Happy Friday the 13th Folks! Hope yours wasn’t filled with arbitrarily timed tragedy. Mine started well with a trip to see a good movie, but soon declined when a pair of comedians I really love were kinda shitty to me. Not like I was trying to help sell their DVDs and endorse their comedy or anything! The weekend should be good though, and now predictions..!

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Thor is going to be just fine ya’ll.

The big news this week is that “Hey, Bridesmaids is a romantic-comedy that dudes can totally like and stuff!” which is true, but it’s also a sad way of endorsing an excellent movie. It’s not a genre game-changer (whatever the hell that would even mean) but I think it’s better to say something like…

“Hey  bro, you know how Pixar makes kids movies that aren’t dumb as a box of dumb things, and they’re crafted with class and a devotion to character that makes them accessible to all audiences while still ultimately serving the target demo?”

“For sure.”

“Well Bridesmaids was made with that same kind of care and is very much a romantic comedy, but done with enough skill to please any discerning viewer.”

On second thought, maybe “it’s a chick flick that doesn’t suck ass” is easier.

The critical acclaim is quickly growing for Bridesmaids, and while the word-of-mouth is almost certain to be excellent, have they sold it well enough to get out that first weekend audience? Probably well enough for it to land somewhere between the opening totals of two other sharper-than-your-average chick flicks, Mean Girls and Baby Mama– both of which had an association with strong female personality. I’m thinking Bridesmaids will hit right around the 20 million mark, maybe without actually crossing the line. This could be a movie with a burn that is slow, though. Even then, as good as it is, I don’t think this is a $100m dollar movie, but it could do the $75ish that sometimes happens with the more successful rom-coms. I’m pulling for it, and Kristin Wiig has an opportunity to be grab hold of that female audience that is looking for a role model that’s a more relatable (i.e. not super model) pretty woman with a sense of humor, but not quite as much the hidden-hottie-nerd thing that Tina Fey has cornered. Maybe I’m saying she could be the funnier, less nightmarish Sarah Jessica Parker..?

Also among the new is Priest, which Nick and I discuss extensively in this week’s Video Wrap Up. I’m thinking Legion numbers are safe enough to go by, although that is somehow still 17 fucking million dollars. Priest does a have a graphic novel audience and an ever-so-slightly better looking trailer, but the shelving and good word-of-mouth on Thor makes me think it will all even out. I guess there is the 3D thing to consider (roughly 2/3s of its screens are 3D), but I dunno. Fuck it. I didn’t see Legion and I won’t see this, so you’ll all have to let me know if it’s better than it looks.

Fast Five will start hitting the lower gears this weekend, and will be kicking the tires to see how much momentum it actually has for the long-haul road trip, after it’s stellar quarter mile. Inertia. Rotational torque. Chasis. Sorry, had to flush out my system before the metaphor got out of hand. I’m thinking the newness will get Priest over Fast 6 Minus 1, but there are some that think the auto-heist flick will still stick around at number three. Last week’s drop was a bit nastier than expected though, so I think the downforce will kick in here (shit, there went another). We’ll get a clearer idea of its possible final tally after week 3 as well.

Jumping the Broom should cling to the top five, having won out between the two rom-coms last weekend. That fringe religious/African-American audience tends to split quickly though, so with Bridesmaids bleeding a lot of the audience it’s not going to make much of a showing and will make its way towards its inevitable Tyler-Perry-low-end $40m pretty quick.

For those looking for a more alternative option, don’t forget to take a look at Hesher, which is busting out a limited release this week. I’ve got a director interview that I’ll post early next week, but I wasn’t fortunate enough to catch it at SXSW. That said, I’ve heard it’s been cut more since that debut, and that it’s even better than it already was. Plus it’s filled with Metallica- even Thor can’t boast that kind of balls.

Which takes us around to….

Thor ….. $30,000,000
Bridesmaids ….. $19,700,000
Priest ….. $17,000,000
Fast Five ….. $15,500,000
Jumping The Broom ….. $7,000,000

Come back Sunday to wonder what the fuck I was thinking with me.

The thread in which you talk about this stuff.