‘Be Cool’ Set to Ice ‘Pacifier’ at Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The weekend box office will be a horse race between John Travolta in “Be Cool” and Vin Diesel in “The Pacifier.”
With Travolta reliving his Chili Palmer character made famous in the 1995 hit “Get Shorty,” the veteran film star seems to have the edge over Diesel’s turn as a disgraced Navy SEAL assigned to protect a family. Also opening nationally Friday is “The Jacket,” a horror film starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley.
With a huge publicity campaign highlighting the film’s stars, including Uma Thurman, Danny DeVito, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Cedric the Entertainer, “Be Cool” should mark MGM’s first No. 1 hit of the year. From director F. Gary Gray, the PG-13 film is skewing heavily toward men.
MGM also would like to be responsible for Travolta’s biggest opener. The versatile actor has not been able to top the opening gross of his 1997 film “Face/Off,” which reaped $23.4 million for Paramount. “Be Cool” should far exceed that mark, with studio insiders placing the opener in the high-$20 million range, enough to top existing champ “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” which opened with $22 million last weekend.
Disney will bow “The Pacifier,” its second film from director Adam Shankman (2003’s “Bringing Down the House”).
“Pacifier” revisits the formula of Sony’s “Man of the House,” which got off to an inauspicious start last weekend with a three-day take of $9 million. In Diesel’s rendition of tough-guy-thrown-into-unfamiliar-role, the actor best known for his extreme roles in “The Chronicles of Riddick” and “XXX” plays Shane Wolfe, a SEAL assigned to protect five children from enemies of their recently deceased father. The formula seemed to work for Sony’s “Are We There Yet?” — the Ice Cube starrer that has earned $76 million — but less well for Tommy Lee Jones in “Man of the House.” Insiders place the Diesel vehicle in the low-$20 million range, skewing heavily toward women and the family audience.
Warner Independent Pictures is betting heavily on “The Jacket,” an R-rated thriller from Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s production company Section 8. “The Jacket” premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and insiders put its opening gross in the $4 million-$5 million range. From British director John Maybury, “The Jacket” centers on Brody as an institutionalized Gulf War veteran who becomes convinced that he’s traveling through time in search of his fated lover.
In limited release, Palm Pictures will unveil its documentary “Gunner Palace” in eight theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. Fresh from controversy over its ratings appeal, the PG-13 “Palace” might open to some significant numbers considering the extra publicity.
Miramax Films will bow two movies, “The Best of Youth” and “Dear Frankie,” in an attempt to clean its slate as it engages in divorce proceedings with parent Disney. The six-hour Italian drama “Youth” opened Wednesday in New York in one theater. The Scottish drama “Dear Frankie” will bow in New York and Los Angeles on five screens.
Categories