Three movies open in wide release this weekend. After nine years, the Sin City comic book world returns to the big screen with Sin City: A Dame To Die For. Tearjerker If I Stay and sports film When The Game Stands Tall are both being adapted from novels onto theater screens. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes goes to Keller 8 and Sabotage is my pick at your local Redbox.

Recapping Last Weekend

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles again topped the box office. Its $28.5 million was a 56.5% drop from its opening weekend. Guardians of the Galaxy dropped 40% but still came in second with over $25 million in receipts. Let’s be Cops was the highest-earning debut film over the weekend, finishing third with $17.8 million. The Expendables 3 disappointed in fourth place with $15.9 million and The Giver finished fifth with $12.3 million in their debuts.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes pulled in just shy of $2 million in its sixth weekend and has now topped the $200 million mark domestically. It passed that mark long ago in the foreign markets and now sits at almost $337 million total in those markets. Its $539 worldwide take easily makes it the biggest Apes movie.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman was still in 24 theaters over the weekend and brought in $9,442. It is well short of its $145 million budget domestically at $111.5 million, but has brought in $157 million domestically.

Opening This Weekend

 

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

 

It’s been nine years since Sin City hit theaters, a fact that will likely keep this sequel from coming anywhere close to the 2005 version’s $29.8 million debut, according to Box Office Mojo. The film does feature a star-studded cast with Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Rosario Dawon, Bruce Willis and Jeremy Piven, to name a few. Variety says this one is “visually arresting but grimly repetitive exercise in style”. A guy over at Rope of Silicon is high on Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and is predicting a $20.8 million weekend thanks largely to 3D ticket sales.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For opens tonight at MX Movies with a 9 pm showing.

 

When The Game Stands Tall

 

After watching the trailer for this, I was excited to see it. Then I read this review. Unfortunately, When The Game Stands Tall will not be a new Friday Night Lights or Varsity Blues. This movie is based on Neil Hayes’s 2003 book by the same name about De La Salle High School’s  2002 season. The team was in the middle of a winning streak that would eventually stretch to 151 games, from December 7, 1991 to September 4, 2004. The original hardcover version of the book would never have been made into a movie. It was the events that transpired after the book came out that made the movie. Those events were covered in a 35-page epilogue that was included in the paperback copies of the book. Jim Caviezel plays legendary Spartans coach Bob Ladouceur, who Fast Company expertly profiled back in 2003.

Don’t go into this one expecting a football movie. Go into it expecting to enjoy an inspirational life movie based around football. BoxOffice.com predicts an $11 million weekend largely due to a poor marketing campaign.

If I Stay

 

Be warned that if you see this, you will cry.Chloe Grace Moretz plays Mia Hall, a young woman who is “stranded between life and death” Gayle Forman wrote the book that this movie is adapted from. There will be a large overlap between people who saw The Fault in our Stars and who will see If I Stay, the question is just how many will be ready for another tearjerker this soon. Fault brought in $48 million during its opening weekend and $271 million worldwide thus far during its theater run.  Even if If I Stay brings in a fraction of that, it will be considered a financial success, considering its $11 million budget. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes are not high on this one, but audiences want to see it. Screen Rant is predicting a $19.5 million opening thanks to great social media buzz.

Amateur movie critic and professional writer Ron Clements called If I Stay “an emotional tearjerker that pulls on your heartstrings, even though it does drag a bit before its abrupt end.”

Catch It Before It’s Gone

 

Keller 8 Cinema welcomes Tammy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes this weekend. While both movies should be worth your money, Apes looks to be one that you need to see in theaters.

Make It A Redbox Night

 

Among the new offerings at your local Redbox this week are The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Sabotage. Spidey brought in $708 million worldwide during its theater run so it’s very likely that you will be satisfied spending your $1.20 on it. Sabotage only netted $10.5 million during its domestic theater run. Still, it does have Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Josh Holloway and Terrence Howard, among others. It’s probably not a great movie but the folks behind Training Day did write it.

 

Coming Soon

Miss Meadows

Starring Katie Holmes

 

Fury

Starring Brad Pitt.

Brought to you by Mills Properties.