The other two movies are both comedies, neither of which should make much of a mark, although Over Her Dead Body (New Line), starring Eva Longoria Parker and Paul Rudd, should try to bring in the female fans from her show "Desperate Housewives" but will have trouble making a dent with the continued success of 27 Dresses starring Katherine Heigl, the star of ABC's other big show, "Grey's Anatomy."

Opening in just over a thousand theatres, Strange Wilderness (Paramount), produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, might try to make a play for the low end of the Top 10, although more than the other three movies, it's likely to lose all or most of its potential male audience on Sunday. Since the entrance fee into the Top 10 will probably be more than $5 million, which is pretty amazing if you think about it, this one's likely to end up outside it.

This Week's Predictions -

1. The Eye (Lionsgate) - $14.2 million N/A

2. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds… (Disney) - $13.5 million N/A

3. Rambo (Lionsgate) - $8.5 million - 53%

4. 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox) - $8.2 million -39%

5. Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox) - $7.9 million -57%

6. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $7.4 million -27%

7. Over Her Dead Body (New Line) - $6.6 million N/A

8. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $6.5 million -39%

9. Cloverfield (Paramount) - $6.1 million -53%

10. Untraceable (Sony/Screen Gems) - $6.0 million -47%

11 (or 12). Strange Wilderness (Paramount) - $3.5 million N/A

Last year, the month of February kicked-off with the horror movie The Messengers, the English language debut of the Pang Brothers, who ironically enough, helmed the original version of this week's The Eye. It grossed $14.7 million, losing a lot of business on Super Bowl Sunday, allowing the romantic comedy Because I Said So, pitting Diane Keaton against Mandy Moore, to come in a close second place with $13.1 million. The previous week's movies Smokin' Aces and Epic Movie both took significant plummets, making way for the Oscar nominees, and the Top 10 grossed $66 million, an amount that should once again be bested by this week's offerings.

The Eye (Lionsgate)
Starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, Tamlyn Tomita, Chloe Moretz
Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Ils (Them)); Written by Sebastian Gutierrez (Rise: Blood Hunter)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "How can you believe your eyes when they're not yours?"
Plot Summary: A young violinist named Sydney (Jessica Abla) who's been blind since birth is given a miracle cornea transplant that has her seeing visions of death and haunted by ghosts that only she can see.

Almost every year for the past four or five years, Sony's Screen Gems division has released a horror movie over Super Bowl weekend in late January or early February, but this year, that slot has been snagged by Lionsgate for their remake of the Pang Brothers' Hong Kong horror film The Eye. Lionsgate is bringing a new game to the weekend because unlike Screen Gems' Super Bowl horror offerings, they have an Asian remake that offers true star power in the form of Jessica Alba.

As much as Alba's a known celebrity and somewhat of a box office commodity going back to her starring role in Honey, she hasn't completely proven herself just yet, especially in the thriller genre, since both Into the Blue and the recent Awake bombed, although her Lionsgate comedy Good Luck Chuck with Dane Cook did fairly well last October. Even though Alba has found her biggest audience as Sue Storm Richards in the two Fantastic Four movies, that audience hasn't followed her over to her smaller movies. The good thing about Alba starring in a ghost movie like this one is that she tends to be popular both among guys and among young women, who probably would enjoy a ghost movie like this over something like a "Saw" or "Hostel" movie, so her presence can certainly help in this high concept ghost movie that might seem derivative otherwise. (Other recognizable members of the cast include Parker Posey, who continues her run of bad Hollywood remakes having appeared in the 2005 remake of John Carpenter's The Fog, and Alessandro Nivola making his genre movie debut.)

The Eye continues Hollywood's run of remakes of recent Asian horror movies, following big hits like The Ring and The Grudge, and though it seemed like the genre was starting to fail with bombs like Dark Water, starring Jennifer Connelly, and Pulse, the success of One Missed Call earlier this month has shown that with the right marketing, a Hollywood remake of an Asian horror film can be successful. This one happens to be the first English language film from French filmmakers David Moreau and Xavier Palud, who helmed the cult horror film Ils, which only got a very limited release last year but has mostly found its audience on DVD, much like Alexandre Aja's French horror film High Tension, something that might interest horror fans, although the director rarely plays a factor in bringing in regular moviegoers who likely haven't heard of their foreign language work.

