Let's Be Cops wins!
While none of this week's Movie Kombat kontestants won the overall box office this weekend, Let's Be Cops beat out The Expendables 3 and The Giver for this week's victory. Behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy, Let's Be Cops rolled in at third with $17.7 million. That's a pretty strong opening for the cop comedy, which only cost $17 million to make and ended up breaking even in as little as 3 days. The Expendables 3, and The Giver, on the other hand, failed to meet expectations. The big-budget action star ensemble of The Expendables 3 pulled in $16.2 million, and while just barely behind Let's Be Cops, the film certainly cost a lot more money to make. Many will try to blame the weak box office performance on the film's online leak a few weeks ago, though I think box office statistics have shown that most people have grown tired of these old action-stars. In fifth place is The Giver, the emotion-oppressed utopian film starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep which only managed to muster a disappointing total of $12.8 million. It looks like the summer box office may be losing steam, although next week Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and If I Stay look to get things back on track.
Welcome to this week's edition of Movie Kombat, where movies face-off in a box-office battle! This week features three kombatants (The Expendables 3, The Giver, and Let's Be Cops) fighting each other in a furious free-for-all. Which of these films is gonna come out on top? It's truly anyone's game this week. It's up to you readers to vote and decide which of these movies you think is going to have the most success this opening weekend. You can also up the ante by using the comment section below to predict just how much money you expect each of these three films will bring in over the course of the weekend.
Let's Be Cops vs The Giver vs The Expendables 3
(Note: I should point out that Let's Be Cops actually opened on Wednesday, August 13th, which is two days earlier than the other films. Since it wouldn't be fair to match its 5-day weekend total up against the 3-day weekend totals of The Giver and The Expendables 3, I'm only going to factor in its Friday through Sunday weekend numbers for this feature.)
First up we have Let's Be Cops, the buddy-cop comedy starring Jake Johnson, and Damon Wayans Jr. (Yes, the son of the comedy legend Damon Wayans). It's about two guys who dress up as police officers for a costume party, and when people actually think they're cops, they decide to keep the act running and end up getting caught up in crime-fighting, police activity. I expect the film to do quite well for itself considering its hilarious pair of trailers.
The Giver also opens this weekend, starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and introducing Brenton Thwaites. Based on the popular book by Lois Lowry, The Giver is about people living in a utopian community devoid of emotion and disparity, where everyone's role in life is preordained by the always-watchful elders. While it may appear that they all live in a perfect world, it turns out that creating such unity and harmony comes at a terrible cost.
Last but not least, we have The Expendables 3 opening this weekend. Starring Sylvester Stallone, it's the latest movie in the explosive series that brings together Hollywood's greatest macho men as a band of mercenaries. This third film is said to be the final one (although I think that will likely be determined by how well this one performs at the box office), and it adds Mel Gibson as the villain. It has an enormous cast of action-star veterans and features the box-office return of Wesley Snipes.
First up we have Let's Be Cops, the buddy-cop comedy starring Jake Johnson, and Damon Wayans Jr. (Yes, the son of the comedy legend Damon Wayans). It's about two guys who dress up as police officers for a costume party, and when people actually think they're cops, they decide to keep the act running and end up getting caught up in crime-fighting, police activity. I expect the film to do quite well for itself considering its hilarious pair of trailers.
The Giver also opens this weekend, starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and introducing Brenton Thwaites. Based on the popular book by Lois Lowry, The Giver is about people living in a utopian community devoid of emotion and disparity, where everyone's role in life is preordained by the always-watchful elders. While it may appear that they all live in a perfect world, it turns out that creating such unity and harmony comes at a terrible cost.
Last but not least, we have The Expendables 3 opening this weekend. Starring Sylvester Stallone, it's the latest movie in the explosive series that brings together Hollywood's greatest macho men as a band of mercenaries. This third film is said to be the final one (although I think that will likely be determined by how well this one performs at the box office), and it adds Mel Gibson as the villain. It has an enormous cast of action-star veterans and features the box-office return of Wesley Snipes.
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I must admit, I'm feeling a little uncertain here with estimating how much these films will make, but I'm gonna give it my best shot and I hope you will too. I really have no idea how The Giver will perform, but considering it's based off of a popular book, I think it will do quite well. The Expendables films haven't performed so well at the box-office, which has caused the filmmakers to aim for a PG-13 rating to increase ticket sales. While PG-13 movies do typically make substantially more money, a lot of people are outraged over the violent series converting to PG-13 and might avoid it for that reason. Then there's Let's Be Cops to consider. Comedies usually do quite well opening weekend, although this one appears to be up against some pretty stiff competition. With all that said, here are my predictions for this weekend's Movie Kombat:
The Expendables 3 - $26 million
The Giver - $22 million
Let's Be Cops - $18 million
As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy, I decided to leave them out of this week's competition, although I think both of them will still be in the running. TMNT may even have another shot at the title. Even with a 50% drop, it would still manage to bring in about $32 million, which is higher than any of my estimates. Still, I thought these three films itself were an interesting enough match-up by themselves.
Thanks for voting! Please leave your estimates below! Be sure to join us next week as the rough-edged residents of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For attempt to to murder the tear-jerker romance If I Stay.
The Expendables 3 - $26 million
The Giver - $22 million
Let's Be Cops - $18 million
As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy, I decided to leave them out of this week's competition, although I think both of them will still be in the running. TMNT may even have another shot at the title. Even with a 50% drop, it would still manage to bring in about $32 million, which is higher than any of my estimates. Still, I thought these three films itself were an interesting enough match-up by themselves.
Thanks for voting! Please leave your estimates below! Be sure to join us next week as the rough-edged residents of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For attempt to to murder the tear-jerker romance If I Stay.
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