R-rated action extravaganza The Expendables 2 opens in 3316 theaters over the weekend and should take the #1 spot without much trouble. For 2nd place we’ll probably have animation ParaNorman up against former leader The Bourne Legacy.
Back in 2010 The Expendables brought to the big screen an epic cast of older and newer action stars, names like Sylvester Stallone (who also directed), Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Randy Couture and even cameos from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. That film opened with $34.8 million and went on to gross $103.8 million in North America. Now we have just about everyone back with bigger parts for some (obviously smaller for others) and a few new additions, namely Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme (as Jean Vilain, yes, that is his name) and Thor‘s younger brother (real one) Liam Hemsworth. Reviews are better for the sequel and reactions from the previews seem to be more positive, so at the very least The Expendables 2 should gross as much as the original. I’m hoping for a bit more so I’ll go with $40 million.
For 2nd place there’s new entry ParaNorman, an animation about a boy who can speak to the dead, definitely not your average kids flick. The film has 84% on Rotten Tomatoes right now so word of mouth should be positive on this. But, as is the case with stuff outside of a franchise, don’t expect huge numbers unless DreamWorks, Pixar, Blue Sky or Illumination are behind it. So for ParaNorman I’m going to say $20 million.
The Bourne Legacy had an average opening last week so now it should make up for that with a decent hold. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening so I’ll give it $18 million for a 10-day total of $70 million. That will be more than The Bourne Identity at the same point in its run but considerably less than The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
The Campaign might have a decent showing in 4th place with $14 million, good for a 10-day total of $52 million. Rounding out the top 5 new entry The Odd life of Timothy Green could take us by surprise and even pass The Campaign. For now I’ll stick with $13 million considering the film only made $2.3 million on Wednesday when it opened.
The other new wide release of the week, Sparkle starring the late Whitney Houston, should bring in about $11-12 million or so for 6th place.
Next week action comedy Hit & Run will probably do some hitting and most likely running, The Apparition has sparkly-vampire lady Ashley Green with some ghosts or whatever and Premium Rush sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt ride a bike with a very precious package.
