Weekend Forecast: Can Bridesmaids Steal Thor's Thunder?

It might be Friday the 13th weekend, but one film in particular is destined to get lucky as the nation's No. 1 box-office draw! Wow, that is the stupidest thing I've ever written. Not so stupid, however: Your Weekend Forecast, featuring one of the fiercest B.O. bottlenecks of the year to date. Let's investigate...

[Follow the links below to Movieline's reviews of each film.]

NATIONAL OUTLOOK

· Bridesmaids: The Kristen Wiig-led ensemble raunchfest has incited something of a firestorm between those who think this will revolutionize the "chick flick" and those who despise the labeling of funny women in genre and/or sociocultural terms. All I care about, frankly, is will this open? Historically, gender aside, R-rated comedy is a crap shoot for any studio; marketers can call this The Hangover for ladies all they want, but what they really mean is that it's guy-safe, so please, guys, please see it. That could work to an extent, but ultimately, it's a big, huge, summery comedy gift to women, and they'll power this thing past $20 million. Not that much past $20 million -- Thor is still far and away your weekend winner above $30 million. But Wiig and Co. will take it. FORECAST: $21.7 million

· Priest (review forthcoming Friday): Screen Gems isn't screening its 3-D Paul Bettany-versus-the-vampires-who-kidnapped-his-niece opus for critics before opening day. Which is like, whatever. The real fight is offscreen, where Priest and Fast Five will commence a bloody duel for third place. I actually think Fast Five might gut it out, especially after all this Oscar talk. Ahem. But just barely -- by a half-million or less. FORECAST: $15.3 million

REGIONAL OUTLOOK

It's a reasonably high-powered weekend at the art house, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt laying waste to Natalie Portman's (among others') world as the titular nihilist of Hesher and Will Ferrell takes the indie scenic route through the affecting Raymond Carver adaptation Everything Must Go. Meanwhile Ashley Greene escapes the Twilight franchise long enough to revisit '80s-era Texas in Skateland, and America imports Hong Kong's martial-arts actioner True Legend in limited release. On the doc front, check out L'Amour Fou, which profiles the personal and professional partnership of couture icon Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Berge.

Care to call your shots or weigh in with your weekend viewing?