Can Dracula Beat Dwayne Johnson at the Box Office?
by EG
After several weeks of big-budget blockbusters slugging it out at the box office, this weekend is shaping up to be a battle between much more modest movies. Hotel Transylvania 3, Skyscraper and Ant-Man and the Wasp will go head-to-head, and it's anybody's guess which on will come out on top. Read on for the predictions.
Will an animated Dracula draw blood from Dwayne Johnson's Skyscraper at the weekend box office?
That's the big question as Sony's Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation opens everywhere Friday opposite Johnson's disaster-action pic from Legendary and Universal.
Prerelease tracking shows Hotel Transylvania 3 debuting in the $38 million-$45 million range, while Skyscraper is projected to gross $33 million to $40 million. Tracking, however, is hardly a science, and Johnson remains a star with sway. He's also prolific; Skyscraper is his fourth movie in a little over year after Baywatch, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Rampage.
The respective studios backing the two new titles are being more conservative in their estimates. Sony insiders suggest $35 million for Hotel Transylvania 3, while Legendary/Universal are predicting $30 million for Skyscraper, which opens two years after another Johnson disaster pic, San Andreas, debuted to $54 million for New Line.
Both films will have to contend with Disney and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is tipped to earn as much as $30 million in its sophomore outing.
Skyscraper will prove yet another test of Johnson's star status. The summer movie cost Legendary and Universal $129 million to produce before marketing.
In the film, Johnson stars as a former FBI hostage rescue team leader now assigned to provide security for a towering skyscraper in China. He must spring into action when his wife (Neve Campbell) and children are trapped inside the world's tallest building after villains set fire to it. Rawson Marshall Thurber, who made Central Intelligence with Johnson, wrote and directed the pic.
Legendary and Universal are counting on big returns overseas, where Johnson's last film, Rampage, earned 77 percent of its total $425 million gross at the international box office, or $326.1 million, after debuting to $35.8 million domestically in mid-April. Skyscraper opens in numerous foreign markets timed to its U.S. launch before scaling China later this month.
Universal and Legendary note that Skyscraper is an original summer film amid a sea of franchise installments, one of which is Hotel Transylvania 3.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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