Each Thursday we look at what is going to be coming out in theaters this weekend, show you the trailers for the big releases, predict the box office winner and just generally give you enough of a carrot to pull you through the rest of the work week. February 3rd is Super Bowl weekend and studios tend to give America’s biggest television event of the year a wide berth, so there are only two new releases.
This weekend, if you add the combined percentages of Rotten Tomatoes for the new releases together you get 8. Eight. As in two less than the number of fingers I’m using to type this. Rings, the long-delayed latest installment in a horror series I’ve never bothered to watch a single one of has not been screened for critics (say it all together: BAAAAAD SIGN), and The Space Between Us was delayed out of awards season, apparently for a very good reason as it accounts for all 8% of the Rotten Tomatoes score. Usually Asa Butterfield does nothing but quality films, but …..eight.
Rings (Johnny Galecki, PG-13, 1hr 57min)
The Space Between Us (Asa Butterfiled, PG-13, 2hr 0min)
HOW DID WE DO LAST WEEK?
KT has ridden the Night train back to a 2017 winning record a Split repeated at the box office, only losing an astonishingly low 23% of business from its opening weekend. Split finished with $25.7 million to A Dog’s Purpose $18.3 million. Resident Evil’s last installment barely made the Top 5.
(2017 Prediction Record: 3-2; Lifetime prediction record 41-7).
WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
This is a two-way race between Split and Rings, but with Underworld and Resident Evil showing us that franchises long dormant lose their momentum, I don’t know that anyone is clamoring to see another installment of a tired horror series, and Night’s comeback film is generating tremendous word-of-mouth. I think Split wins narrowly to get a three-peat before The LEGO Batman Movie annihilate the box office next weekend.
