The Weekend Forecast: Tomorrowland Leads the Pack in a Tight Box Office Race

In which I predict that big winners (and losers) at the box office this weekend.

Now that Age of Ultron has been suitably reigned in to a more manageable level, the box office is wide open for the rest of the summer blockbusters to move in on.  It, Pitch Perfect 2,  Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland and Poltergeist all promise to give us a tight race this weekend, but my money's on Tomorrowland stealing the #1 spot by Monday morning.

Although the reports coming in from critics aren't looking too good for Disney's latest movie based on a theme park attraction, it's impressive ad campaign should earn it about $45 million by the end of the week.  Disney's kept the intrigue on this movie high for months now, and I'm one of the many people who'll be showing up just to see what it was all about in the first place.

Poltergeist is this weekend's other new entry.  Although PG-13 horror movies rarely get good word of mouth going, this movie actually deserves it: staying true to the spirit of the original while updating the atmosphere and scares to something more palatable for contemporary audiences.  Don't expect to hear much in the way of praise for this movie (other than from me), but do expect it to turn a decent profit.  It's MPAA rating will ensure that all of the out-of-school teens looking to cop a feel will have ample opportunity to do so while fans of the original should turn up to see a timely update on an old favorite.

It's a coin toss at this point whether Pitch Perfect will beat out Tomorrowland at the box office.  Word on the street is that it should match Tomorrowland's predicted $45 take, but fairly negative word of mouth might damper its hopes of repeating last weekend's success.  At least two people I know who saw it fell asleep during their screening, and the demographic outside of teenage girls is decidedly slim.

On the flip side of things, expect Fury Road to do a bit better than expected.  While it certainly lacked Pitch Perfect 2's impressive first weekend showing, strong word of mouth might give this movie the push that it deserves.  It is hands down the best action movie of 2015 so far (sorry Kingsman and Avengers) and is looking like it'll keep that honor by year's end.  Check this out while you still have the chance to.

Age of Ultron should continue to hold its own reasonably well, but last week was the start of its trickling fall off of the top ten list.  Expect it to do a little worse every weekend until it eventually slips off of the list entirely (although with Marvel movies, this might take a while to finally happen).

So what movie will you be checking out this weekend?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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