Saturday update:
Will Ferrell's movie career is back on track, with the comedian's Sony cop comedy "The Other Guys" debuting strongly to $13.2 million Friday, according to studio estimates.
The PG-13-rated film, directed by the former "Saturday Night Live" star's Gary Sanchez Productions partner, Adam McKay, is on pace for a $35 million premiere weekend, which would narrowly exceed pre-release estimates.
It will also end the run of Warner's "Inception" as the domestic box office's top film. The Christopher Nolan-directed thriller started its fourth weekend in third place with $5.6 million Friday. It's on pace for just under $20 million this weekend.
Debuting in second place, Disney/Summit's "Step Up 3-D" managed to exceed dour low-teen pre-release estimates, grossing $6.6 million Friday. It's on pace for over $15 million for the three-day period.
Thursday preview:
He hasn’t reached the kind of automatic $100 million level of reliability for Sony that, say, Adam Sandler has, but any time Will Ferrell teams up with his Gary Sanchez production partner, Adam McKay, odds of success are good for the studio.
The pair will once again put their comedic formula to the test Friday, when Sony cop-drama spoof “The Other Guys” debuts in 3,400-plus theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
It’s one of two new wide releases this weekend, debuting alongside Disney/Summit tween-targeted sequel “Step Up 3-D.” Paramount also will release Luke Wilson-starrer “Middle Men” in about 250 theaters.
Among other limited openings, Hannover House will also release Joel Schumacher’s “Twelve” in over 200 theaters. The film stars rapper 50 Cent as a troubled New York drug dealer, alongside Chace Crawford. Also opening this weekend is Warner’s Rob Reiner-directed PG comedy “Flipped,” which will start out in around 40 theaters.
Budgeted at around $85 million, the PG-13-rated “Other Guys” — directed by McKay and starring Ferrell alongside Mark Wahlberg as NYPD paper-pushers looking to get in on the action — is tracking to gross about $30 million in its first three days in theaters.
That would be in line with the last Ferrell’s last McKay-directed film for Sony, 2008’s “Step Brothers,” which debuted to $30 million and ultimately surpassed $100 million domestically.
In 2006, the pair collaborated on the NASCAR send-up “Talladega Nights,” opening to a Ferrell-best $47 million on the way to a $148 million domestic haul. And before that, they did DreamWorks’ “Anchorman” together in 2004, premiering to $28.4 million on the way to $85.2 million.
Of course, without McKay, it’s been a different story for Ferrell in recent years. Universal’s “Land of the Lost” and Warner/New Line’s “Semi-Pro” both lost money.
Reviews-wise, Ferrell is getting higher-than-usual critical praise, with Rotten Tomatoes currently aggregating “Other Guys” at nearly 80 percent fresh.
Should “The Other Guys” – which co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, The Rock, Steve Coogan, Michael Keaton and former “Daily Show” newsman Rob Riggle – meet its tracking, it will unseat Warner’s “Inception” as the top draw at the domestic box office.
The Christopher Nolan sci-fi thriller has led the market for three consecutive weeks, never dropping more than 36 percent. A similar decline will deliver the film a gross of around $17 million this weekend. It’s already surpassed $205 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Contending for third place, and vying against “The Other Guys” for comedy-loving male audience members, Paramount/DreamWorks’ “Dinner for Schmucks” will enter its second weekend with a reasonable expectation of around $15 million for the three-day period.
Meanwhile, debuting in 2,435 theaters, the Disney-distributed/Summit-co-produced third “Step Up” movie is projected to taken in between $12 million and $14 million this weekend.
Especially when premium 3D ticket prices are factored in, this is notably far less than the 2006 original, which grossed $114.2 million worldwide on a negative cost of only $12 million. And in 2008, “Step Up 2 the Streets” grossed $148.6 million.
