As many of you know, box office results fascinate me. The reason they do is because it shows us what the general movie going public was interested in. What marketing strategies worked, why themes or genres are popular right now, what stars have influence… that sort of thing. The box office doesn’t tell us squat about how good or bad a movie is… but it does give us a glimpse at what people WANT to see… then then lets us try to figure out why.
This weekend is an interesting one. You have 3 totally different films opening up. Wild Hogs, Zodiac and Black Snake Moan. So here’s my guess as to how the box office will shake down this weekend:
#1 Wild Hogs – No, it won’t be the best movie of the weekend by far, but I’ll be really surprised if this one doesn’t beat out the other 2 new releases. Major star power, light comedy and more family friendly. This will take the top spot out of the new releases.
#2 Zodiac – Huge positive reviews, a decent marketing campaign and the fact that it’s based on a true story that still resonates with some people in the older brackets of the demographic set this one up to come in second. The problem is that there hasn’t been enough marketing, a lot of people still have no idea what the movie is about, and it hasn’t played up its stars.
#3 Black Snake Moan – There are a couple of things working against Black Snake Moan. First and foremost, most people outside the online movie fan community haven’t even heard of this thing yet. Secondly, and this sounds stupid but it’s true, a number of people who hear of this are assuming it’s a sequel to Snakes on a Plane (no, I’m not kidding… I’ve talked to 2 people already who think this). Thirdly, while the trailer looked interesting enough (and had some chuckles) the posters and print campaigns have been HORRIBLE. If i hadn’t seen the trailer, I would think this was some sort of dark, prisoner torture movie.
So there you have it. My predictions for the box office results this weekend. What do you think?
