Last week gave Sensei a strong finish to the month. His January
prediction accuracy puts him at the top of prediction sites. Not bad.
Sensei's weekend predictions and revenue results go as follows:
1. "Warm Bodies" ($22 million) -
Super Bowl weekend usually destroys new film releases. Warm Bodies does have momentum with its great marketing and a welcome change
of pace for the zombie genre. There's enough positive buzz here to equal
last year's Chronicle opening ($22 million). Still, finishing
anywhere the $20 million mark on Super Bowl weekend would be impressive.
2. "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" ($9.2 million) - Super Bowl weekend will not be kind to this one. Film will easily suffer a drop more than 50 percent off last weekend's opening.
3. "Silver Linings Playbook" ($7.3 million) -
This sleeper hit snuck its way into the top five the last couple of weeks.
Jennifer Lawrence will again add another top five finish to her box
office resume.
4. "Zero Dark Thirty" ($6.5 million) - It's
a shame this film's Best Picture Oscar chances have gone the way of Osama bin
Laden himself (done and done). Still, film will be comforted in pulling
more impressive box office numbers this weekend.
5. "Bullet to the Head" ($6.3 million) - Sylvester
Stallone returns in this action vehicle, but marketing has been stale.
Adding to the film's troubles is no recognizable co-stars to help
strengthen its box office core. Going with lower results here.
In other calls:
Despite
being on only 450 theaters, look for Al Pacino and Christopher Walken's Stand Up Guys to pull in around $1.7 million for the weekend.
And as for the Super Bowl itself -- 49ers 34, Ravens 24.
That's Sensei's calls. Enjoy the game.