What are you seeing this weekend November 10th

[Kernan]

After a shocker of a weekend last week in which a movie on only 800 screens blew away the competition at the box office, 4 new releases hit theaters, one more expands for the first time and that shocking number 1 from last week expands as well. This leaves us with one of the more unpredictable weekends in box office history.
6 movies are either opening or expanding to more than 1000 screens this weekend with Borat, last weeks number 1, looking like the strongest of the 6. Borat scored 27 million last weekend and the second week drop off should be relatively low considering the heavy positive buzz and the addition of 1500 more screens in parts of the country that didn't get the movie last week, like my part of the country.
The top competition is likely to come from another comedy. Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell has run a very successful ad campaign and has good recognition across multiple demographics. Borat does hurt Fiction's chances, both being comedies, but if Fiction can skew a little older it should do alright.
One to watch this weekend is the expanding Oscar contender Babel. The buzz is good and Brad Pitt is always a big draw but one is left to wonder where the audience will come from. The film will have to pull older audiences from Stranger Than Fiction and another new release, the Russell Crowe romance A Good Year. Babel and Good Year will lilkely cannibalize one another which really hurts Babel because box office is becoming more and more of a determinate in the Oscar race. A rough weekend won't eliminate Babel but it won't help.
And there are still two other releases that are both looking dead in the water given the heavyweight competition. The Return, a horror film starring Sarah Michele Geller will suffer this weekend from the Borat factor. The saving grace for The Return is it's PG-13 rating. The Return will compete with Stranger Than Fiction for the teens who can't legally get in to see Borat.
Why the producers of Harsh Times thought this was a good weekend to open is anyone's guess. The film struggled to find screens and will struggle mightily to find an audience. Christian Bale is becoming a very good actor but despite being Batman, Bale is not a big enough name to open a dark R-rated thriller against this level of competition.

What are you seeing this weekend?

Babel
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/babel/

Stranger Than Fiction
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stranger_than_fiction/

Harsh Times
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harsh_times/

A Good Year
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/good_year/

The Return
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/return/

Borat
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/borat/
_________________
Kernan

[iv3rdawG]

Well I've seen Babel and Borat. So if I do go see a movie this weekend I'd probably see Stranger Than Fiction.