"Mama" Takes the Lead MLK Weekend While Schwarzenegger Bombs

[JamesG]

Jessica Beats Arnold MLK Weekend
by Ray Subers
January 17, 2013


Arnold's back, but it looks like Jessica has his number over Martin Luther King weekend.

After a decade-long hiatus from leading man status, Arnold Schwarzengger is starring in The Last Stand, which opens in 2,913 locations this weekend.

Schwarzenegger's last lead role was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003: soon after the movie was released, Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in a special recall election, and was subsequently re-elected in 2006.

After his second term ended in early 2011, he immediately began pursuing acting opportunities again, and The Last Stand is the first in a series of upcoming movies.







Out of the nine brand-new nationwide releases in January, eight of them are rated R. The only outlier is Mama, which is attempting to appeal to the PG-13 horror crowd.

Star Jessica Chastain is red-hot right now thanks to her recent Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for her work in Zero Dark Thirty. Her name isn't included in Mama's marketing, though, and her awards recognition is obviously more likely to help out the controversial CIA thriller.

Instead, the big name being promoted is Guillermo del Toro, who has become a go-to name in the horror world in recent years. His last big movie, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, disappointed with just $8.5 million in its opening weekend.

Mama seems to be in much better shape, though, and Universal is currently forecasting low-to-mid-teen millions.







Opening at 2,620 locations, Broken City also appears poised for an underwhelming opening despite starring the usually-reliable Mark Wahlberg.

This time last year, Wahlberg movie Contraband opened to $24.3 million on its way to $66.5 million—Contraband had a unique visual flair and plenty of shots of Wahlberg punching people in the face, though, while Broken City looks like a fairly generic detective drama in which

Wahlberg doesn't get to beat anyone up. As a result, don't be surprised if Broken City opens to half of Contraband's $24.3 million.







After earning $43.3 million through two months of limited and moderate release, Silver Linings Playbook is finally going very wide in to 2,523 locations this weekend.

The movie was originally supposed to do this over Thanksgiving weekend, but The Weinstein Company smartly pulled back on that when they realized the movie's word-of-mouth would speak stronger than their advertisements (which were having a very tough time with the movie's tricky tone).

On the heels of eight Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe win for Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook should be able to make it in to the Top Five with over $10 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3611&p=.htm









January 18-20, 2013 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Mama $28,100,000
2. Zero Dark Thirty $17,600,000 / $55,900,000
3. Silver Linings Playbook $11,400,000 / $55,300,000
4. Gangster Squad $9,110,000 / $32,200,000
5. Broken City $9,000,000
6. A Haunted House $8,330,000 / $30,000,000
7. Django Unchained $8,240,000 / $138,000,000
8. Les Misérables $7,810,000 / $130,000,000
9. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $6,450,000 / $287,000,000
10. The Last Stand $6,300,000