User blog:Ceauntay/'Sonic' Runs To

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM, 5TH UPDATE: This May weekend is a rare respite from this summer's weekend-after-weekend tentpole. So overall domestic gross adds up to a -13% down weekend of $115M compared to last year (when Week 2 of Iron Man 2 led the way with $52M). Here are Top 10 North American movies:

1. Sonic X: The Final Stand 3D (Fox) [4,205 Theaters]

Friday $57.1M, Estimated Weekend $125M

After its $19.7 million opening from its Thursday night showing, the fifth installment of the very popular film franchise. It is forcing to have a huge opening than expected within $125M for the weekend, setting to top it. It is also opening as the biggest weekend opening ever for an animated film, and of the year. It is also for 3D, the franchise and from 20th Century Fox. The previous Sonic X: Return to Soleanna film has brought in $105 million. ''Scooby-Doo! The Movie'' held the record for biggest opening of the year with $114 million before it can become the highest-grossing film of the year, domestically, internationally and worldwide. This is the first Sonic X film to be released in 3D theaters, where else it was only released into a regular IMAX theater. It has broken over Toy Story 3 which made $41 million for biggest single day gross ever for an animated film, before it made $110 million. It will also be breaking Shrek the Third with $122 million to become the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film. On his 20th birthday, Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) is losing his fans as well as his abilities to the goofy but strong and powerful Greg the Fox (voiced by Taylor Lautner). The only thing that he can get his power in great shape is to collect all seven Chaos Emearalds before Greg grabs them to create the ultimate power to protect Station Square and the world. The faith of Sonic is that he can still go fast and strong, is by using his speed ability of his racing gear that is his only power that can make him to have his powers restored. He will have to challenge along with his members against Greg and his army into the ultimate race all around the world to the finish line and the save the world while he prepares for a final battle against him and the entire dead army. Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, (voiced by Kate Higgins) Knuckles, (voiced by Kent Hampton) Amy (voiced by Cindy Robinson) and others learned that Greg the Fox had a sister named Jessica the Fox (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove) who were fighting with each other ever since they were born. They are also force to make Jessica and Greg not to fight with each other and became a happy family. 2. Thor 3D (Marvel/Disney/Paramount) Week 2 [3,963 Theaters]

Friday $9.2M (-64%), Estimated Weekend $32M, Estimated Cume $114.5M

Paramount expects Thor will be down only -51% for its 2nd weekend, which would be a much better hold than Fast Five's a weekend ago.

2. Bridesmaids' (Universal) NEW [2,918 Theaters]

Friday $7.8M, Estimated Weekend $21.5M

I was so convinced that this rare R-rated event comedy featuring women burping and farting for our female amusement wouldn't make over $13M, even $15M tops, that I promised Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson that I would leave Hollywood reporting forever if Bridesmaids did the $20+ million he thought it would. Well, I've called the moving vans because I clearly have no idea what works at the domestic box office anymore. (So you won't have Nikki to kick around in the comments section. Say goodbye now...) I couldn't believe that this is why generations of women fought the feminist revolution: to ensure we had the same opportunities to watch our sex make the same raunchy movie stuff as men. I wasn't alone. Tipsters told me that the studios weren't touching any new film comedies that featured women until they saw how Bridesmaids did. "And they're hoping it tanks or at least does business they can put a negative spin on," one source emailed. "Talk to Natalie Portman about the double-talk she's enduring over Best Buds, a female stoner comedy she's trying to set up. When Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler or Seth Rogen tank, there are no ramifications. It's ugly out there." But Universal had faith in this net $32.5M-budget pic from the start, mostly pinned to the pedigree of mogul Judd Apatow's banner behind it. Weeks of decent tracking popped dramatically going into this weekend, especially in the 'unaided awareness' category. It went into this weekend with great reviews from the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times and 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet I found the first trailer laugh-challenged along with the TV ads in heavy rotation, and the movie lacked big name stars (Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig leads an ensemble cast of mostly TV actresses), and its release was middling but by no means giant. Whch is why I had such low expectations and now I'm packing up.

