Estimated theatre counts:

The Meg - 3,900
Slender Man - 2,000
BlacKkKlansman - 1,500

BlacKkKlansman might be the easiest to predict. It has considerable buzz in the right circles and will do extremely well in limited wide release. Legs might be below par for a well-reviewed film-festival drama, though.

I thought Slender Man had more potential once upon a time, at the height of the "meme's" notoriety. But the advertising campaign is very muted (perhaps because the studio is afraid of controversy), and it does not seem to be on the radar of teenage moviegoers the way it should be. Feels reminiscent of The Forest and Rings.

The Meg...I don't know. The studio spent 150 million dollars on it, and they are releasing it in almost 4,000 theatres, but I am not sure there is a huge audience for a "winking" giant-shark movie with Jason Statham. Feels a bit Snakes on a Plane.

The Meg - 19 million
BlacKkKlansman - 15
Slender Man - 11

The Meg - 18
Slender Man - 13
BlacKkKlansman - 8
Dog Days - 4

After Sharknado I think it's going to be really hard to make people buy into a popcorn style shark movie

If they'd pushed Slender Man harder I think it could have opened higher than The Meg.

Statham’s highest opening in a lead role is $16m for Transporter 2. Kinda crazy that he was “the action guy” for several years and could never get higher than that.

But I think he works well for this. Sells it as a very silly movie right at the title screen, but still a big enough deal to some known stars. I’m calling $30m - get chomped suckas.

The Meg $37m
BlacKkKlansman $10m
Slender Man $9m

Meg - $18m
BlacKkKlansman - $7m
Slender Man - $11m

The Meg - $25m
BlacKkKlansman - $9m
Slender Man - $8.5m

Monsters movies usually do well, so The Meg should lead the weekend. With the late date change and low screen count, things are not looking good for Slender Man. BlacKkKlansman should do better than Detroit with the satirical comic angle.

Wouldn't it be something if Slenderman topped The Meg? I actually thought it would for the longest time, but Sony doesn't seem to be pushing it very hard at all. I would also hope the massive difference in theatre counts would be more in The Meg's favor, but the fact that it's playing on almost 4,000 screens is still kind of crazy to me.

I understand Warner Bros unwisely spent a lot of money on it, but unless they are expecting the movie to open in the $50-$60M range I just don't get it. It's definitely reminiscent of New Line's ill placed confidence in SOAP all those years ago except at least that movie didn't cost $150M to make.

Well, they have to give it the best possible chance. It's about opening weekend for WB, not PTA. They are certainly backing up the poster tagline, "Opening Wide".

Yeah it makes sense for them to be releasing Meg in maximum theaters specially in dog days of summer

THE MEG - 25 MILLION
SLENDER MAN - 15.7 MILLION
BLACKKKLANSMAN - 14 MILLION
DOG DAYS - 4.3 MILLION (3-Day)/6 MILLION (5-Day)

Almost $16 million for Slender Man would be a fucking result. Can't see anyone giving a shit about it, though. Think we're in for a shockingly bad performance.

Sensing a lot of overpredictions for The Meg. Despite the massive TC, I feel the buzz isn't much stronger than 47 Meter Down.

The Meg - 25 million
BlacKkKlansman - 17
Slender Man - 11

I mean, The Shallows got to $17 mil OW. So I'd think the Meg could at least hit that.

Right...?

Wow at those Blackkklansman reviews on both RT and MC. I can see why its getting a lot of Oscar buzz. I never thought Jason Blum will be nominated for Academy Award two years in a row.

Is Blackkklansman from Blumhouse? I don't remember seeing Blum's involvement in the movie.

Yup. Jason Blun is one of the producers. It's kind of odd because some of his movies uses his production logo in the trailers and some don't. Blackkklansman, the first Purge, and Glass did not have his logo in the trailer but Halloween did.

Its been awhile since Spike has had a good movie, Inside Man was 12 years ago, but the talent is clearly there. I’ll probably check it out later in the month when there is nothing else to see.

It is indeed weird. Maybe its more towards the production house being involved (possibly a team) vs his personal involvement

1. THE MEG - 25 MILLION (New)
2. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - 22.254 MILLION (-37%)
3. BLACKKKLANSMAN - 14 MILLION (New)
4. CHRISTOPHER ROBIN - 13.767 MILLION (-44%)
5. SLENDER MAN - 12.5 MILLION (New)
6. THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME - 6.656 MILLION (-45%)
7. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 - 5.523 MILLION (-31%)
8. MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN - 5.49 MILLION (-39%)
9. THE EQUALIZER 2 - 4.99 MILLION (-43%)
10. DOG DAYS - 4.333 MILLION (3-Day)/6 MILLION (5-Day) (New)
11. ANT-MAN & THE WASP - 4.2 MILLION (-34%)
12. INCREDIBLES 2 - 3.585 MILLION (-28%)
13. THE DARKEST MINDS - 2.8 MILLION (-52%)
14. JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM - 2.294 MILLION (-42%)
15. TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES - 1.958 MILLION (-59%)

MI6 is going to repeat on top again this weekend. Meg won't even reach $20m mark, the buz seems really muted, Statham has never proven to be a big draw, only thing it has going for is the big-budget and large screen presence. I don't think it will be enough to get it past $20m.

I don't think anyone seeing it cares about Statham..