Would it be fair to say the two comedies releasing next week are rather low on buzz? I’d say so. ‘Get Smart’ has the ‘Speed Racer’ vibe going, it’s based on some TV show in the sixties nobody remembers. And ‘The Love Guru’ has the Mike Myers vibe going, which can be bad (’The Cat in the Hat’) or pretty good (’Austin Powers’).

At this point, Warner’s ‘Get Smart’ is topping the Mike Myers vehicle. Especially the older crowd (25+) prefers Steve Carell over Mike Myers at this point. With about the same budgets, around $80 million, this could be a tight race. Let’s have an early look at the tracking numbers to see their box office potential.

Continue reading Early ‘Love Guru’ and ‘Get Smart’ box office tracking

With the summer around the corner, everybody is betting one the new ‘Indiana Jones’ to take the top spot. People in other countries may go out swimming or sunbathing, but the US has its bussiest season during those days, with 40% of the tickets sold between May and August.

Last year a whopping $9.62 billion was made, with summer blockbusters like ‘Spider-man 3,’ ‘Shrek the Third’ and ‘Transformers.’ But this summer isn’t short on potential box office wonders either. Here are the candidates with their budgets as found on the speculative internet.

• ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ ($100 million)
• ‘Speed Racer’ ($100 million)
• ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ ($125 million)
• ‘The Dark Knight’ ($150 million)
• ‘The Incredible Hulk’ ($125 million)
• ‘Iron Man’ ($186 million)
• ‘The Happening’ ($57 million)
• ‘Wall-e’ ($120 million)
• ‘Tropic Thunder’ ($150 million)
• ‘Meet Dave’ ($100 million)
• ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ ($75 million)
• ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ ($65 million)
• ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ ($35 million)
• ‘Get Smart’ (”biggest Peter Segal budget,” $100 million maybe?)
• ‘Hancock’ (??)
• ‘The Love Guru’ (??)

You don’t have to add up all these budgets to know it will be a good summer for Hollywood.