The Reject Report Hangs Out With Monsters and Aliens
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 26, 2009
Well, I am always happy to get a prediction right at The Reject Report, so I will take credit in advance for my daring prediction that Monsters vs. Aliens will win the weekend box office. Really, there is no doubt. Even a monster or an alien could make the same prediction and get it right. The question, though, is simply how well it will do and how high the gross is going to be. So that’s one of three new movies going into big-time wide release — the other two are The Haunting in Connecticut and 12 Rounds.
All that and more, here in the fastest Reject Report ever written — fast, because I have to be out of here in an hour to cover a speech for my newspaper job. And no, the speech has nothing to do with the movies. Instead, it’s a riveting discussion of nuclear power. Exciting stuff, particularly if your name is Homer Simpson.
Anyhow, I’d better get on with it. I’ll start with 12 Rounds.
12 Rounds is an action adventure starring John Cena that opens in 3,300 theaters in North America. Steve Harris, Gonzalo Menendez, Aidan Gillen, Ashley Scott, Brian J. White and Taylor Cole round out the cast. It’s produced by WWE studios who, not surprisingly, have Wrestlemania coming up. Cena plays a detective whose girlfriend is kidnapped, and in order to get her back he must play “12 rounds” of high-risk games in New Orleans in order to rescue his girl before it’s too late.
You know, I’m not too impressed — these WWE stars don’t exactly have a track record of appearing in too many terrific movies, and the only WWE star who is showing any consistent ability to break the bank has been The Rock. But this flick is in 3,300 theaters, so just on the basis of that I am making a prediction $14 million.
Next is yet another horror flick, The Haunting in Connecticut. Aren’t you fed up yet with horror flicks? I know there was an initial pent-up demand for horror movies earlier this year, so the box offices ended up being good to begin the year. But gosh darn it, man, we’re getting a horror movie just about every week, it seems. People have got to be getting sick of them by now. Or maybe not, because people seem to want to flock to see dark, scary movies — or alternatively, movies about doomsday and disasters (Knowing). Here, this movie is based on an apparently true story about a family that moves into this haunted house in Connecticut, and they get visited by the paranormal. Fun stuff. Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner and Martin Donovan are part of the cast and Peter Cornwell directs it.
To be honest with you, I don’t see this movie doing a ton of business, but given the mood of the public for some dark, doom-filled material I could see The Haunting in Connecticut come up with $16 million in business.
Now we come to Monsters vs. Aliens from DreamWorks Animation, and after taking a look at the theater count — over 4,100 — it’s pretty clear that we have a leading contender for the top opening weekend of the year, as this is definitely the widest release of the year so far. The movie includes the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett and Rainn Wilson, among others, in this CGI flick about, well, monsters and aliens. From the sounds of it, they are trying to parody every monster and sci-fi movie imaginable. Witherspoon voices Susan Murphy/Ginormica, a girl who is hit by a meteorite and turns into an almost 50 foot woman (shades of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman). Hugh Laurie channels “The Fly” as Dr. Cockroach, and there’s a fish-ape hybrid called The Missing Link, something called the Insectosaurus, and so on. Oh, and did I mention it’s in 3-D? Real 3-D, to be exact.
Well, obviously, I’ve got to go see this flick, if they’re throwing in every reference from every monster and sci-fi movie into this thing. The tracking seems to indicate a big weekend but perhaps not the kind of numbers pulled in by WALL-E or Kung Fu Panda. A lot of people are predicting the low-50 million range but I think it could go even higher. I am going to predict $57 million for Monsters vs. Aliens.
So here is my rundown of the weekend:
- Monsters vs. Aliens $57 million
- The Haunting in Connecticut $16 million
- 12 Rounds $14 million
- Knowing $13 million
- I Love You, Man $11 million
- Duplicity $7.5 million
- Race to Witch Mountain $7 million
- Watchmen $3.5 million
- Last House on the Left $3.3 million
- Taken $2.7 million
Come to think of it, we have a pretty typical weekend as far as movies go for 2009- a 3-D cartoon movie, another horror flick, and yet another movie starring someone from the WWE. So it goes for movie fans yet again. And now I have to take off. See you later this weekend where I hope to be able to report some accurate prognostications — a rarity, indeed, around here — when we count the loot at the Reject Report.
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