Weekend Forecast: 'Pixels' to Invade Family Market, 'Paper Towns' To Strike the Hearts of Teens, 'Southpaw' to Hit the Box Office

    
     The strong month of July is set to continue this weekend when sci-fi comedy Pixels, teen romance Paper Towns, and sports drama Southpaw crash into theaters. Pixels will have to battle Ant-Man and Minions for the top spot while Paper Towns and Southpaw are likely to open in the low-to-high teens.
     Pixels is the latest release from Sony Pictures, which is not quite having a stellar year (their highest-grossing pic so far is Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 with $70.7 million). They will have to hope that their new film starring Adam Sandler will be more successful, although it is already expected to open in somewhere in the mid-$20 millions. It costs $90 million (originally $110 million before rebates), so if this film does open in line with expectations it will have to hold up extremely well, which seems tough for a movie like this.
     One factor working against Pixels is that Adam Sandler isn't really a box office draw anymore since his last two movies flopped (Men, Women & Children with $706k and Blended with $46.3m). The same can be said about Kevin James, who has starred in misfires like Little Boy ($6.5m), Here Comes the Boom ($45.3m), and The Dilemma ($48.5m).
     However, Josh Gad has box office potential since he has starred in recent hits like The Wedding Ringer ($64.5m) and Frozen ($400.7m), and Peter Dinklage is widely known from his role in Game of Thrones. IMDb activity isn't that impressive, though, since it is currently sitting at an abysmal 6.0/10 from 516 users. Early reviews haven't been accounted for yet. It could take a hit from other family-friendly holdovers (Ant-Man and Minions, we are looking at you), which are also set to earn over $20 million this weekend.
     One of the other new wide releases opening this weekend is Paper Towns, a teen romance adapted from the popular book from John Green. It was originally predicted to open to $32 million, but is now expected to debut in the high-teen millions.
     The Fault in Our Stars opened to over $48 million last year, although that film much more significant star power (Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort) than Paper Towns. John Green's book is very popular, though, and his fan base should rush out to see this.
     Early reviews have been mostly positive, with an early score of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.0/10 rating on IMDb (1,672 users).This should help with moviegoers who are on the fence with this. The film is mainly targeting young girls, and should succeed in drawing them in.

     Southpaw is a boxing drama that is expected to open in the low-to-mid-teen millions this weekend. That would be a solid start for the Jake Gyllenhaal flick, whose latest success is Nightcrawler ($32.4m), which opened last October. Boxing fans will probably go out to see this as well as casual viewers who have grown tired of big-budget action-packed special-effects-bonanza blockbusters.
     However, the R-rated film has garnered mostly mixed reviews from critics, with a disappointing 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is faring better on IMDb though, with a healthy 8.3/10 rating from 1,647 users. Also, its R rating will restrict audiences a bit, although that wasn't a problem for R-rated hits like Spy ($106.8m and counting) and Mad Max: Fury Road ($151m and counting), although Spy was a comedy and Mad Max was an action film.

Official Forecast:

1. Pixels-$26.8 million

2. Ant-Man-$24.9 million (-56.4%)

3. Minions-$31.2 million (-36.7%)

4. Trainwreck-$21.8 million (-27.5%)

5. Paper Towns-$18.7 million

5. Southpaw-$15.6 million