New Movie Releases Aug. 30: There's Only One Direction to Go This Weekend
by EGTweens and teens didn't turn out last weekend for "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," but Morgan Spurlock is hoping they'll leave the house this weekend to see "One Direction: This Is Us." The filmmaker's tour film about the pop music group is one of two new movies to go into wide release this weekend.
According to critics, the One Direction film should be enough to keep fans of the boy group happy, but there's not much reason for anyone else to want to see it. That comes as no real surprise, but are the fans enough to make the film a box-office success? Projections have the movie earning $18 million over the long holiday weekend, and Sony is no doubt hoping that it will come closer to the performance of 2011's "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," which earned $29.5 million on its opening weekend.
Grown ups only have one big new movie to see this weekend, and it also stars a former teen idol, albeit in a slightly more mature role. In "Getaway," Selena Gomez is a hacker who helps a former race-car driver (Ethan Hawke) to rescue his kidnapped wife. This one is trying to capture the "Fast and Furious" demographic, but with an amazing 0%-positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a happy weekend for Gomez and Hawke looks like a long shot.
A couple of smaller films are in limited release this weekend. "Closed Circuit," a thriller starring Eric Bana, opened on Wednesday in 870 theaters, and "The Grandmaster," a historical martial arts film, expands to 749 theaters this week.