Paramount will keep its chin up high amid the whole Sony and Skydance takeover headlines and keep the summer box office churnin’ with the John Krasinski directed Ryan Reynolds family movie, If, which is hoping to hit $40M; this is after Disney’s overperformance with 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes which posted a $58.4M opening.
If‘s m.o. is to be a five-quad movie appealing to everyone from 2 to 80. It’s been a while since the marketplace has had a PG-rated live-action original movie, hence if the studio hits $40M on this $110M production, celebrate it.
Paramount has If booked in 4,000-plus theaters boosted by premium large format screens. Scripted by Krasinski, If is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.
Previews start Thursday at 5PM. The movie has already collected around $4M to date from its release last weekend in France and Belgium. If hits 56 markets this week including: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
In regards to access to a summer audience, the marketplace has 3% K-12 schools off and 75% colleges on break.
Meanwhile, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes after a $4.4M Monday and a running total of $62.8M, looks to decline -55% to -60% for a $23M-$26M second weekend. The Wes Ball directed sequel will keep its 400 Imax screens this weekend.
But there’s more depth to the weekend, and hopefully it’s a case of all boats rising.
Lionsgate has the horror R-rated reboot The Strangers – Chapter 1 which is in play at 2,800 locations. Tracking has the $8.5M feature production between $7M-$9M. Previews start Thursday at 5PM. The Renny Harlin directed movie follows a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) after their car breaks down in a spooky town. They’re forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive. The Strangers franchise through two movies counts over $113.4M. The first movie was released in 2008 and starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman and was written and directed by Bryan Bertino.
No Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Strangers-Chapter 1 and If yet.
And Focus Features has the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black from StudioCanal. Focus took an MG for less than $20M on several foreign territories including U.S. The movie, via StudioCanal, was released in the UK where it has fueled $13M toward a current running offshore total of $34.1M. Reviews aren’t good at 39% on RT for this Sam Taylor-Johnson directed movie that stars Marisa Abela as Winehouse, and Jack O’Connell. The outlook on tracking is $4M-$6M at 2,008 theaters. Previews are Thursday at 5PM for this R-rated movie.
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