Hollywood’s mining television again with a big new release this weekend.
Remember the mid-to-late eighties show, The Equalizer, starring Edward Woodward? If you do, you’re definitely of a certain age. I used to watch it on and off, back in the day. It had a great premise: a retired intelligence officer placing ads in the local newspaper, offering his services to fix problems. If you had your head underwater, if you were being threatened, if you require justice o, “if you have nowhere else to turn”, you’d call The Equalizer.
Loved that catch line then and now!
The question this weekend is: will theatre audiences make that call again? Will they go see the big screen version of The Equalizer?
Follow me after the jump for our predictions!
Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen), you know that The Equalizer is going to be hard-hitting and full of action. It also stars the absolutely magnetic Denzel Washington, which brings a lot of dramatic credibility to the film. In fact, The Equalizer has a pretty fantastic cast including Chloe Grace Moretz and Marton Csokas among others.
Here, like the television show, Washington plays a retired intelligence office who attempts to seek justice against Russian gangsters. Yeah, it’s gonna get a little bloody. Look for The Equalizer to be number one at the box office this weekend, racking in upwards of $25 million.
I’m betting that The Maze Runner will finish in second place. All the people that were high on this flick have probably already caught it, so look for it to garner $15 million in ticket receipts. The Boxtrolis, a stop-motion animated film should do well enough to finish third with $12 million. This film is from the same group that brought us Coraline and ParaNorman. The suspense drama starring Liam Neeson, A Walk Among The Tombstones and the somewhat disappointing comedy, This Is Where I Leave You, should round out the top 5 at the theatre this weekend.
So then, here are my predictions for this weekend:
1) The Equalizer – $25 million
2) The Maze Runner – $15 million
3) The Boxtrolis – $12 million
4) A Walk Among The Tombstones – $10 million
5) This Is Where I Leave You – $8 million
Be sure to check back on Sunday where we’ll discover whether these predictions hit anywhere near their target!
And just as a fun remembrance, here the opening to the original The Equalizer – with theme music by Stewart Copeland, drummer of The Police!
