Box-Office Oracle: ‘Tower Heist’ Plans to Steal the Box-Office Crown from ‘Harold and Kumar’

Looks like the win streak will continue this weekend, Ratner has our back. The gold and silver medalists should be separated by a full fourteen million dollars, though predicting the bottom five this weekend involved the heavy use of entrails and dice. Two new wide releases, some holdover action, and plenty of witty banter. Let’s do this!
Laremy predicted the #1 movie correctly 4 Weeks In A Row

Tower Heist

The tracking is lower, around $28m, but the money has to go somewhere. This weekend has averaged about $120m for the top 12 over the past three years, and right now I’m not even hitting $100m with these predictions. It’s a very sad field. Where is Megamind 2 when we need it?

This prediction is around $11k per theater, not so dissimilar from Rush Hour 3‘s opening haul, the last Ratner directorial effort. Yep, it’s been five years, don’t act like you haven’t missed him. We all have.

As for the film itself, it’s extremely palatable. As in, it is something you could watch without getting too angry, but you also won’t really remember anything from it or tell all your pals to see it. We’ve seen a lot of those kinds of movies over the past few months, haven’t we?

Prediction: $35.2 million

Again, the money has to go somewhere. This will be the largest Harold and Kumar opening ever, by a wide margin, plus they make these films for about 85 cents. They really sell the 3-D too, and there’s a few strange and ambitious moments, just as there have been over the course of the first two. At times, this film is funnier than Tower Heist, but overall it is much more uneven. So you’ll have to pick your poison.
Prediction: $21 million
You get the sense they were hoping for a bigger opening here. But non-established titles have only captured 9 out of the past 26 weekends, you’ve got to be a superhero or a sequel to compete in this marketplace. Bodes well for Puss in Boots 2… I guess.
Prediction: $18.74 million
Everything else could rightly be categorized as “the dregs”. Still, Paranormal Activity 3 could hit a 40x multiplier against production budget, further bulletins as events warrant.
Prediction: $6.98 million
More good news: we were looking over the schedule of movies for the next few weeks and suddenly realized there was quality on the way. And not a moment too soon.
Prediction: $5.66 million
I hold out little hope that I’ll get the placement correct on these next five. Too many movies smushed into too small a space where too few people will be buying a ticket.
Prediction: $2.81 million
For instance, less than 1 out of every 600 Americans will trudge off to see The Rum Diary this weekend. Not exactly a groundswell.
Prediction: $2.46 million
I would watch an actual robot boxing league, but I probably wouldn’t watch another movie about the topic.
Prediction: $2.12 million
My rough draft numbers indicate that if you factor in the 3-D surcharge you could make a case that no one, anywhere, actually saw this film domestically.
Prediction: $1.57 million
Sorry, Courageous, I’m counting you out once again.
Prediction: $1.15 million

How say you? It should be easy to grab some glory with only two new releases on the board. Predictions away!

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