‘Incredibles’ Has Edge Over ‘Polar’ at Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Warner Bros. Pictures’ costly new entrant “The Polar Express” goes up against reigning champ “The Incredibles” at the weekend box office, but is unlikely to dislodge the hit superhero cartoon.
“Polar,” from writer-director Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as several different computer-animated characters, already has been under the microscope for its innovative use of performance-capture technology as well as its astronomical budget, reported at $170 million or more.
Based on the popular children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, the film tells the story of a young boy whose doubts about Santa Claus are changed by a magical train ride to the North Pole. Warners is hoping for an instant classic and perennial holiday player.
But if “Polar’s” opening-day numbers — it bowed Wednesday in 3,650 locations — are indicative of how the weekend plays out, then it won’t be able to surpass “The Incredibles” from Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Co. “Incredibles,” which earned $70.4 million its opening weekend, reaped an additional $4.5 million Wednesday, while “Polar” bowed to $2.6 million. “Polar” was expected to enjoy a bump Thursday, when a lot of children were out of school for the Veterans Day holiday.
The pairing of Zemeckis and Hanks has proved formidable in the past. With “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away,” the duo has earned more than $562 million in domestic box office receipts. But with “Polar,” they’ll be competing not just with “The Incredibles” but also with Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” which arrives next weekend.
Studios may have blanketed the children’s market this weekend, but adult audiences have a few new options of their own.
Focus Features’ new genre label Rogue Pictures will unveil its second release, the R-rated horror film “Seed of Chucky,” in 2,061 theaters. The fifth film in the “Chucky” series should score well with horror fans. The franchise’s most recent installment, 1998’s “Bride of Chucky,” opened to $11.8 million, and execs are looking for a similar performance this time around. The film stars Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly as the voices of Chucky and Tiffany; Tilly also appears as herself. It was written and directed by Don Mancini, screenwriter for the other “Chucky” films.
New Line Cinema will bow “After the Sunset” in 2,819 theaters. The Brett Ratner-directed caper stars Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Woody Harrelson in a story about what happens after a master thief walks away with his last big score. The film has a similar feel to Brosnan’s 1999 heist picture, “The Thomas Crown Affair,” which opened to $14.6 million. Brosnan may have more difficulty breaking the $10 million mark this time because of mixed reviews and a crowded marketplace.
Taking some of the heat off “Sunset” is the somewhat limited release of “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” which is opening in 530 theaters in the top 100 markets. The Working Title comedy — a sequel to 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” which earned Renee Zellweger an Oscar nomination for best actress — hopes to amass word-of-mouth buzz in this busy frame by opening slowly and building solidly. It goes wide Nov. 19. Co-starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, “Bridget” is tracking well with women and could gross in the $7 million-$8 million range.
In limited release are two biopics and possible Academy Award contenders: “Finding Neverland” from Miramax Films and “Kinsey” from Fox Searchlight. “Neverland” stars Johnny Depp as “Peter Pan” author J.M. Barrie, and “Kinsey” toplines Liam Neeson as controversial sex researcher Albert Kinsey.
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