User blog:Ceauntay/Box Office: 'Scooby' Scares for Top, 'Hop' jumped short

A tough thing about Warner Bros. new CGI film is that it would roughly be some major disappointment. Warner Bros. hopes that it would be a huge flop.

Following the success of Warner Bros. fall computer animated "Happy Feet" that debuts with $41.5 million before going to gross $384 million worldwide in 2006, Warner Bros. as well as Hanna Barbera will bring "Scooby-Doo! The Movie" to 4,119 theaters with an extended 233 IMAX screens this weekend.

The animated pic (scoring 47 percent from Rotten Tomatoes) will be opening to a possible $60 million leading it to win this weekend's box office, which is double than it's modest $30 million budget. However, it'll also have a better opening than the two live-action Scooby-Doo films, Scooby-Doo with $54 million in 2002, and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed with $29 million in 2004.

Following last summer's breakout success with "Despicable Me," a film that debuted to $56.4 million domestically before going on to gross $528 million worldwide, Universal and Illumination will bring live-action/CG combo film "Hop" into 3,577 theaters this weekend. The lightly-regarded 3D film (scoring only a 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) is expecting to take second spot to $30 million. Opening in 2,961 U.S. and Canadian locations, Summit's Jake Gyllenhaal thriller "Source Code" is expected to finish second with a gross in the high teens ... and could be a dark horse this spring, given its solid critical reception (89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). Oren Peli-produced indie horror film "Insidious" -- which is being opened in 2,408 theaters in North America by FilmDistrict -- could bring in as much as $10 million this weekend. The Weinstein Company, meanwhile, is re-releasing a PG-13 version of the Oscar-dominating "King's Speech" in 1,011 locations. As for "Hop," the Relativity-co-financed film's reasonable price tag ($63 million, according to Universal) should render it fairly profitable -- especially when strong international play and cute-character-based ancillary products are thrown in. Released in early April instead of the blockbuster season of early July, "Hop's" backers aren't necessarily eager to compare the film to "Despicable Me." One rival-studio marketing official compares the film, which features Russell Brand voicing a CG bunny rabbit that interacts with the live-action James Marsden, more to Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks" franchise than your typical CG-animated movie. "You can almost hear Jason Lee screaming, 'Alvin!'" the exec noted, referencing what he said was the effectiveness of a recent trailer. It's worth noting, however, that on the same weekend last year, DreamWorks Animation got its stock hammered when it opened "How to Train Your Dragon" to $43.7 million. "Hop" probably won't even come close to that level. According to one tracking firm, the pre-release data is not that dynamic for "Hop," with the under-25 set reporting 63 percent total awareness among young males and 73 percent awareness among young females, with "definite interest" coming in at 30 percent and 40 percent respectively for the two groups. "Source Code," meanwhile, stars Gyllenhaal as a soldier locked into a "Groundhog Day"-like relationship with a train accident. Financed by Vendome Pictures and shot for $32 million after rebates, the film has received solid reviews (89 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), with pre-release tracking suggesting an opening-weekend gross of somewhere around $15 million-$20 million. Total awareness among all quadrants for "Source Code" is only 62 percent, with 37 percent registering definite interest and 6 percent calling it their "first choice." "Insidious," meanwhile, has also garnered solid reviews (69 percent fresh). The $1.5 million horror film -- which stars Rose Byrne and Barbara Hershey -- was acquired by FilmDistrict for $5 million, which also committed about $25 million for prints and advertising. Pre-release tracking estimates the film will do about $10 million this weekend, with total awareness coming in at a paltry 50 percent.