The lava from Pompeii’s Mount Vesuvius may be trying to melt The LEGO Movie’s hold on the box office, but the Paul W.S.Anderson 3D swords-and-sandals pic is expected to be another 2014 action flop.
LEGO has shown no signs of stopping once it opened two weekends ago. Now, the animated film is poised to win a third weekend. Entertainment Weekly notes that the film already passed the $200 million mark and could make as much as $40 million this weekend.
Pompeii was actually made by Germany’s Constantin Film and Sony is only distributing. According to TheWrap, it only cost $80 million to make, but even that seems like an insurmountable number. It’s expected to only make around $13 million and might not even beat Kevin Hart’s About Last Night. The film will be screened at 2,500 locations and stars Kit Harrington, Jessica Lange and Kiefer Sutherland.
This will be the second swords-and-sandals flop of the year. The Legend of Hercules also came and went quickly. I, Frankenstein, another CG 3D action film, also flopped. And we’re only in February.
Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp is back with another thriller, 3 Days to Kill. Action hero reinvention worked for Liam Neeson, so Kevin Costner is trying to do it as well. Relativity isn’t expecting it to do Taken-style business, though. Box Office Mojo notes that the distributor is expecting around $11 million to $13 million.
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men is also looking to stay in the Top 5 with around $9 million.
Check out Trailer Park for a run-down of other movies opening this weekend.
image courtesy of Sony Pictures