“Superbad” set to extend box office reign
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As the lucrative summer moviegoing season winds down, this weekend’s debutants — led by the action-thriller “War” — are looking to distinguish themselves simply by cresting the $10 million mark.
Last weekend’s champion, Sony Pictures’ teen comedy “Superbad,” will likely log a second round on top with a three-day tally in the $16 million-$18 million range.
Besides “War,” the other key newcomers are the Scarlett Johannson comedy “The Nanny Diaries,” the latest Rowan Atkinson farce “Mr. Bean’s Holiday,” and the fact-based drama “Resurrecting the Champ.”
“War” has the advantage of two marquee names in the action arena, Jet Li and Jason Statham, facing off as assassin and FBI agent, respectively. Lionsgate’s R-rated film should get pulses racing among younger males, and conservatively should grab $10 million-$12 million.
“The Nanny Diaries,” on the other hand, appeals to female audiences. Selling itself as this summer’s equivalent to “The Devil Wears Prada,” it stars Johansson as a nanny struggling to please a forbidding employer (Laura Linney).
MGM is handling the release for the Weinstein Co., with a likely opening gross in the $7 million-$8 million range. It could push up to $10 million if recent tracking showing interest perking up among younger females bears fruit.
British comic Atkinson is celebrated around the world for his goofily inept creation Mr. Bean. “Bean” grossed more than $250 million worldwide in 1997, though only $45 million of that tally came from North America. In “Mr. Bean’s Holiday,” the very English Bean heads off for a vacation in France.
The Universal Pictures comedy already has grossed nearly $190 million internationally, but there’s a real question about whether Americans will get the joke, and so “Holiday” might end up loitering around the $5 million mark.
The Yari Film Group will attempt to counterprogram against the surrounding late-summer escapism by presenting a dramatic character study, “Resurrecting the Champ.” Based on a true story, it stars Josh Hartnett as a journalist who learns life lessons when he stumbles across a homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) who once was a boxing champ. “Champ” appears fated to enter the ring at somewhere less than the $5 million mark.
Two films are coming out in moderate release: “September Dawn,” the controversial depiction of the 1857 massacre of settlers by a group of Mormons; and the Latino crime drama, “Illegal Tender.”
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