Ever since “Insidious,” April has been a benchmark month for smarter-than-genre ghost stories. And this year’s installment, “Oculus,” is earning the same sort of solid (not rapturous) reviews and should give horror fans a tiny taste of what they like. Not a hard “R-rated” horror picture, just a reasonably complex one with decent actors doing the heavy lifting.
I have been waiting for the NFL to jump the shark as the sport of choice in these United States. Overexposed — it’s not quite on every day or night of the week. But close. It’s a year round obsession of sports talk radio. “Draft Day” feels like a manifestation of that, an NFL approved, ESPN connected dramedy about a general manager’s machinations pre-Draft Day, which the league turned into a post-Super Bowl/pre-training camp TV spectacle some years back. Weak reviews for “Draft Day.”
Kevin Costner’s box office drawing power is WAY down. As your audience ages, they stop going to the movies you’re in. “3 Days to Kill” proved that earlier this year. His future would appear to be where “Hatfields & McCoys” lie — TV, cable.
“Rio 2” does what middling sequels do — the same things that the original film did, only more so. More songs, more voice actors (Bruno Mars plays an old flame for Anne Hathaway’s “Jewel”). The novelty of the first film is lost despite moving the setting from Rio de Janeiro to the Amazon, bringing in all sorts of new critters. There are too many characters to ably service them all with the script. Indifferent reviews for this one.
If Nic Cage’s “Joe” is opening in your market, it’s the movie to see this weekend. A genuine comeback picture, earning him back some of the goodwill he’s squandered over the years.
Box office? “Rio 2” shows signs of doing a generous $40 million or more, lacking kiddie competition in the cartoon department. Box Office Guru is saying $32, which seems very low for a pre-branded cartoon franchise.
Neither prediction will let this one pass “Captain America”, which could do another $40 million+.
Funny thing about decently reviewed horror films. They don’t draw the faithful. They’d rather see dead teenager movies, with nudity and more graphic gore. “Oculus” will be lucky to earn in the teen$.
“Draft Day” will bomb. Couch potatoes and fantasy league gamblers who obsess over the draft won’t show up, and without them, this movie will be lucky to clear $10 million.
“Noah” will have faded to a point where the Evangelical-approved “God’s Not Dead” could challenge it at the box office — $7-8 million. “God’s Not Dead” has been adding screens, which allowed it to maintain $7-8 million per week for the past month. It should start to fade this weekend, but if it doesn’t, “Noah” will slip behind it for the weekend.
