Guardians of the Galaxy had the box office pretty much all to itself last weekend, which certainly helped its prospects. For weekend two though, the Marvel blockbuster has to face Paramount and Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both films are expected to have strong weekends, giving Hollywood a much-needed late summer lift.
Guardians exploded onto the scene with $94.3 million last weekend and is already up to $126.8 million thanks to a strong week. While the opening was immune to smaller projections, it isn’t going to be immune to the typical second weekend fall that most comic book movies take.
A weekend that’s north of $42 million seems to be the consensus. As Entertainment Weekly notes, Captain America: The Winter Soldier took at 56.6 percent drop in weekend two, which is likely for Guardians too. However, Guardians does have one wild card - facing four mutant ninja turtles.
TMNT cost Paramount a whopping $125 million and is also based on comic book characters. However, unlike the Guardians characters, these four turtles have been on the big screen before, but it’s the first ‘live action’ movie in the franchise since 1993. Box Office Mojo is predicting a $42 million opening, but it could still top Guardians.
Into The Storm is getting a huge push from Warner Bros., which is releasing the film into 3,434 theaters. Critics hated it, but a $17 million opening is still the target. However, this movie has no stars, unlike other disaster movies. It’s all about the premise here and how many people want to see a disaster on the big screen.
The Disney-distributed The One-Hundred Foot Journey with Helen Mirren is expected to make around $13 million. Step Up All In, the fifth film in the dancing franchise, is also expected to make an impact with somewhere north of $10 million.
You can check out other movies hitting theaters this weekend at Trailer Park.
image of Megan Fox courtesy of Nancy Rivera/ACE/INFphoto.com