Weekend Box Office Preview

Box Office Prophets has a rundown of the movies opening this weekend. None of the major releases look interesting -- certainly not Sandra Bullock's movie "Premonitions," which had a trailer so lengthy and detailed it gave away the premise, the twist and then the third act twist as well -- I know virtually the entire plot of the film except for the last ten minutes. Why bother? But BOP is WAY off on "300," which they think is just a silly fanboy flick with limited appeal like "Sin City," which grossed just $75 mil in the US. They should be comparing "300" to "Gladiator," because that's the movie it most resembles. It's a big, brawny, old-fashioned warrior flick. And it's grossed at least $25 mil from Mon through Thursday. BOP predicts "300" will drop mightily and gross (a still terrific) $38 mil. I say, with the amazing midweek numbers, what is clearly exceptional word of mouth and an expansion of screens, the movie will set the record for a second weekend of an R rated movie and gross $50+ mil. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised if BOP had predicted the movie to hold stead at such a remarkably high level and $60 mil is possible. But $50 mil is a huge jump over $38 mil, so I'll stay conservatively on that.