Reject Report Smackdown! Jamie Foxx vs. The Rock

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 27, 2007

Welcome to another week of predictions here at THE REJECT REPORT, or as I call it this week, REJECT REPORT SMACKDOWN! Because that’s what we’ve got this weekend, a genuine fight at the top to see who is the box office champ. In one corner we got The Game Plan, starring former WWE superstar The Rock. And in the other corner, we got the Jamie Foxx action thriller The Kingdom. So who’s gonna be the box office champ? We got quite a fight shaping up this weekend from the looks of it.

Here’s what is on tap in most theatres near you, going in a bit of reverse order for a change:

First, In the Valley of Elah is expanding into 700 theaters this week and is from Warner Independent. This flick is written and directed by Paul Haggis, who brought you the controversial movie Crash. (Controversial because a lot of people got upset because it robbed Brokeback Mountain of its Best Picture Oscar. Not that I cared, but that’s why it was controversial.) It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, and a host of others. It’s about a retired Army officer who will not accept that his son has gone missing after returning from combat duty in Iraq. So he goes on an investigation to find out what really happened to his kid, and unearths some pretty ugly things. This movie played at the Toronto Film Festival and has been getting a lot of buzz, and now that it’s expanded it should make some money. I’ll say $3 million.

From MGM is Feast of Love starring former late night talk show host turned actor Greg Kinnear. Kinnear stars as this coffee shop owner whose wife Selma Blair leaves him for another guy. No, wait, check that — he left him for a WOMAN. (!) Then Kinnear falls in love with another woman who refuses to end an affair she’s got going with some guy. You think your love life is a mess? This guy’s life is in chaos.

Interesting. I don’t see this doing more than $4 million, however. Greg Kinnear is no George Clooney in the box office department.

The Kingdom is from Universal Pictures and bows in 2700 theaters. It’s starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jeremy Piven and a host of other people who were on TV. It’s about an FBI agent who heads into Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (a.k.a. The Kingdom) with his ace team, all on a mission to try and capture a deadly terrorist. Fun stuff, sounds like a lot of action in a foreign land, which is why I think it is a strong contender for the top movie at the box office this weekend. Not that it has to do much to get to Number One, but still…

I say 21.1 million for The Kingdom. A nice, round number.

Finally we have The Game Plan, a family comedy from Buena Vista that will run in a few more theatres, about 2800. And it stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In this flick The Rock has to look after a kid. Sounds like another one of these Schwarzenegger family movies to me, eh? This rich swinging playboy has to look after this daughter he never knew he had, and get used to all the nonsense that goes with it. Classic fish-out-of-water tale, having to adjust to all this girl stuff.

Anyway, this one is in more theatres than The Kingdom, and will probably attract the kids and the WWE fans. Or maybe it won’t. I think a lot of WWE will actually prefer to see violence and go to watch The Kingdom instead. This will be a close one, but I see $20 million for The Rock, which means The Kingdom wins the box office championship this weekend. That’s my fearless prediction.

So here is what we are looking at as far as the box office is concerned this weekend:

We’ll see who wins Box Office Smackdown this weekend. It’s shaping up to be a close one—- one of the more interesting weekends in my view, box office-wise.

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