'The Protege' and 'PAW Patrol' Lead New Theatrical Releases This Weekend
by EG
Kids' movie PAW Patrol: The Movie and martial arts action flick The Protege are among the new movies hitting theaters this weekend. But given the resurgent pandemic and the usual late-summer sleepiness, theaters are expected to be quiet for the rest of August. That leaves plenty of room for last week's top movie, Free Guy, to repeat as box-office champ. Read on for details.
Via Deadline.
Those distributors with new movies this weekend will find they can easily blame any soured performance at the box office on the delta variant and vaxx cards being required at NYC, San Francisco, and New Orleans cinemas.
But, let’s not forget one huge thing: It’s late August, and that means it’s the season for lower wattage IP aimed at varying niche demos and kids heading back to school. Historically such factors have never created a stampede at the box office. However, there’s more reason to expect lower ticket sales, as two of this weekend’s wide entries are going day-and-date with their studios’ streaming services.
Disney/20th Century Studios’ Free Guy is expected to continue its reign at the box office with around $14M, -50%, after beating expectations last weekend with a $28.3M debut. That offers hope that the box office is developing a Teflon tendency against the variant. The Ryan Reynolds PG-13 film is up to $34.8M through five-days, which is 33% ahead of the actor’s R-rated mid-August 2017 action title The Hitman’s Bodyguard over the same number of days.
And for all the noise about how vaxx cards are poised to nosepe ticket sales: Let’s be quiet, wait, and see. We’re not France, and it’s unclear how militant local ordinances are going to be; not to mention, if you’re vaccinated and feel comfortable, you’ll go to the movies. Ball games, concerts, etc. are also checking vaxx cards in NYC.
In regards to the rest of this weekend’s wide entries in order of their ranking after Free Guy, there’s Paramount Pictures/Spinmaster’s PAW Patrol: The Movie which will hit 2,800 theaters and the studio’s streaming service Paramount+ on Friday. A high single digits result is expected. However, it could cross into double digits for this toddler-skewing animated title based on the TV series. Sixteen reviews are currently giving the pic 94% fresh.
The Protege is aimed at older males and Asian audiences, and playing at 2,500 locations. Previews start at 6PM for the R-Rated action title starring Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson, from Casino Royale director Martin Campbell. In Protege, Anna (Maggie Q) is the world’s most skilled contract killer. But when her mentor and father figure (Jackson) is brutally killed, she vows revenge, squaring off with an enigmatic killer (Keaton). No RT score yet.
And Searchlight will give at least a 45-day theatrical window to their $12M indie genre pick-up The Night House, about a widow, played by Rebecca Hall, who is encountering her husband’s sadistic ghost in their lakeshore domicile, and learning offbeat things about him after his death.
Get the rest of the story at Deadline.