Originally, the movies was going to be released last October, which makes sense when one considers how well horror movies do in the weeks leading up to Halloween, but just a couple months before the intended release, Lionsgate decided to move it to the winter, maybe to continue working on it with some rumored reshoots using another director or to give more time for the necessary special effects. They settled on the Super Bowl weekend, which has been a great proving ground for horror movies in the past few years. Last year, the Pang Brothers themselves claimed Super Bowl weekend for their first English language film The Messengers, although it was rumored that their movie was also taken away from them with reshoots being done by another director. Considering the cycle of those two movies being taken away from their foreign directing teams, one can expect that whenever their movie Ils is remade, the same will happen to whomever directs it.

It's a bit surprising that The Eye will open in less than 2,500 theaters this weekend, less than the past few Sony/Screen Gems movies, but it has a PG-13 rating—somewhat rare for Lionsgate—which should help it do well among teen guys and girls on Friday and Saturday night. It also has the normally tight marketing campaign complete with a creepy poster image that's sure to intrigue moviegoers who've already seen last week's choices. Due to the genre and the Super Bowl on Sunday, the movie's not likely to sustain its Friday business over the weekend, but the original movie is a lot like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Ring," and if the remake is nearly as good, word-of-mouth could help drive its business over the next few weeks. Going by past Super Bowl horror offerings and remakes, it's not that likely.

Why I Should See It: The original movie is one of the best Asian horror movies of the genre.
Why Not: The original movie was also thought to be derivative of "The Sixth Sense" so one presumes that a remake of that would be the same.
Projections: $12 to 15 million opening weekend and around $35 million total.

COMPARISONS

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (Disney)
Starring Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Kenny Ortega, Billy Ray Cyrus
Directed by Bruce Hendricks (Ultimate X: The Movie)
Genre: Concert
Rated G
Plot Summary: The billion dollar sold out concert tour by Miley Cyrus and her Disney Channel alter ego Hannah Montana comes to screens in Disney Digital 3D for one week only.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that defies and redefines what's possible at the box office. Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ was one of those movies, as was Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and last year's Borat, and now we have what seems like a simple concert film, but starring the 15-year-old singing and acting sensation who has taken the nation by storm, it could join those other movies as one that shocks the nation when it does better than expected. (Granted, we thought that about Dave Chappelle's Block Party as well two years ago, but seriously, this time we mean it!)

Roughly two years ago, Miley Cyrus, daughter of one-hit wonder country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, he of the "Achy Breaky Heart", was signed to play the pop star "Hannah Montana" on the Disney Channel show of the same name, and the rest is history, as the show has consistently been one of the most watched shows on cable with something like 4 to 5 million viewers a week. That's a lot of little girls, but that's not nearly quite the same fanaticism that followed Miley Cyrus to her "Best of Both Worlds" concert tour as Hannah Montana which had parents paying thousands of dollars for tickets to the sold-out shows to keep their little girls from being left out.

Wisely, Disney has captured the concert experience on film and are releasing it in Disney 3D theaters for one week only to give Miley and Hannah's fans, both those who saw the tour and those who missed out, a chance to see Miley and her alter-ego in concert. Just like her concerts, advance tickets have been selling briskly with many of the early screenings already being sold out across the nation, and there's little question that this is going to be the hot ticket this weekend. Any of Miley/Hannah's young fans who can't get to see it in the next three days will only have a few more days to see it so expect it to sell out most of the afterschool shows next week as well.

The question is how much the Super Bowl might affect sales on Sunday and whether school will play a factor on Friday, but one can probably expect $5 million or more on Friday and Saturday, then it's likely to tail off on Sunday and beyond though sales should be brisk enough for it to remain among the top 2 or 3 for the remainder of its theatrical run.

Why I Should See It: Because you're a little girl who loves Hannah Montana! (Or the parent of a little girl who does.)
Why Not: The alternative is just too creepy and disturbing to think about.
Projections: $11 to 14 million opening weekend and roughly $28 million before ending its limited theatrical run in one week. (Unless Disney decides to extend it longer.)

COMPARISONS

Over Her Dead Body (New Line)
Starring Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane, Jason Biggs
Written and directed by Jeff Lowell (writer John Tucker Must Die)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Just because she's passed on... Doesn't mean she's moving on."
Plot Summary: After his fiancee Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) dies on their wedding day, Henry (Paul Rudd) consults with a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) to try to contact his dead love, but when he falls for Ashley, they're both haunted by Kate's ghost trying to break up their romance.

