Box-Office Preview: Young And Dumb

20 years after Dumb and Dumber stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are back for writer/directors Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly in the comedy sequel Dumb And Dumber To (reviews). The story sees Harry and Lloyd trying to find Harry’s long-lost daughter in the hopes of having her donate a kidney.

In Beyond The Lights (reviews) we will meet Noni Jean (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a hot new award-winning artist who is primed for superstardom. But not all is what it seems, and the pressures cause Noni to nearly fall apart – until she meets Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker), a promising young cop and aspiring politician who’s been assigned to her detail. Drawn to each other, Noni and Kaz fall fast and hard, despite the pressure of her new-found success.

  
Sony Pictures Classics' true crime biopic "Foxcatcher" (reviews) starts a limited run.

Steve Carell stars as Schizophrenic murderer John du Pont, the heir to the DuPontChemical fortune who built a wrestling gym called Team Foxcatcher on his Pennsylvania estate. In 1996, he shot and killed his close friend, Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Dave Schultz, (Mark Ruffalo) at the training center. After the murder, du Pont locked himself in his mansion for two days while he negotiated with police on the telephone. A motive for the crime was never established, and du Pont died in a Pennsylvania prison at the age of 72.

 
Channing Tatum will play Mark Schultz David's younger brother who was also an Olympic champion wrestler. Anthony Michael Hall will play the assistant of du Pont. Sienna Miller will play Nancy David's wife. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman wrote the script from which Bennett Miller called the shots.

How will Disney's Big Hero 6 factor into the weekend race? Will the holdover be a spoiler for "Dumber To"?

Pamela McClintock of THR:

Dim-witted buddies Harry and Lloyd return to theaters this weekend, 20 years after their big-screen debut, as Dumb and Dumber To faces off against holdover Big Hero 6 for the top spot at the U.S. box office.

According to tracking, the PG-13 comedy sequel is looking at a $32 million to $35 million domestic debut, which should put it in competition with Disney's animated family film for the No. 1 spot domestically. More conservative observers say Dumb and Dumber To will take in closer to $30 million considering how off tracking has been lately.

This weekend's other new offering, romance drama Beyond the Lights, will likely earn $8 million to $10 million in its debut.

Dumb and Dumber To returns original director Bobby and Peter Farrelly along with stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. The story follows the lifelong friends as they search for Lloyd's daughter in hopes that she can give him a kidney. Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin and Kathleen Turner also star in the sequel. Universal is releasing the Red Granite film, rated PG-13, in 3,152 theaters in North America this weekend.

The original Dumb and Dumber opened on the weekend of Dec. 16, 1994, to a debut of $16.4 million in the U.S. The film has grossed $247.3 million worldwide to date.

Disney's Big Hero 6, which topped last weekend with a $56.2 million domestic debut, will likely give Dumb and Dumber To a run for its money as it's expected to also rake in $30 million to $35 million.

The Disney Animation Studios film, inspired by Marvel characters, chronicles the special bond that develops between Baymax (Scott Adsit), a plus-sized inflatable robot, and robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo. In its first week, the family film earned around $71.9 million.

Paramount and Warner Bros.' Interstellar is also in its second week, and should pull in north of $25 million. Christopher Nolan's sci-fi drama starring Matthew McConaughey took in $47.5 million in its domestic debut last weekend, good for the No. 2 spot. In its first week in theaters (it began rolling out last Wednesday), Interstellar has earned $61.8 million.

The space opus, which opens in China Wednesday, has so far performed strongly overseas, and will likely top the worldwide box office.

This weekend's other new offering, Beyond the Lights, tells the story of a Rihanna-like singer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) on the rise who falls for the cop (Nate Parker) who saves her from a suicide attempt. The $7 million film is a Relativity, Undisputed Cinema and Homegrown Pictures production in association with BET Films.

Written and directed by Secret Life of Bees helmer Gina Prince-Bythewood, the PG-13 title is the first movie to come out of Relativity's new multicultural division and is opening in 1,750 theaters. It also stars Minnie Driver, Colson Baker and Danny Glover.

There are several films opening in limited release as awards season rolls along, including Sony Pictures Classics' wrestling drama Foxcatcher, Open Road's Rosewater and Roadside's The Homesman, directed by Tommy Lee Jones.