'Daddy's Home 2' and 'Orient Express' to Fight for Weekend Crown
by EG
For the first time in a while, there's no clear favorite going into this weekend's box-office race. Both comedy sequel Daddy's Home 2 and star-studded mystery Murder on the Orient Express are forecast to earn just about the same amount of money, and either film could come out on top. Last week's comedy sequel A Bad Moms Christmas didn't do so well, but Murder on the Orient Express stars Johnny Depp, which is lately a pretty reliable predictor of box-office disaster.
Director Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express and comedy sequel Daddy's Home 2 could find themselves in a close race for the box-office crown this weekend, with both tracking to open in the low $20 million range.
Neither movie lacks for star power. From Paramount, Daddy's Home 2 sees the return of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, with Mel Gibson and John Lithgow joining the budding franchise.
This time out, Dusty (Wahlberg) and Brad (Ferrell) join forces to provide their kids the best Christmas, but their newfound union is put to the test when their own fathers show up.
Daddy's Home 2 launches on the heels of another comedy sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, which posted a five-day debut of $21.3 million last week.
Comedy sequels can be tough business, and Daddy's Home 2 won't come close to matching the $38.7 million bow of Daddy's Home over Christmas weekend in 2015. At the same time, it hopes to appeal to audiences through Thanksgiving and into the year-end holidays. Paramount is in dire need of a box-office win following the dismal performance of Darren Aronofsky's mother! and George Clooney's Suburbicon" data-scaytid="7">Suburbicon.
Murder on the Orient Express, from 20th Century Fox, likewise is counting on a long run over the holidays.
Read the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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