“Miami Vice” set to heat up box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – This weekend is all about gambles at the box office. Will Universal Pictures’ costly gamble on director Michael Mann and “Miami Vice” pay off? Will Warner Bros. Pictures’ second partnership with Tom Hanks on an animated movie, “The Ant Bully,” be as successful as its first? And just how many teenage girls will show up to see John Tucker, a fictional high school Romeo, die?
Bolstered by positive reviews and enough heart-pumping action scenes to lure in young males, “Miami Vice” could open in the mid-$20 million range, insiders say. Some think it could earn $30 million, which would set up a strong run for the film and help fuel the second half of the summer box office.
Either way, “Miami Vice” will end the three-week reign of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” which is on track to earn $20 million.
With a budget reportedly in the neighborhood of $135 million, Mann has reimagined the “Miami Vice” television show he executive produced in the 1980s as a dark, stylized drama with laconic dialogue and impressive action scenes. Rated R, the film version of the series stars Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as undercover narcotics officers.
Mann’s films, while well-regarded, never have grossed more than $101 million; 2004’s “Collateral,” starring Tom Cruise and Foxx, holds that honor. It kicked off with $24.7 million.
Warners’ PG-rated “Ant Bully” is expected to open at No. 3 in the mid-teen ranged. It was produced by Hanks, the star of “The Polar Express,” the studio’s bold animation foray from 2004. Its high-pedigreed voice talent includes Julia Roberts and Nicolas Cage.
Directed by “Jimmy Neutron” creator John A. Davis, “The Ant Bully” enters the crowded animated family space sandwiched between Sony Pictures’ “Monster House,” which bowed last weekend, and Paramount Pictures’ “Barnyard,” opening next week.
“Bully” has a similar feel to two previous animated films about bugs: Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Antz,” both released in 1998. That is a generation ago for the young audiences of animated films, and “Bully” does have a 3-D Imax release going for it as well.
20th Century Fox’s “John Tucker Must Die” is on track to open in the low teens. Starring “Desperate Housewives”‘ hunky gardener Jesse Metcalfe as the three-timing Tucker, the movie is sure to lure teenage girls. The PG-13 was directed by Betty Thomas. Fashioning itself after Paramount’s successful “Mean Girls,” “Tucker” will get up to that film’s gross of $86 million only if it proves smarter than the typical fare aimed at its target demographic.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight opened the Sundance Film Festival hit “Little Miss Sunshine” on seven screens Wednesday. The indie acquired the picture for a record $10.5 million at January’s festival, and high hopes are riding on the film starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell and Toni Collette. An R-rated road trip comedy about a dysfunctional family, the film is directed by husband-and-wife music video veterans Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a script by Michael Arndt.
Focus Features will open Woody Allen’s “Scoop” in 537 theaters. Starring Allen’s latest muse, Scarlett Johansson, and Hugh Jackman, “Scoop” centers on a journalism student who receives the scoop of a lifetime. Allen co-stars as his neurotic self. The film hopes to reach the levels of Allen’s previous hit, “Match Point,” which grossed $23 million. Reviewers haven’t been as kind to Allen’s latest release, though, which is likely to hamper the film’s draw.
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