It's almost Friiiidayyy! You know what that means: Another browse through the all of the week's scintillating new releases in Movieline's Weekend Forecast. And they are scintillating!* Let's have a browse and make some predictions.
NATIONAL FORECAST
· Sucker Punch: The high artistic hopes we all had for Zack Snyder's desaturated slo-mo girl-gang PG-13 burlesque sanitarium fantasia really fell through the floor with this week's reviews. So why don't I feel more... I dunno, upset? Perhaps because while having no real headliner in the ensemble cast, Sucker Punch also has no real competition in the multiplex. Last week was anemic, after all, and this week features the family sequel below as the lone other new release vying for ticket buyers' cash. I can't speak to the quality of the film itself, but economically, it is the pistol-packing belle of the ball. FORECAST: $26.3 million
· Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules: The sequel to the 2010 sleeper Diary of a Wimpy Kid --both based on Jeff Kinney's best-selling young adult books -- should prove a reliable treat for kids and a surprising diversion for parents. Timed fairly perfectly after the similarly demo-splicing Rango and nursing a brand that's anywhere near exhausted, I like this one to overperform
in second place -- unless dads everywhere manage to convince moms that Sucker Punch is the truly empowering Hollywood treat for their young ones. Which you know will happen, if it hasn't begun already. FORECAST: $19.1 million
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
The heartland has one medium-limited release to look forward to -- the spiritually influenced family flick The Fifth Quarter -- while most of the limited-release action occurs on the coasts. Among those new ones, the lone highlight appears to be the Catherine Deneuve comedy Potiche, about the hijinks that ensue when a woman takes over her ill husband's factory. Distant runners up include Julian Schnabel's on-the-nose Middle East tale Miral, the TV-stars-on-indie-parade misfire Peep World, and the fetishized '70s/Brooklyn kitchen-sink job White Irish Drinkers, which is about what it sounds like.
So! Any crystal-ball readings and/or viewing plans yourself? Weigh in below...
* i.e. The kind of stuff you deign to watch if and only if you got run out of your NCAA Tournament brackets last week.