New year with lots of movies and fresh start with new tracking and counters reset.
This is a preview of the 2011 movies by each quarter, this section is for January to March 2011.
January 2011
This is generally a weak month where movies don't have huge grosses. The biggest movies to come out are battling on the same weekend "The Dilemma" (with Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly, directed by Ron Howard) and "The Green Hornet"(with Seth Rogen, Christopher Waltz, Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou).Both these movies had decent tracking, when Sony decided their previous summer tentpole Green Hornet to give a last minute marketing push. If there is a chance to see a 100m+ movie this January it has to be one of these, though Green Hornet with IMAX and 3D surcharges has the upper hand.
Satanic theme based movies like "Season of the Witch" (starring Nicholas Cage) and "The Rite" (starring Anthony Hopkins) will hardly register anything at Box Office. Action thriller "The Mechanic" (starring Jason Statham) also comes out but would fade out faster. Oscar hopeful Portman will help "No Strings Attached" to a good Box office, though an empty market for this genre could also be a factor. Platform releases that are expected to expand are "Country Strong" (starring Gwyneth Paltrow) which is trying to repeat the last year's run of Crazy Heart, "I Love You Phillip Morris" (starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor), "The Way Back" (starring Ed Harris, Jim Strugess and Colin Farrell). Similar to last year, holdovers and Oscar touted movies will do more business in January than the combined new releases. Look out for great legs from "True Grit", "The King's Speech", "Black Swan" and "The Fighter". With MLK weekend, Golden Globes and Oscar nominations all of these should see an uptick in their grosses
February 2011
Compared to last year February 2011 seems pretty weak. None of the movies have huge breaking out potential or have unconvinving trailer. The only movie that looks to pass 100m is "Just Go With it" (starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston). "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" will have the biggest opening but will fade out fast. Summit's "Drive Angry" in 3D (starring Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard) has generated a lot of interest with good trailers and will certainly be a sleepr hit. Warner Bros action thriller "Unknown"(starring Liam Neeson) looks very similar to Taken and should do well.
The first animated movie of the year comes from Miramax with Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D, expect lesser opening but decent legs. Fox's "Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son" (starring martin Lawrence) will see franchise fatigue even after 5 years of gap and Warner Bros "Hall Pass" (starring Owen Wilson) should do just fine. Disney's Sci-fi Adventure "I am Number Four" (with no major stars) and Focus Features Epic adventure "The Eagle"(starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell) will try to attract younger audience but have not generated as much interest yet. Thrillers for the month are "The Roommate" by Sony (starring Cam Gigandet), Weinstien's delayed horror thriller "Shelter"(starring Julianne Morre and Jonathan Rhys Myers) and Executive Producer James Cameron's 3D cave diving thriller "Sanctum in 3D", all of these will have trouble scaring audience. This is still Oscar season so look out for great holds and probable re-expasion for Winners. "True Grit", "The King's Speech" and "Black Swan" should still be sailing through good holds entire month, plus expect "Blue Valentine" to expand and "The Social Network" to re-expand.
March 2011
Last year we saw the juggernaut in "Alice in Wonderland" which would be difficult to match by any of the openers in 2011. Family movies have been doing great in past years and it is good to say that either Paramount's "Rango" (voicing Johnny Depp) or Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" (voicing John Cusack) should take the March crown. Younger comedies including Fox's last year surprise hit "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 : Roddick Rules" and Universal's Paul (voicing Seth Rogen) should be sleeper hits as well.
Teenage audience will be the most pleased this March with CBS Films "Beastly" (starring Venessa Hudgens), Warner Bros "Red Riding Hood" (starring Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman) are aimed at female audience. With romantic comedy from Relativity "Take Me Home Tonight" (starring Topher Grace and Anna Faris) to WB's action oriented "Sucker Punch" young male audience will also be satisfied. Though from all of these Sucker Punch with no known actors seems to have the upper hand. March has a lot to look for other demos with Sony's alien invasion probably topping the list with "Battle: Los Angeles" (starring Aaron Eckhart). Universal's "The Adjustment Bureau"(starring Matt Damon), Lionsgate's screen adaptation of Michael Connelly's best selling novel "The Lincoln Lawyer"(starring an all star cast led by Mathew McConaughey) and Relativity's Limitless (starring Bradley Cooper) will all have good openings as well. This is the very first big screen adaptation to Connelly's novel and that could show some great legs and win over all adults section.
Between January to March, 2011 will have tough time beating 2010 which was exceptional the first three months, thanks to Avatar, Alice in Wonderland,the President's day weekend openers, Dear John and How to Train Your Dragon (though most of it came from the next part). The strongest part of 2011 will be possibly this Summer between May to August 2011. Look out for more articles for every quarter of rest of the year, the next one being Movies 2011 - April to May 2011
