Batman might finally meet its match this weekend at the box office. Obviously I’m talking about Total Recall, the latest remake to hit theaters. Now I grew up watching the original and for its time, I think it was pretty awesome. Personal feelings aside, will Total Recall be strong enough to stop The Dark Knight Rises from grabbing a 3rd consecutive win?
The answer would be no for Total Recall, at last according to me. Previews looked cool for the film but I just don’t think it’s clicking the right way with people, and can’t see this opening with more than $30 million. Also that 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, could be a problem. If Total Recall does indeed suck, then expect the number to tumble so even $30 million might be a stretch. For those wondering, the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger original made a very impressive $119.4 million, ranking 7th that year. Adjusted for inflation Total Recall would have $223.5 million today, so who knows, I might be wrong about the remake underperforming.
The Dark Knight Rises happens to be a totally different story. This bad boy managed to take back some of that lost steam and weekdays have been great with lower week-to-week drops than its predecessor. From Monday to Thursday The Dark Knight Rises was down on average 50.9%. The Dark Knight was a 53.1%. Now the numbers are still $1-2 million lower on average so don’t expect Rises to bounce back enough to eventually match the $533 million of The Dark Knight, that won’t happen. What can happen is $450 million or more and based on its $6.8 million Thursday, The Dark Knight Rises should bring in about $36 million this weekend, enough to score a 3rd consecutive win at the box office.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is a lock for 3rd place. Past entries in this series have opened with $22.1 million and $23.7 million respectively and as it usually happens with 3rd parts, a small drop might happen for Dog Days so $20 million seems like a safe bet here.
Ice Age: Continental Drift should be in 4th place with $9 million for a possible new total of $132 million after 24 days while Step Up Revolution will probably round out the top 5 with $6 million and that’s about it.
Next week The Bourne Legacy will show us if there’s indeed life after Matt Damon for the series, The Campaign unites Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis for some baby-punching action, Hope Springs has Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep taking marriage counselling from Steve Carell (bad idea) while Nitro Circus The Movie 3D is something probably in 3D.
