Weekend Box Office Preview: Oct. 9 and Oct. 16
I’m bringing back my box office preview feature on a biweekly basis. I’ll be giving you a look at new release movies with teen and tween appeal. For the most part I won’t feature R-rated films, but occasionally there will be ones that will certainly be on teens’ radar (see: last week’s Zombieland).
October 9
After a big weekend for movies last weekend, the new releases for Oct. 9 are pretty meager. The only major release is Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn. It’s about four dissatisfied couples who go to a tropical resort to resolve their marriage issues. Hijinks ensue. While it’s rated PG-13, it doesn’t look particularly exciting for anyone, especially teens. That said, it’s a broad comedy with a couple recognizable faces (Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Jon Favreau) so it will draw in reasonable crowds looking for a diversion.
We’ve also got a Corbin Bleu-fronted drama, Free Style, about an aspiring motorcross racer who has to juggle his dreams with his family life. The trailer makes the movie look like a higher-production-value Disney Channel movie — it has lots of heart and hints of happy endings. I think it could be good for tweens who don’t have many other options this weekend. It’s getting a limited release (no word on theater count), though, and for movies like this, that usually means a quick theatrical run before getting dumped to DVD.
A British movie set in the ’60s certainly doesn’t appeal to all teens, but An Education is probably on the radar for some older teenagers. With a screenplay written by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, Slam), the film follows the life of a schoolgirl in 1960s London torn between a spot at Oxford and an affair with an older man. It’s been making the rounds on the film festival circuit, garnering the Audience Choice Award at Sundance. This one’s also a limited release, though, so it may be a while before it makes it’s way out of New York and LA.
October 16
It’s the weekend we’ve all been waiting for, folks! The much ballyhooed Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers-backed Where the Wild Things Are finally opens. The trailers are still beautiful and the soundtrack by Karen O. and the Kids is gorgeous. But who’s going to see it? It’s based on a kid’s book and I’ve seen displays in the Borders children’s section. The book’s been around since 1963, so it has nostalgia value for a big segment of the population, many of whom have kids of their own. And then there’s the hipster appeal with Jonze, Eggers, Karen O., et al. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how this release plays out in the long run. If you want a peek at the movie’s plot, read screenwriter Dave Eggers’ short story Max at Sea in the New Yorker.
It’s October, so horror movies are a sure thing. This week’s other major release with teen appeal is The Stepfather starring Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley. Badgley plays Michael, who has returned from military school to his mother’s new live-in boyfriend. He acts nice, but Michael becomes increasingly suspicious of his odd behavior. This one’s being aggressively marketed to the teen market and it’s a no-brainer for horror movies close to Halloween, so expect a lot of interest from teens and 20-somethings.
Best bets: I’m looking forward to An Education and Where the Wild Things Are, but there are lots of good movies still in theaters: Whip It, Zombieland (note: rated R), Invention of Lying, Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3D, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Coming up: The Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia, Astro Boy based on the classic anime, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant based on the popular YA series, another entry in the Saw franchise Saw VI, and a reissue of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D
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