Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Box-Office Preview: How Horrible Will It Be?

The weekend box office race kicks off today due to the extended Thanksgiving holiday.

Stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day Jason Sudeikis Jamie Foxx Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston are set to reprise their roles for the comedy sequel Horrible Bosses 2 (reviews). Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and Chris Pine are gonna play a father/son boss team.


In the new film Bateman, Day and Sudeikis launch their own business and then plan to get revenge on a rogue investor who has taken over their company.

The (reviews) are on the march in their first solo movie.


On Friday--The long-awaited awards contending biopic The Imitation Game (reviews) is here.

The film deals with Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist, criminally prosecuted and chemically castrated homosexual, and tortured soul who committed suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple. Turing was highly influential in the founding of computer science and artificial intelligence, along with devising techniques for breaking German ciphers during the World War II. He was also one of the earliest to explore the biological process of morphogenesis.

 
Downton Abbey star Allen Leech plays a Scottish spy who worked with the Soviets to plot against Turing. Mark Strong Keira Knightley Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear and Charles Dance also star.

Even with those trio of new wide releases--The start to the two film adaptation of the last book in author Suzanne Collins' trilogy-The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I (reviews) is expected to win again.

Pamela McClintock of THR:

There's something for (mostly) everyone at the Thanksgiving box office.

New Line and Warner Bros.' R-rated comedy Horrible Bosses 2 will go after younger adults and older teens looking for a laugh, while Penguins of Madagascar, a spinoff of DreamWorks Animation's popular Madagascar franchise, hopes to nab families. Both begin rolling out Tuesday night in North America before playing everywhere on Wednesday, a popular day for moviegoing.

The other main Thanksgiving attraction is a teaser trailer for J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The 88-second tease will begin playing Friday morning in 30 theaters across the country — before every showing of every movie.

In term of sheer might, holdover The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 should easily win the five-day turkey race with a gross in the $80 million range, including an estimated $50 million to $55 million for the weekend. Last Thanksgiving, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire likewise topped the holiday frame after opening the week before.

Jeffrey Katzenberg's DWA needs a box-office success, and while Penguins certainly won't match the $94.6 million grossed by Disney's Frozen last Thanksgiving, it should post a solid five-day gross in the $45 million-$47 million range, including a weekend take of $32 million to $34 million. (Disney's Big Hero 6 continues to hold well, however, and could take a bite out of Penguins.)

Directed by Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith, Penguins is voiced by John Malkovich, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom McGrath, Christopher Knights, Chris Miller, Conrad Vernon, Peter Stormare, Ken Jeong and Annet Mahendru.

Horrible Bosses 2 is looking like a clear winner for New Line and Warner Bros. The sequel, one of the few R-rated comedies to ever dare opening on Thanksgiving, could gross $35 million to $40 million for the five days, if not more. For the weekend itself, it could gross $23 million to $25 million. The first Horrible Bosses opened to $28.2 million in summer 2011 on its way to earning a stellar $209.6 million worldwide.

Directed this time out by Sean Anders (Sex Tape), Horrible Bosses 2 reteams most of the original cast, including Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis, whose characters set out to start their own business, only to be swindled. Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz and Kevin Spacey also star.

As awards season heats up, there's a slew of offerings for adults at the specialty box office including Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, which will be playing in roughly 700 theaters by Thanksgiving Day. Other awards contenders in the marketplace include holdovers Birdman, Foxcatcher, Whiplash and Boyhood, while The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

Birdman, Boyhood and Whiplash could also enjoy a boost this weekend after scoring key Independent Spirit Nominations (Birdman lead with six noms).

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