Box Office Predictions: Slow Weekend Will Lead Sin City To Not Stay Victorious

After a couple weeks of major movies opening up (including two weekends in a row which each brought a $60 million opener, both in August no less!), things slow down as the season of summers does the same. Three new movies open up this weekend, but none look to do particularly notable business. Let's dive in and take a look!

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has been hyped up for years (nine of them to be exact) but casual moviegoers seeing promotion for it will likely not greet it with either cheers or derision but rather puzzlement over why this movie, of all movies, is getting a sequel after all these years. The first Sin City is well-liked, and it did do respectable at the box office, but this feels like another cash-grab sequel from The Weinstein Company (like Scream 4 and Spy Kids: All The Time In The World) than a natural extension of the first movie. Look for this one to top out in the mid-teens.

I'd actually never heard of If I Stay prior to the trailers for it, so maybe that's an indication that the book isn't that popular (though before the movie started filming, I also had never heard of The Hunger Games, so what do I know?) It should be a good movie for women, who haven't had a ton of options this summer and has a good chance of beating out the latest Sin City adventure. As for the final new release, When The Game Stands Tall...seriously, this thing looks awful and box office should follow suit. If it makes more than $10 million, I'll be amazed. That low sum means it'll easily miss being a part of the Top 5, likely getting beaten out by several holdovers.

One of those holdovers will likely be Let's Be Cops, which has terrible reviews and mixed audience reception, but lack of competition will likely lead to a decent 40% hold. The Expendables 3 meanwhile will plummet to just under 60%. Despite an A- CinemaScore, I just haven't heard anything in the way of buzz for this movie so I doubt it sticks around. And The Giver is likely gonna crater with a 60+% dip, making this one of two big misses for The Weinstein Company this month.

The two major August releases, Guardians of The Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will continue their runs this weekend to great results. Guardians will likely follow it's victory over the reptiles on the Monday box office and finally beat out Turtles this weekend, though it'll still be close. I'll talk about it more next weekend, but I will note that both of these movies will get a massive boost over Labor Day, which has traditionally been very kind to major blockbusters.

As for arthouse movies, it's actually pretty quiet this weekend. To my knowledge, nothings expanding into wide release and only one limited release this weekend has a shot at finding mainstream success. That movie is Sundance sensation Love Is Strange, which has gotten rave reviews and should find great success in arthouse cinemas. How it'll fare in wide release is hard to determine but I myself can't wait to see it!

Below, you can seem my opening weekend and final gross predictions for three new releases this weekend, as well as my Top 5 predictions.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Opening Weekend: $16 million
Total Gross: $40 million

If I Stay
Opening Weekend: $15 million
Total Gross: $35 million

When The Game Stands Tall
Opening Weekend: $7 million
Total Gross: $17 million

1) Sin City: A Dame To Kill For: $16 million
2) Guardians of The Galaxy: $15.5 million
3) If I Stay: $15 million
4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: $14 million
5) Let's Be Cops: $10.8 million