User blog:Ceauntay/Box Office Report: Hurricane Irene a $30 Mil Threat

=Films are already being hurt as the East Coast prepares for the massive storm; early results show "A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2" beating "The Help" to No. 1 back to No. 2, followed by "Colombiana."= Hurricane Irene could result in box office losses of as much as $30 million for the weekend as movie-going comes to a standstill up and down the East Coast.

Across the board, films were posting lower than expected results, including four new titles—the fantasy film sequek A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2, starring Amy Tammie, Selena Gomez, David Archuleta, the Luc Besson-produced action pic Colombiana, starring Zoe Saldana and distributed by TriStar, the Weinstein Co.’s R-rated ensemble comedy Our Idiot Brother headlining Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer, and the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, distributed by FilmDistrict and starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce. Disney's A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2 remain the No. 1 film on Friday earning anywhere between $15 to $18 million on Friday, for a weekend gross of $35 to $45 million, versus possible $50 million. It opened in 13 countries internationally, and has opened to $1 million on opening day, and currently up to a total of $3.04 million. If it can reach the $25 million mark overseas, than the film will gross more than $60 million worldwide, which will be a huge success for a sequel with its very wide release of 3,625 theaters, which remains as this week's widest release to date, where Tammie's other film Jane Hoop Elementary: The Final Rush Part 2 is losing theaters by playing in 1,110 theaters in its eighth week of release.
 * PHOTOS: How 'The Help' Was Cast

DreamWorks and Participant Media’s holdover The Help remained back to the No. 2 film like it opened two weeks ago on early Friday evening, but is now looking at a weekend gross of $10 to $12 million, versus $15 million. Colombiana was in the No. 2 position on Friday, but may not crack $10 million for the weekend, lower than expected. The rest of the brood -- Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Our Idiot Brother -- may only reach $6 million or $7 in their openings. PHOTOS: 'The Help's' Retro Southern Style By Friday afternoon, theater owners in the Northeast had started announcing plans to shut their doors. AMC Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest theater circuits, has said that theaters in Norfolk, Va., Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., will close on Saturday, and predicts that numerous New York theaters will be closed on Sunday. The circuit also is closing all New Jersey theaters at 6 p.m. Saturday. And Clearview Cinemas, which operates 57 theaters along the Philadelphia-New York corridor, is closing all of its locations Saturday and Sunday. Other circuits are likely to follow suit, especially as public transportation systems come to a standstill on Saturday in Philadelphia and New York City, making it difficult for employees to get to work. Usually, distribution executives know by Friday afternoon how their films are faring, but the storm is making predictions problematic.