Can Bringing Down the House Stay on Top?

March 21, 2003

This weekend four movies are opening wide but will any of them unseat Bringing Down the House as box office champ?

The Contenders:

Dreamcatcher: Opening in nearly 3000 theatres, this Stephen King adaptation is the latest in a long line of Stephen King adaptations. And that’s a mixed blessing. For every Green Mile in Stephen King’s movie career there’s a Mangler. Dreamcatcher is not as bad as that, but its reviews are very poor so don’t look for this one to be a blockbuster. Dreamcatcher should do a little better than $11 million for its opening weekend.

Piglet’s Big Movie: Opening in just 2000 theatres, this Disney redux is the latest in a long line of Disney Reduxes. Follows in the footsteps of The Tigger Movie, Return to Neverland, The Jungle Book 2, etc. Reviews are almost immaterial (but quite good) considering how dependable these movies have been at the box office. Like those movies The Piglet Movie should make around $10 million in its opening weekend and about $50 million overall.

View From the Top: Opening in 2500 theatres … maybe. Miramax has just hours to delay the release of View From the Top for the seventh or eighth time; I’ve lost track. Officially it was delayed due to worries over whether the public was willing to laugh at the airline industry. Rumors were circulating that it was actually delayed cause it just wasn’t funny. And the reviews seem to support the second theory. Reviews are simply awful with Rotten Tomatoes currently showing only 8% fresh. Look for View From the Top to make a $5 million debut before disappearing quickly.

Boat Trip: Opening in just 1700 theatres, and for good reason. Reviews are on par with View From the Top, at only 9% of them positive. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. is apparently trying to make people forget just how good of an actor he can be. Boat Trip will make about $4 million this weekend before sinking completely.

And the winner is…

Bringing Down the House: Should bring in another $15 million to become the first movie of 2003 to finish first three weeks in a row. Agent Cody Banks should remain in the top five, and perhaps Chicago will join him there.

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Filed under: Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Agent Cody Banks, Dreamcatcher, Piglet's Big Movie, Boat Trip