With Valentine's Day just two weeks away, you can almost predict that early February will see more than a few romantic comedies, and releasing one over Super Bowl weekend, when the ladies are looking for something to do, is almost a given. The high concept premise for this one harks back to movies like Heaven Can Wait starring Warren Beatty and its modern counterparts, Chris Rock's Down to Earth and Reese Witherspoon's Just Like Heaven. This rare romantic comedy from New Line doesn't have the star power of either of those movies, instead being a vehicle for Eva Longoria Parker, the star of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," who has yet to prove herself at the box office after a supporting role in Michael Douglas' The Sentinel and an even smaller role in the crime drama Harsh Times.

This movie should act as another indicator how being the star of a successful television show doesn't always translate into big box office, something that could be seen with the early movie career of "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston, which finally took a turn for the better after the show ended. In the last year, "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl has also been able to break away from the TV star curse, having two back-to-back romantic comedy hits, and we can't forget that Debra Messing, star of "Will & Grace" had a substantial rom-com hit with The Wedding Date over the same Super Bowl weekend a few years back.

Parker might get some much-needed help from Paul Rudd, the comic actor who broke out when he joined the Judd Apatow camp with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and then taking an even bigger role in last year's summer hit Knocked Up alongside Heigl. This is Rudd's first real leading man role in a major studio film, so it will be interesting to see if women who liked Knocked Up will come to see this for Rudd. This movie isn't just a big deal for Longoria, as it's also the first big movie for Lake Bell, the pretty 28-year-old star of TV shows like "Boston Legal" and the cancelled series "Surface," plus there are smaller roles for comic stars Jason Biggs ("American Pie") and Stephen Root ("Dodgeball").

It's a bit odd that this is one of two movies this weekend dealing with ghosts, and while usually a romantic comedy could do well over this weekend, it's just as likely that Jessica Alba's presence in The Eye will attract the 15 – 25 year old female demographic that normally would go see this movie.

The other big problem is that this movie looks really awful with some of the worst commercials that don't do much to sell the movie beyond its premise of Longoria as a ghost haunting an ex-fiance. It also doesn't have a wedding theme or "wedding" in the title or, something that's helped so many movies around this time of year—the film's title is kind of vague and not particularly catchy, which does make a difference for a movie like this that has to try to find some casual moviegoers to succeed. Still, the movie should be able to bring in some business but probably will have to settle for the bottom half of the Top 10 and it has a bit too much competition in the next couple weeks to stick around through Valentine's Day, which is when it might do its best business.

Why I Should See It: Your radar for bad movies has suddenly gone on the fritz and this looks good to you.
Why Not: It's not too late to get that bad movie radar fixed!
Projections: $5 to 8 million opening weekend and around $20 million total.

COMPARISONS

Strange Wilderness (Paramount)
Starring Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Ashley Scott, Harry Hamlin, Robert Patrick, Joe Don Baker, Blake Clark, Justin Long, Jeff Garlin, Ernest Borgnine, Kevin Heffernan
Directed by Fred Wolf (writer Black Sheep, Dirty Work, Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Without a Paddle); Written by Peter Gaulke (writer Say It Ain't So, Black Knight, Ice Age: The Meltdown) and Fred Wolf
Genre: Comedy
Rated R
Tagline: "This Ain't March of the Penguins"
Plot Summary: Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn) and his friend Fred Wolf (Allen Covert) are the hosts of a wildlife show with declining ratings, so when they're given two weeks to get more viewers, they decide to go hunting for Bigfoot in hopes of saving the show.

The only other anomaly this weekend besides the Hannah Montana concert movie is this R-rated comedy from Adam Sandler's Happy Madison productions that marks the directorial debut of regular David Spade writer Fred Wolf.

It's a raunchy R-rated comedy that makes fun of nature shows like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. To create optimum laughs, Wolf and his writing partner Pete Gaulke have assembled an impressive cornucopia of comic talent including actor Steve Zahn, whose comedy output has mainly involved playing the sidekick to comics like Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy in movies like National Security and Daddy Day Care.

His co-star Allen Covert has long been involved with Sandler as a producing collaborator and making small appearances in movies like The Wedding Singer and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and co-writing the animated Eight Crazy Nights, but he made the leap to key player with Grandma's Boy a few years back, which was one of the few Happy Madison Productions not to feature one of the big three i.e. Sandler, Schneider or Spade, and because of that it bombed pretty badly.

