By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
A Weekend Review
This is garbage dump weekend for the first quarter of 1998. Fox may do well with Great Expectations due to our, well, great expectations of Gwyneth, Ethan and Bob. And damn it looks good! But the studio’s late move away from an Oscar qualifying release date should serve as a loud warning. Lower your expectations. (That said, I’ll be ponying up my $7.50 sometime this weekend). Disney is spending lots o’ cash trying to convince someone — anyone — that Deep Rising is this year’s Anaconda. That squid won’t hunt. And the long in-the-can Desperate Measures is finally being released. I can smell the write-off as I write this. All three of these films could easily open over $7 million, with GE in the lead. Next week, the bottom drops out.
THE 800 POUND MONKEY: Titanic will continue to sail, getting closer to the $20 million weekend horizon, but don’t hold your breath. It won’t help. The water’s really, really cold.
THE 666 POUND GIRL GROUP: Shake it down the charts. The Girls of Spice should fall by 40 percent or so as many prospective audience members lose interest after growing one week older. Good Will Hunting and As Good As It Gets should leapfrog the girls. Hold on. Can you smell a sequel?!
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: The Pate Brothers are blazing hot despite making just one film. They are one of those wacky Hollywood phenomena which has made brothers who write and direct, like The Coens and Bound’s Wachowski Brothers fashionable as hell. This week, find out if they’re for real or just The Brothers of The Week when their Deceiver hits theaters.
MILESTONES: Guess who’s gonna pass the $300 million mark this weekend?
MILLSTONES: Last weekend, The Postman averaged $227 per screen. That’s about four people attending each screening. Can it get worse?
TWO BAD MOVIES EQUAL: Spice World and Star Kid = Spice Kids: The Movie. Synopsis: Remember Muppet Babies? Follow the animated antics of Pee-Pee Spice, Baby Fat Spice, Suckie Spice, Droopy Spice (the one with the unfashionable diaper) and BaBaBaBaBaBaBa Spice as they spend every waking minute trying to get some attention.
READER OF THE DAY: Aaron S. predicts: Titanic $26m, Good Will Hunting $9m, Great Expectations $7.5m, As Good As It Gets $6m, Spice World $5.5m, Desperate Measures $5.5m, Deep Rising $4.8m, Wag The Dog $4.6m, Fallen $3m, Hard Rain $2.7m, Half Baked $2.3m.
