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Weekly Anticipation Index
posted July 18, 2009 9:30 AM

This week, we've added three new films to our Anticipation Index. 9 opens on September 9, while Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself and Sorority Row open on September 11.
Perry has managed to build quite a following for himself, and he's coming off the biggest box office success of his career. This past February, Madea Goes to Jail opened with an impressive $41 million before finishing its domestic theatrical run with $90.5 million. Luckily, I Can Do Bad All by Myself also features the Madea character, which means that Lionsgate can expect similar returns with Bad All by Myself.
Sorority Row represents yet another horror remake, although it obviously won't have the same built-it audience that recent reboots such as Friday the 13th and Halloween did. Row's best asset is its young female cast, which includes Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) and Audrina Patridge (The Hills). Like most horror flicks, Row should be able to post solid opening weekend numbers before falling fast.
9 will benefit from the fact that Tim Burton's name is attached to it, and it should be able to entice moviegoers who are looking for an unconventional animated movie. While it may not open as high as Bad All by Myself and Row, 9 will probably show more staying power.
| Weekly Anticipation Index, July 18, 2009 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Release Date | Distributor | Opening Weekend | Cumulative |
| G-Force | July 24 | Disney | $31M | $110M |
| The Ugly Truth | July 24 | Sony/Columbia | $25M | $80M |
| Funny People | July 31 | Universal | $34M | $105M |
| G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra | August 7 | Paramount | $40M | $100M |
| Julie & Julia | August 7 | Sony/Columbia | $20M | $70M |
| The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard | August 14 | Paramount Vantage | $13M | $40M |
| The Time Traveler's Wife | August 14 | Warner Bros./New Line | $14M | $43M |
| District 9 | August 14 | Sony | $17M | $53M |
| Shorts | August 21 | Warner Bros. | $13M | $42M |
| Inglourious Basterds | August 21 | The Weinstein Company | $22M | $60M |
| Halloween 2 | August 28 | The Weinstein Company | $28M | $62M |
| The Final Destination | August 28 | Warner Bros./New Line | $19M | $50M |
| Gamer | September 4 | Lionsgate | $15M | $35M |
| All About Steve | September 4 | Fox 2000 | $27M | $85M |
| 9 | September 9 | Focus | $14M | $45M |
| Sorority Row | September 11 | Summit | $15M | $35M |
| Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself | September 11 | Lionsgate | $37M | $80M |
Additional reporting by Daniel Garris.
3 Comments
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Bill Coleman said:
Saw The Ugly Truth this weekend at sneak in Dallas. The audience definitely skewed female and the humor matched the audience. As you'll remember from the trailer one of Butler's lines (when he's teaching Katherine how to get a man) emphasizes the point that men are attracted to women visually.
The film, unfortunately for the men in the audience, chose to exploit its R-rating verbally rather than visually since the love scenes didn't go further than what you can see on network TV in prime time. The scene with the electronically enhanced underwear, however, didn't need nudity to elicit the same laughs in Dallas as it did from the ShoWest audience in Las Vegas.
July 20, 2009 10:17 AM
Phil Contrino said:
Bill: Do you think its R-rating is going to hold it back a little bit at the box office? If it received a PG-13, then that could have resulted in a couple million more dollars during its opening weekend.
Either way, I think it's going to perform well.
July 20, 2009 10:35 AM
Bill Coleman said:
I think the number of men willingly dragged along to an R-rated Katherine Heigl film by their date/spouse will more than make up for the teenage girl segment lost due to the rating.
July 23, 2009 2:25 AM