Following the Oscar nominations, this weekend is sure to be fueled by moviegoers playing catch-up with as many of the nominees as they can. This doesn’t bode well for the week’s new releases. That’s probably exactly why three studios decided to dump their weak titles here.
Opening on more than 3,000 screens is Sony’s ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter‘. Like the last ‘Underworld’, this is said to be the final entry in the run-down franchise. Director Paul W.S. Anderson and his wife Milla Jovovich once again return for this fifth installment that takes the ass-kicking leading lady back to the evil corporation headquarters where it all started. Much like Kate Beckinsale’s female-driven action series, the ‘Resident Evil’ movies haven’t been terrible; but they also haven’t been great. The previous three have resided in the mediocre zone, leading me to believe that ‘The Final Chapter’ will be more of the same.
Someone at Universal still thinks that talking animal movies are cool. The new family film ‘A Dog’s Purpose‘ hits 2,900 screens. In the vein of the ‘Look Who’s Talking’ installment that introduced talking pets, this picture looks to tug at the heart-strings of dog lovers all over the world. The story follows the many reincarnated lives of one dog’s soul that passes into a newborn puppy each time he dies. Get ready to watch a series of sweet stories that all end with dogs dying. Universal hopes that by having the dog voiced by Josh Gad, you won’t mind too much.
The Weinstein Company once had high hopes for the Matthew McConaughey drama ‘Gold‘, but the studio abandoned its late-2016 release and Oscar push for a January opening with negligible marketing. Now playing on 2,200 screens, the film is about an eager and out-of-his-mind prospector who risks it all for the potential find of a lifetime. Believing that the obvious gold spots have already been found and claimed, he recruits the help of a geologist played by Edgar Ramirez. The two take their operation to the most unlikely of places: a dense jungle in Indonesia. Considering the lack of attention it’s getting, I’m guessing this movie won’t find much gold at the box office this weekend.
As the Spanish-language releases of the recent past have, this weekend’s 300-screen opening of ‘Un Padre No Tan Padre‘ has a chance at cracking into the Top 10 box office stats. The story follows an ornery old man whose antics get him booted from his retirement home. With nowhere to go, his son takes him in and hijinks ensue.
