New Movies July 26: Can 'The Wolverine' Break the Big-Budget Curse?

The good news for movie studios is that there's no chance that there will be multiple mega-ton bombs this weekend, but that's just because there's only one big-budget action movie debuting this week.

"The Wolverine," a solo outing for the "X-Men" character, has an estimated $100 million budget, but it faces no competition from new action movies in its first week of release.

It seems unlikely that "The Wolverine" will see much of a threat from "R.I.P.D." or "Pacific Rim," the last two big action films to fail at the box office, and if young male audiences have had enough of "Grown Ups 2" by the end of the week, they might be ready to return to the action-movie fold. "The Wolverine" is a sequel to the disappointing "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," however, so anything could happen. Given the unusually poor showing of big-budget action movies this summer, predictions that the film will pull in $70 million in its opening weekend seem optimistic.

There's a chance that "The Wolverine"'s target audience will be lured to "The To Do List," a raunchy R-rated teen comedy starring Aubrey Plaza. It's a gender-role-flipping romp about a sex-obsessed young woman, a project that aims to please lovers of crude humor, both male and female.

Audiences outside the 18-25 demographic will be offered "Blue Jasmine," a Woody Allen-directed drama starring Cate Blanchett.

Hold-over movies might be a factor, too. "The Conjuring" had a very strong opening weekend and could continue to be strong in its second week. "Despicable Me 2" hadn't weakened much in its third week of release, and it may still have some steam in its fourth.