The Pixar brand is one of the most beloved in the world of movies — and with good reason. The films have earned over $7 billion in worldwide box office since the first Toy Story film was released in 1995.
Now Disney presents Finding Nemo — the second highest-grossing Pixar film (behind only Toy Story 3’s $1 billion plus) with $865.6 million in worldwide receipts — only this time in 3-D. And the results should be spectacular. Much like the 2011 3-D re-release of The Lion King (which opened with a whopping $30.1 million), Nemo should have similar success while also pulling us out of the box office doldrums and a $30 million plus debut.
While kids and families are off chasing 3-D fish, adults can follow a different kind of 3-D beast in Sony’s Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth installment of the hugely successful Screen Gems franchise (with nearly $700 million in worldwide dollars). Paul W.S. Anderson, who has directed three of the five installments, is back along with Milla Jovovich as Alice, who this time fights with a resistance movement to battle the undead and other evil forces. At a tight 95 minutes, the R-rated horror action flick should draw box office blood in the realm of $25 million, aided by the added bite of the IMAX giant screen showings.
Lionsgate has led the box office over the past two weeks with The Possession, which has earned about $35 million to date. The PG-13 horror film has enjoyed dominance in the marketplace and benefited from a perfect release date. In this, its third weekend, it should possess around $5 million in new box office dollars.
It will, of course, have to contend with Weinstein Co’s. Lawless, which has been particularly strong lately, holding at number one mid-week where it has been locked in a battle with the conservative documentary 2016: Obama’s America, which is closing in on $30 million in domestic revenue. Lawless should quick draw around $4 million this weekend and also have around $30 million total by Sunday night.
Lionsgate’s The Expendables 2 has proven to be one of the bright spots of the late-summer releases, earning close to $77 million since its release in mid-August. Another $3 million should land the film in the Top 5 and a North American gross of over $80 million by the end of the weekend.
There has been lots of talk lately about the slow box office at the end of summer and a super low-grossing weekend last week. Fortunately, this will be offset by the strength of not only this weekend, but the upcoming Sept. 28 weekend, when Sony’s spectacular Looper and their 3-D animated Hotel Transylvania debut in what early tracking is showing to be shaping up as an unusually strong late-September box office frame.
