22 August 2008 10:34 AM, PDT
This weekend, the box office becomes a dumping ground for movies the studios
had low hopes for when they developed their schedules. The end of August and
the beginning of September are typically the most lackluster time of the year
for ticket sales, and this year should prove to be no exception. Despite the
fact that four new films are opening wide (one of them, The Rocker, opened on
Wednesday), not one is expected to crack $20 million. Most analysts expect
Focus Features' thriller Death
Race to win the weekend race with about $14-17 million. Its primary
competition will come from Sony's comedy The House Bunny, which will
likely end up in second place with $12-16 million. But both 20th Century Fox's
The Rocker and MGM/Dimension Films' The Longshots will struggle to
make it into the top ten, forecasters say. Each is expected to earn only $5-7
million. Many analysts are keeping an eye on Focus Features' Hamlet 2, which is opening in
only about 100 theaters this weekend with hopes of building word-of-mouth
excitement for its wider opening next Wednesday at about 1,500 theaters. The
film received much praise from critics earlier this year at the Sundance Film
Festival. (Full reviews of the movie will appear here on Wednesday)
http://www.imdb. com/news/ ns0000003/ #ni0555151
