Hanks, Angels Set to Soar Over Light Competition

Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially church-tweaking at the movies. This week: Tom Hanks is a bull in a Vatican china shop, a sibling con team meets its match, Jennifer Aniston manages not so well, and more. It's all after the jump.

WHAT'S NEW: No one really even bothered counterprogramming against Angels & Demons this weekend, giving the return of Robert Langdon a clear path to multiplex supremacy. Or maybe not that clear -- Star Trek will stick out its long box-office legs on Friday and Saturday in particular. And it lacks some of the name-brand appeal and controversy that boosted its predecessor The Da Vinci Code to $217 million domestically (and a global total of $750 million). But still: Any tentpole manufactured by the Hanks/Howard/Grazer braintrust comes a lifetime warranty, and with some critics actually daring to recommend it (including me; review forthcoming here today), the goofy, grisly Vatican thrill ride should be able to draw at least $55.7 million by Sunday night.

On 1/880th as many screens (and even less marketing effort on its behalf), director Rian Johnson's lovely but frustrating The Brothers Bloom might plateau at $9,600 per theater. Among the other films trickling into art houses this weekend: the pre-millennial Bollywood flashback 99; the Heather Graham pregnancy farce Baby on Board; the German love-triangle drama Jerichow; the geek hero-ambition import Big Man Japan; and the dance-infused indie The Big Shot-Caller.

THE BIG LOSER: Samuel Goldwyn hasn't done much of a sell for its unusual romantic comedy Management. Jennifer Aniston stars as a traveling office-park art saleswoman seduced and ultimately stalked by a motel night manager (Steve Zahn); reviews are split down the middle (It's sweet! It's creepy!). But to be persuaded either way, a viewer's first got to know the film exists. On the other hand, empty theaters are quiet theaters, which makes Management a potentially useful alternative to those sure-to-be chatty Angels & Demons auditoriums.

THE UNDERDOG: I'm still holding a grudge against filmmaker Olivier Assayas for putting me through Boarding Gate, but if his new Summer Hours is as good as everyone keeps telling me, a "Get Out of Jail Free" card may be in order. A favorite on both the '08 festival circuit and the hyperventilating critical rounds (amusingly, one of only two unfavorable reviews to date on Rotten Tomatoes was a Management pan misattributed to Hours), the film features Juliette Binoche as one of several siblings struggling to break down their late mother's estate. Chamber drama ensues ("Chekhovian" seems to be a popular description). It's on one screen in New York, making it all the likelier to claim the weekend's highest per-theater gross en route to other markets. Cheating, you say? Maybe. But at least someone out there is rewarding good taste.

FOR SHUT-INS: Slim pickings on the DVD front include the surprise Liam Neeson blockbuster Taken, the not-so-surprise multiplex muddler Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, the dump-and-run Anne Hathaway thriller Passengers, the dump-and-run Sarah Michelle Gellar thriller Possession, and, at long, long last, Two and a Half Men: The Complete Fifth Season.