The Reject Report: Chick Flicks and Cloverfield This Weekend

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 17, 2008

Welcome once again to The Reject Report. It’s mid-January, the start of “chick flick” and romantic comedy reason at the theaters. This week it’s Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses to kick things off, plus there are the usual new offerings such as Cloverfield, Mad Money, and other wide releases. So here we go.

27 Dresses is a romantic comedy about this perennial bridesmaid Jane (played by Heigl), who is looking for love. What happens is her younger sister Tess (Malin Akerman) falls for Jane’s boss, who Jane has a big secret crush on. And it forces her to re-evaluate whether to keep on being single.

You know, romcoms usually do well in the leadup to Valentine’s Day— even bad ones. I don’t know whether this one is good or bad, but I will say $18 million for 27 Dresses because Heigl has a lot of fans from Grey’s Anatomy. I know that in promoting her new flick Heigl went ahead and trashed Knocked Up in print for being sexist! Well, that caused a lot of controversy in itself among people who liked that movie. Oh, well. I guess it was another way to promote this chicks’ movie.

Next is Cloverfield, a monster movie set in New York City produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. Abrams, of course, brought you TV fare such as Lost and Alias and also directed Mission: Impossible III. This movie is done from the point of view of real people experiencing an attack in New York City. I read somewhere it was shot with home-video cameras and the like.

I like the sound of this one and the fact that J.J. Abrams directed it. So I say it will get something in the neighborhood of about $40 mil. Keep in mind M:i:III took in $48 million its opening weekend, but that was in the summer. Anyway, this is easily going to be the Number One movie at the theaters this weekend. Cloverfield is in roughly 3,100 theaters this weekend.

Mad Money stars Jim Cramer. Just kidding.

Actually, this movie has nothing to do with that CNBC show at all. Instead it stars Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes as three women who plot to steal money that is sitting there, about to be destroyed by the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.

Welcome to Chick Flick land, again, folks. Diane Keaton always gets a lot of ladies flocking to see her movies. In fact I notice a lot of her audiences at the theaters tend to be pretty old. You’ll also have people obsessed with Tom Cruise flocking to see Katie Holmes. But it’s not as if there are tons and tons of people who want to see these actresses. Let’s face it — Diane Keaton has appeared in a lot of junk lately. At least, I think it’s junk. But then again, I’m a man! I say $9 million.

And speaking of Diane Keaton — her good buddy Woody Allen has a new movie out. It’s called Cassandra’s Dream and it stars Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson. The movie is kind of a dark comedy about two brothers desperate for better lives for themselves. It’s only in 107 theaters, though, so look hard for it this weekend.

Finally, watch for the expanded release of There Will Be Blood. That’s the Paul Thomas Anderson flick starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a brash oil prospector. This movie has it all: oil, religion, and avarice. The works. This movie has received glowing notices and Day-Lewis won a Golden Globe this week, so this flick should get a lot of business in the over 375 theaters it was in.

I say it gets about $3 million and misses the Top Ten by a hair. Once it gets a wider release, I think it will do really good business.

So here are my predictions of what to expect this weekend in the theaters in the USA:

May I add that I notice from midweek box office figures that The Bucket List and Juno are still going strong. On Wednesday, The Bucket List got $1,655,340 and Juno was second at $1,041,114. Numbers come courtesy, as always, of Box Office Mojo.

In closing, let me once again say a big hello to striking members of the Writers Guild of America, East and West, who are still busy spending their dwindling bank accounts on going to movies instead of spending their time making them. Are you ever coming back? I hope there’s a fair settlement soon. For now, all I say to you is two words: solidarity forever! That’s it.

Back Sunday for the box-office recap. In the meantime, don’t bet on the movies.

Read more articles by John Cairns