‘Speed Racer’ tracking indicates miserable openingMay 1st, 2008 at 5:00 am

Warner Bros better get that ‘Speed Racer’ marketing campaign into action, because the $100 million Wachowski Brothers movie is set for an opening at $35 million max next week. The family picture is currently tracking behind ‘Prince Caspian,’ the new Narnia movie, which is even releasing a week later.
‘Un-Aided Awareness’ for ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ is 9%, while ‘Speed Racer’ does 8% just a week before its release. ‘Definite Interest’ is 44% for Narnia and 32% for ‘Speed Racer.’ And lastly, ‘First Choice’ is 17% for Narnia, with just 4% for ‘Speed Racer.’
I may not be the target audience for this Warner Bros blockbuster, but I have to agree with the tracking numbers. The trailer didn’t get me into this movie at all. It looks like they wanted to make a ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ racer, but without the fun.
‘Iron Man’ actually able to top $110 million?April 29th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Apparently Paramount was just downplaying their box office star when they said they were expecting ‘Iron Man’ man to do $60-$70 million. Sure, you don’t want people to point and laugh at you when your blockbuster makes $50 million less than you expected, but sources now say ‘Iron Man’ is currently out-tracking last summers’ ‘Transformers.’
While the ‘Total Awareness’ was bigger for ‘Transformers,’ the Robert Downey Jr. vehicle has a better ‘Definite Interest number’ (51%-46%) and a better ‘First Choice score’ (29%-23%). With an $8 million preview on Thursday, a $38 opening Friday, and respectively $37 million and $28 million for Saturday and Sunday, this will make for a $111 million opening weekend. And it will put the movie in the top 10 of best openings and the second place for a non-sequel opening.
Personally, I think it won’t do more than $100 million in its opening weekend, but I’m not sure how much hype there is for this movie in the US. You could consider the lack of big movies the last weeks, which would make for a hungry public. But with all the upcoming box office monsters and GTA IV just getting into the households, the public might not be that hungry after all.