New Movies Apr. 11-13: 'Rio 2' Challenges 'Captain America' to a Duel
by EGThe weather's finally starting to warm up across most of the country, and theaters are starting to get crowded with big new movies. Maybe summer's on its way after all. This weekend sees a colorful new animated movie on the scene, and its ready to take on last week's big superhero movie.
"Rio 2" is the splashiest of this week's new wide releases. A sequel to 2011's animated flick about rain forest creatures, it's likely to attract family audiences in droves, despite the fact that the majority of critics are not very impressed with it. Kids will like it, though, and it's projected to bring in about $40 million in ticket sales. Last week's winner, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," is expected to take in a similar amount; that would be a fall-off of more than half from the movie's $95-million opening weekend gross, but that's usually what happens to superhero movies.
The other new wide releases include "Draft Day," a Kevin Costner vehicle about the NFL draft. Costner isn't a reliable box-office draw these days, and the movie's sports-nerd premise might have limited appeal; forecasts have it taking in about $10 million. Also new this week is "Oculus," a low-budget scary movie with low expectations; forecasts have it grossing about $11 million, but in light of last summer's surprise horror hits, this one could be at least a mild surprise.
Hold-over "Noah" probably won't be able to challenge any of the newcomers, and the quickly fading "Divergent" won't be in the race for the top, either.