The pic was seen as a chance for Paul Feig, Apatow's one-time partner on the short-lived but funny TV series Freaks & Geeks, to demonstrate his talents as a major comedy director. Annie Mumolo co-stars in Bridesmaids and co-wrote it with Kristen Wiig. (Mumolo and Melissa McCarthy both come from the Groundlings comedy troupe.) Starting with a well-received midnight screening at SXSW in mid-March attended by Wiig and Feig, the film has been sneaked aggressively with nearly 350 showings of Bridesmaids by its release in 75 U.S. and Canadian markets. No way men were going to attend a movie with this title, all the marketing was skewed heavily toward women. ‪Useful historical comps were few and far between for an R-rated female laffer except for the underperforming The Sweetest Thing. Certainly not Sex And The City which came to the big screen after 7 giant years of brand equity. So Universal took pains to strategize marketing that conveyed this wasn't a typical "chick flick", "wedding movie", or "rom-com" but instead "the Hangover for women". There was even a red band trailer released in April to showcase some of the film's raunchiest content. Wiig and her co-stars embarked on a 5-city publicity tour to reach regional outlets and attend special screenings in multiple markets. And Universal executed multiple themed stunts like Yahoo! Shine's "Girls Night Out" event screening in New York in early May attended by the full cast as well as contests for the worst bridesmaid or bridezilla or wedding stories. Finally, the studio conducted a LivingSocial and Groupon Promotion offering “Dinner and Movie" in top markets. So now I'm outta here.

3. Fast Five' (Universal) Week 3 [3,793 Theaters]

Friday $5.9M, Estimated Weekend $18M, Estimated Cume $167.2M

4. Priest 3D (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,864 Theaters]

Friday $5.5M, Estimated Weekend $14M

Sony expected this young male-targeted Screen Gems post-apocalyptic horror pic to do only between $10M-$12M even with its Friday The 13th release date into 2,864 locations, of which 2006 are widescreen 3D bookings. Based on TokyoPop’s popular graphic novel series written by Min-Woo Hyung, Priest is directed by Scott Stewart, co-founder of the well-known visual effects studio The Orphanage (Iron Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Sin City). The screenplay is by Cory Goodman. Producers are Michael De Luca, Joshua Donen, and Mitchell Peck. This vampire movie elevated by the casting of Paul Bettany as the battle-hardened rogue warrior was all about the fangs in its marketing strategy. "These are not your teenage heartthrob vampires," a Sony exec told me. "The film plays host to some very scary creatures. So we did a lot of outreach to sci-fi, horror and fantasy genre bloggers, including visits to the editing room to watch a bit of the 3D conversion and do interviews with the director and our 3D tech team. Many of the bloggers thought this was the best 3D conversion they had seen so far." Natch, they had a strong presence at all the big Comic Book and Sci-Fi Conventions around the country, including screening footage with coordinated cast panels at both ComicCon in San Diego and WonderCon in San Francisco. Fangoria also hosted a special 3D footage screening attended by Paul Bettany and Scott Stewart in New York. Sony also tied in with National Free Comic Book Day on Saturday May 7th and worked with local comic book stores across the country to help promote the film. In addition to North America, Priest opens in a number of key territories this weekend including Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, France and Germany, among others. "While the film should perform decently here, we believe the real upside for us is overseas," a Sony exec admitted.

5. Something Borrowed (Warner Bros) Week 2 [2,904 Theaters]

Friday $2.3M (-51%), Estimated Weekend $7.5M, Estimated Cume $26.1M

6. Jump The Broom (TriStar/Sony) Week 2 [2,035 Theaters] Friday $1.9M (-53%), Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $25.2M

7. Rio (Blue Sky Studio/Fox) Week 5 [2,929 Theaters]

Friday $1.4M, Estimated Weekend $5.5M, Estimated Cume $122.5M

8. Water For Elephants (Fox 2000/Fox) Week 4 [2,425 Theaters Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $48.4M

9. 'Scooby-Doo! The Movie' (Warner Bros.) Week 7 [1,245 Theaters] Friday $627K, Estimated Weekend $1.9M, Estimated Cume $278.6M

10. Madea's Big Happy Family (Tyler Perry/Lionsgate) Week 4 [1,449 Theaters] Friday $550K, Estimated Weekend $1.8M, Estimated Cume $49.8M

PREVIOUS 4 PM, 2ND UPDATE: Early projections based on pre-sales and strong matinees place Universal's Judd Apatow-bannered comedy Bridesmaids big at the box office this weekend. One of the few R-rated female-targeted laffers (underperforming The Sweetest Thing was another), it's looking to open to a $20+ million weekend and a Friday gross of $8+M. Of course, these are still very preliminary numbers. But they follow weeks of decent tracking that popped dramatically going into this weekend, especially in the 'unaided awareness' category. The expected gross is especially impressive because the movie lacks big name stars (Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig leads a cast of TV actresses), had a trailer that was redone when it was deemed not funny enough, and is releasing into a middling but by no means giant number of North American theaters (2,918). Also opening today is Screen Gems/Sony's horror movie Priest taking advantage of the Friday The 13th timing into 2,006 theaters for $6M putting the weekend around $17M with the higher 3D ticket prices. Still coming on strong will be Marvel/Disney holdover Thor, which should stay at No. 1 with a $25M+ weekend because of Paramount's huge release into 3,963 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.