Since Zahn and Covert aren't exactly huge draws, the film's secret weapon might be the pairing of Jonah Hill and Justin Long, who last appeared together in the 2006 comedy Accepted and separately in the Apatow-produced Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Both young actors have been finding fans with Long co-starring in Live Free or Die Hard and Hill starring Apatow's Knocked Up and Superbad last year, two of the more successful R-Rated comedies amidst a bunch of bombs. This looks very much like the kind of comedies made by the Broken Lizard troupe, so it's no surprise to see that group's Kevin Heffernan plays a prime role as an animal wrangler, though it's a bit odder to see a veteran actor like Ernest Borgnine playing a role.

Essentially, the movie will try to get Sandler's fans with the Happy Madison logo, but unfortunately, Paramount hasn't had very much luck with comedies—Eddie Murphy's Norbit last year doesn't really count because that was DreamWorks and "urban"—as both Andy Samberg's Hot Rod and Ben Stiller's last movie The Heartbreak Kid bombed last year. They picked this movie up fairly cheaply, because it was made independently, and while they've made a funny red band trailer and commercials to try to sell it, is that enough to get the film's target audience of 18 – 25 year old males to go to theatres to see it? Probably not. With that in mind, Paramount has given the comedy a moderate release into just over a thousand theatres, which is very low even for this kind of movie, and the film might just be too low profile to make much of a mark against the much more heavily advertised movies. On top of that, this is the one new movie this weekend that will be the most affected by the Super Bowl on Sunday, since most of Sandler's fans are male and probably would be into jock sports like football. With that in mind, as funny as the movie may be, it looks like a bomb waiting to happen.

Why I Should See It: Looks like a funny premise with a great comedy ensemble cast.
Why Not: It's not likely that Paramount will screen this for critics, knowing full well that bad reviews will hurt it even worse.
Projections: $2 to 4 million opening weekend and roughly $7 million total.

COMPARISONS

THE CHOSEN ONE:

Caramel (Roadside Attractions)
Starring Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Elmasri, Joanna Mkarzel, Gisèle Osta
Written and directed by Nadine Labaki (debut)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rated PG
Plot Summary: Four women who work at a beauty salon in Beirut help each other get through their relationship woes.

Lebanese music video director Nadine Labaki wrote, directed and stars in her first film, a romantic comedy centered around the lives of different women who work and congregate at a beauty parlor in Beirut. While it's definitely a bit of a chick flick, the group of lovely Lebanese women Labaki has gathered around her might make it easier for guys to enjoy it. I first saw Labaki's movie before the Toronto Film Festival last year but never got around to writing about it, but watched it again recently and still found it quite enjoyable as it shows how different women deal with their everyday problems. Labaki plays Layale, the beauty shop's resident waxer--she uses caramel to remove unwanted leg and facial hair, hence the title--who is having casual sex with a married man knowing it will never go anywhere, while another girl at the beauty shop tries to deal with the fact she won't be a virgin on her wedding night. A third woman is an older actress slowly coping with her loss of youth, while another woman is coming to terms with her sexuality and her interest in women, particularly a mysterious long-haired client at the shop. The only woman who doesn't work at the beauty shop is Siham Haddad's Rose, a middle-aged woman who has to take care of her even older and very senile sister, which makes it hard for her to have her own social life. The latter was probably my favorite of the stories, since Haddad gives a performance that might be compared favorably to the likes of Ellen Burstyn, but Labaki is also very good, and it's fun seeing how this "beauty shop comedy"—something we've mainly seen from African-American filmmakers—differs when transplanted into a place like Beirut. Westerners might only remember the place as a war-torn country, but with this movie, Labaki is able to show another side of the place, one that's more joyous. Her debut opens in New York and L.A. on Friday

Also in Limited Release:

The Silence Before Bach - Pere Portabella's comical and poignant documentary uses various techniques to examine the transformational power of music through a series of vignettes involving musicians' obsession with classical music. It opens on Wednesday at the Film Forum in New York.

Praying with Lior (First Run Features) - Ilana Trachtman's moving documentary that follows the months leading up to the Bar Mitzvah of a boy with Down's Syndrome named Lior. It opens at the Cinema Village in New York.

Shrooms (Magnolia) – This Irish horror movie directed by Paddy Breathnach follows five American college students on a camping trip to Ireland where they take magic mushrooms and are stalked by something in the forest after one of them disappears. Could it possibly be the leprechaun from "Leprechaun"? You'll have to see the movie to find out. Opens in select cities.

Next week, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey team for the romantic adventure Fool's Gold (Warner Bros.) and Martin Lawrence returns home in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Universal). Also, Paris Hilton returns in the comedy The Hottie & the Nottie (Regent Releasing).