User blog:Ceauntay/Box Office Preview: 'Victorious: The Movie' Nabs Record $6.75 Million in Midnight Runs

=Update: The teen comedy sets box offie records during its Thursday night showings last night, could lead to $35 million haul on opening weekend.=

Victorious: The Movie earned a record $6.75 million from Thursday night screenings, which means it will be victorious at the box office. Other films like horror spoof comedy Scary Movie 5 and biopic 42 will compete for second place. One film is on track to nab at least $35 million, while two others are opening near $17 million. 42 made $500,000 in Thursday night screenings.

Victorious: The Movie, a Paramount Picture film based on a hit TV series Victorious from Nickelodeon, has open alot better than iCarly: The Sequel, $5.8 million last year from 2,245 theaters. Victorious: The Movie screened in 2,595 theaters.

With $6.8 million, it means it could be a box office hit and should easily take first place during its opening weekend, the first film from Nickelodeon Movies since 2010's iCarly: The Movie to become the number one film at the box office with $50.3 million, but will most likely fail to that film. If it made more than $35 million like $45 million in its opening weekend, that would make it the second best opening from Nickelodeon Movies.

Scary Movie is the latest installment in the long-running franchise from The Weinstein Company’s Dimension label that dates back to 2000. Malcolm D. Lee, who last directed 2008’s Soul Men, has taken over the directing reins, and the cast is something of a rogue’s gallery of bold-faced names including Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Simon Rex and Ashley Tisdale. Rated PG-13, it will open in 3,402 locations The previous film in the series, Scary Movie 4, opened to $40 million in April, 2006. But there have been a lot of variations on the horror spoof since then -- like A Haunted House, starring Marlon Wayans, which opened to $18.1 million this past January -- so Dimension isn’t looking for Scary Movie 5 to post the kind of numbers its predecessors saw. The new Scary cost just $19.5 million, and the company is looking for an opening in the mid-to-high teen millions. Also in the on-bat circle -- get ready for lots of baseball metaphors this weekend -- is 42, financed by Legendary Pictures, whose CEO Thomas Tull personally produced, and distributed by Warners. Written and directed by Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale), the film stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, who integrated baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodger line-up in 1947. Also on hand is Harrison Ford as the Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. PHOTOS: '42' L.A. Premiere: Hollywood Celebrates the Legend of Jackie Robinson Warners has paved the way for the movie, which carries a $40 million price tag, with an extensive word-of-mouth screening program -- it showed it to various teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers during spring training. The PG-13-rated movie will be playing in 3,002 locations throughout North America, and the studio is anticipating an opening weekend gross of about $15 million. It may not be immediately clear, though, which of this weekend’s two new wide releases will ultimately have the upper-hand. Appealing to younger moviegoers, Scary is likely to be the top film on Friday. But then 42 -- which is expected to attract older male sports fans but could also expand to include African-American audiences and women drawn to its love story -- could play stronger on Saturday. Sony/Tristar’s Evil Dead, which led the list last weekend with a $25.8 million bow, is expected to drop the 45 to 50 per cent that is typical of horror movies. So that should leave room for Scary and 42 to contest for the top-two spots.