The "Children" Are Our Future

For the first weekend of 2007, the new releases are few in number, but one of them is using that fact to its advantage...

Alfonso Cuarón's dark sci-fi flick Children of Men (reviews) actually opened in a limited capacity last Friday. Since then though, the movie has picked up quite a head of steam, and is the best received of the latest batch O' cinema

Clive Owen and Julianne Moore experience future shock in Children Of Men

Other new pics this week: Yet another ho-hum looking CGI animated fairy tale inspired movie called Happily N' Ever After (reviews); Academy Award winner Hilary Swank gets back to work in the classroom drama Freedom Writers (reviews); Comedian Cedric the Entertainer goes for laughs in Code Name: The Cleaner (reviews); And finally there's the horror flick THR3E (reviews)...

Ian Mohr and Dave McNary of Variety offer up this box office primer:

After a socko limited run will Universal's gritty, dystopian sci fi thriller "Children of Men" crossover in its expansion?

Booked in 16 locations over New Year's, the Alfonso Cuaron-helmed pic played to almost $44,000 per engagement, in 16 locations and now moves to over 1,200.

Aiming for more general auds will be PG-13 pics "Code Name: The Cleaner" (New Line) and "Freedom Writers" (Paramount), as well as Lionsgate's CG animated "Happily N'Ever After."

Studio has moved the "Freedom Writers" date up a week as it saw little competish for that demo.

But any newcomers could very well have trouble taking down some still hard-charging holiday holdovers.

Fox's behemoth family comedy "Night at the Museum" has drawn $136.7 million in just two frames, and Sony's Will Smith vehicle "The Pursuit of Happyness" has tracked down more than $104.5 million in three [weeks].

Also in contention will be Par and DreamWorks' "Dreamgirls," the big-screen musical that finished No. 3 last frame in just 852 locations...

Either way, expect overall biz to dip from last weekend's lofty heights over an extended four-day holiday.

First frame in January is typically a time when holiday holdovers pick up further biz with little new primo product flowing. A year ago, Lions Gate's horror pic "Hostel" slipped into No. 1 with $19.5 million, followed by holdover Christmas hits "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "King Kong" and "Fun with Dick and Jane."

First Look will try and capitalize on such a post-holiday genre trend by rolling out "The Breed" in limited release.

Indie Bigger Picture sends out the pulp pic "Thr3e."

R-rated Clive Owen-starrer "Children" was originally skedded for fall, but was moved by U to go wide early this year avoiding a late 2006 sked filled with similarly skewing adult fare.

"Freedom Writers," meantime, marks [actor Patrick] Dempsey's first feature foray since 2002's "Sweet Home Alabama," which grossed $127.2 million. He's since become a star of the top-rated [TV show] "Grey's Anatomy." Swank's last pic was U's "The Black Dahlia," which took in just $22.5 million earlier this year.

"Cleaner" stars Cedric the Entertainner, Lucy Liu and Nicolette Sheridan in the story of a regular joe who's mistaken for a secret agent. New Line also has "Little Children" and "Nativity Story" in theaters...

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Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly makes his prediction for the film that will be at No. 1 when all the ticket stubs are counted...

''Night at the Museum'' will spend its third straight weekend at No. 1; look for ''Happily N'Ever After'' and ''Children of Men'' both to debut in top 5

Will holiday hold-over Night At The Museum be #1 for the third week in a row--as Rich suggests? Or will "Children", with its great buzz, take the top spot come Monday? Stay Tuned...