This summer of Hollywood’s growing discontent — following the 3-D-fueled boom of winter and spring — is going to continue this weekend, if forecasts based on audience-tracking surveys are correct. None of the four new wide releases are predicted to have enough juice to unseat “Shrek Quatro,” which won the Memorial Day skein by default, from the top spot.
The strongest contenders are Fox’s “Marmaduke” and Universal’s “Get Him to the Greek,” both of which are apparently headed for $20 million vicinity, which experts think isn’t good enough to pass DreamWorks’ Animation abomination, which has the advantage of inflated 3-D ticket prices. The Judd Apatow-produced “Greek” boasts the weekend’s best reviews, 75 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes and 2.5 stars from my valued college Kyle Smith, but stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill aren’t exactly proven ticket sellers. Kyle gives 2 stars to the family flick “Marmaduke,” which has a dire 8 percent rating at RT.
The battle for fourth place pits Disney’s flop holdover “Prince of Persia: Blah Blah Blah” against “Killers,” a vehicle for Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, both synonmous with bad movies at this point in their careers. Small wonder that Lionsgate decided against advance screenings for critics, hilariously claiming they wanted to give audiences a chance to review it on social media at the same time as professionals. Despite the studio allowing Kutcher to “pirate” the first 13 minutes for a Twitter-promoted livestream the other night, this poor man’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is not expected to open past the mid- to high-teens — not great for a picture with a reported $70 million pricetag, pricey for the parsimonious Lionsgate.
Predicted to follow Warner Bros.’ fast-fading “Sex and the City 2” in seventh place is “Splice,” an English language Canadian-French horror movie that Warner acquired out of release out of the Sundance Film Festival via Robert Zemeckis’ Dark Castle label. It’s not your usual Dark Castle splatterest, being relatively sophisticated and sparing in gore and violence (though there is, be warned, an eyebrow-raising rape/incest/bestality scene). The clever concept — a childless geneticist couple raise an increasingly homicidal human/animal/fish/bird hybrid — will do only so much to offset the less than stellar casting of Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. I give it three stars and it’s rating 69 percent at RT. Forecasts are in the low double-digits.
