason for her last sucess was the DOG!
Diablo Cody is a stripper/hack who got lucky once with an annoying screenplay written just to show how ‘hip’ she is! And her EW column sucks too!! I really don’t care which VH1 reality show she’s obsessed with every week!
And what have you done Matt1? I’m not saying that I like Cody or her writing. I’m just saying that you are less than a hack and haven’t earned the right to say who is or isn’t a good.
Hey Chad, thanks for the concern but I’ve actually been busy helping run the Children’s Hospital of Orange County for the past 7 years so calling me “less than a hack” is a little undeserved.
Oh, by the way… SUCK MY BALLS!!
I’m sorry. I have a feeling Jennifer’s Body will be crap, and I will be there seeing it tonight at 7:50. And I despise Diablo Cody (for lack of remembering her real name) with all of my being. I hate her style. I hate her sense of humor. I hate her sarcasm. Regardless of whether the “lesbo kiss” draws big audiences or not, Fox certain IS a draw.
I’m seeing Jennifer’s Body solely for the Diablo Cody factor (love her!), but I have no idea how it’ll fare at the box office. Could be a surprise hit, could be Sorority Row Part Deux. I’m leaning toward the latter.
I’m an EW subscriber, a Diablo Cody fan (not sure why there’s so much Cody backlash on here – I always look forward to her columns, no matter how hard she is trying to mine new catch phrases, etc.) and a newly-minted Fox fan, despite the fact I haven’t seen her act in anything beyond the trailer for Jennifer’s Body.
Still, I’m really shocked and disappointed that EW did not include a review for Jennifer’s Body in the print and web editions of movie reviews this week. Where I was hoping to find a review, I found what amounted to be a reminder that it was opening this week – what some would even call an advertisement – with no explanation as to why they were not reviewing the film. Clearly, the movie was made available to reviewers well before publication (every other major film reviewer released a review by opening day), and yet, EW chose not to include a review for some reason or another. No matter the reason, the omission suggests that EW is trying to protect their own columnist and silence any critique of what could be perceived as an EW-affiliated film.
I still intend on seeing the movie – the NY Times review was excellent and despite my respect for EW, even a negative review of their own columnist’s film would not have necessarily swayed me (I often disagree with OG and LS)- but, I won’t forget or forgive EW’s omission without an explanation.
It’s sad that people go to movies just because this or that person is in it. What happened to a movie’s plot? Some of the movie trailers don’t do a movie justice. I don’t follow the hype. I go to a movie because it looks like it’s goin to be a good movie. Sadly, that’s not always the case. Some movies are really bad.