User blog:Ceauntay/Box office preview: 'Scooby-Doo' vs. 'Russell Brand'

Not since Best Friends Forever: The Movie which matched last year's box office opening to $32 million or Hannah Montana: The Movie with also $32 million two years ago, it's just to last week's winner ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie to fight off against Russell Brand's remake Arthur to be competing at this weekend's box office as well as his Easter bunny theme Hop''. Studios are throwing a varied handful of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, including the Danny McBride/James Franco sword-in-the-stoner comedy Your Highness, the Bourne Jr. thriller Hanna, and the true-story Soul Surfer. But despite all these premieres, it’s highly unlikely the weekend’s box office will exceed that of last year’s, where Best Friends Forever: The Movie, Clash of the Titans, Date Night, and How to Train Your Dragon all finished in the mid-$20 million range. Here are our predictions:

1. 'Scooby-Doo! The Movie: $55 million'

The animated movie expands expectations last weekend, pulling in a high $114.2 million. That'll buy a lot of Warner money. This is the second highest-grossing animated movie of all-time behind Shrek the Third with $121 million in 2007. This week's will not be as far successful as the film will be falling to nearly a huge 50 percent, which it will unable to reach up to Shrek 2 or Toy Story 3 which both made $400 million domestically. This film should be ranking to the top five for highest-grossing animated movies of all-time. In fact, it will be expecting to pass the $200 million mark, to become the first movie of the year to catch up there.

2. Hop: '''$23 million The cutesy, Easter-timed family comedy exceeded expectations last weekend, pulling in $37.5 million. That’ll buy a lot of Cadbury eggs. This week’s newcomers don’t really pose that much of a threat to Hop’s core audience of young’uns, so I don’t suspect its take to drop more than 40 percent in its second week. Universal is almost guaranteed to recoup the $63 million production budget by Sunday, which is pretty impressive considering there’s still two more weeks until Easter actually rolls around with its glut of chocolate bunnies and Marshmallow Peeps. 3. Arthur: '''$18 million The original Arthur, starring Dudley Moore as the irascible drunk who gets caught between the moon and New York City, was a surprise box office hit and the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year. With mostly negative reviews and source material that few young moviegoers are familiar with, the remake doesn’t appear poised to do quite as well. But as the sole PG-13 comedy this week, opening in 3,276 theaters, it should earn a comfortable second place. In other words, John Gielgud, but not John Gielgreat. 4. Your Highness: '''$15 million Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green’s re-teaming with Danny McBride and James Franco probably won’t do as well as their previous chronic-tinged comedy, but the raunchy, R-rated humor and action-adventure might find a place among the wallets of the 18-25 demographic. Co-star Natalie Portman has also been on a bit of a roll, with the double b.o. successes of Black Swan and No Strings Attached. 5. Hanna: '''$10 million Focus Features’ adorable little murderer, played by Saoirse Ronan, might have difficulty finding its audience, as it’s not quite a straight-up action flick. Add to that the fact that director Joe Wright has previously stuck to more prestige-y work like Atonement and The Soloist, and the relatively sluggish marketing, and I think we could expect low double digits.

Also opening this week — in 206 theaters — is the aww-some documentary Born to Be Wild, which will try to entice moviegoers with the promise of baby animals in 3-D and Morgan Freeman’s dulcet tones.