Corona | Coming Attractions

This weekend, you have the rare opportunity to fight for a seat to watch Natalie Portman try to act her way through a predictable piece of cinema directed by a man whose best work is behind him.  You can also catch her in some movie called No Strings Attached.  (Call me Obvious Joke Man!)

Good ol' No Strings Attached.  It's Ivan Reitman's long-awaited, triumphant return to directing.  It's been five years since that critically lauded, beloved-of-audiences-worldwide hit that was My Super Ex-Girlfriend.  (Some called it his best movie since Evolution.  Some called it his best movie since Six Days Seven Nights.  I called it a breath of fresh Reitman.  Well, I called it My Super Ex-Girlfriend.  It called me Obvious Joke Man.) 

Good luck remembering what No Strings Attached is called when you go to buy your tickets.  It's a good thing it, How Do You Know, Life as We Know It, Love and Other Drugs, and Just Go with It didn't all come out on the same weekend. 

Oh, and by the way, No Strings Attached will probably win the weekend.  If it doesn't, it will be because Green Hornet just barely edged it out.  Neither movie is likely to make 20+ million this weekend, and nothing else out there is likely to make 10+.  Black Swan and The King's Speech may get a tiny boost for their best actor wins, but they've been out a good long while, now.  At this point, they're just hanging around for that onelast boost they're sure to get when the Academy Award nominations are announced.  The Fighter might get the same boost. 

True Grit hain't be gettin' no sorta boost.  Because it's just not as good as Burlesque, Alice in Wonderland, Red, or The Tourist.  (These are surely the movies it would have competed against, had it gotten a Golden Globe nomination for best picture.  It didn't have the dramatic chops to be considered for the drama category.  And if Alice in Wonderland, Red, and The Tourist areconsidered comedies [surely, they weren't nominated as musicals], why not True Grit?)  It may get an Academy Award nomination boost afternext weekend, despite the Golden Globes snub.  Those Oscar folks are just wacky enough to think it passes muster.   

Predictions:

1.  No Strings Attached   $18.25m
2.  The Green Hornet   $16.00m
3.  The Dilemma   $8.75m
4.  True Grit   $7.25m
5.  The King's Speech   $6.75m
6.  Black Swan   $6.50m
7.  Little Fockers   $3.75m
8.  The Fighter   $3.50m
9.  Tron Legacy   $3.25m
10.  Yogi Bear   $3.20m

Disagree? Let me know by 11:59 EST Friday night. If your predictions come closer than mine to the actual weekend grosses, I will celebrate your superior skills in the Grovel Pit.