After a busy start to the holiday '06 movie season, the studios have slowed things down quite a bit as December begins...There's not a big opener among the new releases this week. None of them, as I write these words, are impressing critics all that much either.
The seasonal film, The Nativity Story (Reviews) appears to be pretty boring: The horror flick Turistas (reviews) looks like a rip-off of Eli Roth's H 0 S T E L from last year; The comedy sequel National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (reviews) gives every body's favorite second banana Kal Penn a chance to carry a movie; Meanwhile, the dramedy 10 Items or Less (reviews) and Christmas at Maxwell's (reviews) open very small...
Ian Mohr of Variety writes about the current cinema landscape:
Jesus vs. James Bond.
That unlikely matchup will indeed unfold this weekend at the U.S. box office as New Line preps "The Nativity Story" to do battle with Sony holdover "Casino Royale," as well as Warner Bros.' B.O. champ "Happy Feet" and Disney's second frame of sci-fi thriller "Deja Vu."
New Line will put "Nativity" in 3,183 playdates as the frame's widest new rollout.
Frame following the Thanksgiving glut is a traditionally slow affair. Other wide openers will include MGM's "Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj," bowing on 1,979, and Fox genre banner Fox Atomic's first release, horror pic "Turistas."
"Nativity" continues Hollywood's more aggressive targeting of the faith-based crowd in the wake of "The Passion of the Christ."
"Turistas," meanwhile, will be a litmus test for Atomic topper Peter Rice, who also runs the studio's specialty label Fox Searchlight.
"Wilder" comes as MGM makes a bold year-end push: Studio has nine pics rolling out between Thanksgiving and New Year's...
Standing in the way of the new releases will be holdover "Happy Feet," which has turned a flock of singing CG-animated penguins into B.O. behemoths this season and won the past two weekends.
Pic has passed $100 million in two frames, and Warners sees "Happy Feet" as having the legs to last through January and take in $200 million.
"Casino Royale," meanwhile, which has settled for No. 2 the last two weekends, is still tracking just behind "Happy Feet" with strong numbers
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In his weekend box office preview, Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly thinks Happy Feet will three-peat
It'll be deja vu all over again...
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