New movies in theaters this week - Rotten Tomatoes

New Movies In Theaters This Week - Rotten Tomatoes

Underworld Awakening. 2900 theaters. This is the fourth in the series about ... well, about the usual vampire and werewolf crap. There are not enough reviews for a score yet, but the film is likely to score very poorly with critics, and Ebert will probably skip it altogether. The first one in the series pulled in 31%, the sequel 16%, the prequel 30%. Despite that, the experts expect it to take the #1 box office slot this weekend with a gross in the neighborhood of $20M, which is pretty solid for an R-rated film which seems to target audiences too young to get in.

Red Tails is a semi-historical PG-13 yarn about the African-American aviators trained at Tuskegee. 2500 theaters. The early reviews are not encouraging (32% positive. 2.5/4 from Ebert.) It is expected to finish a solid second with a gross just below $20M.

Haywire is the new film from Steven Soderbergh. The eclectic director is in R-rated cool thriller mode this time, and has assembled a great cast. 82% of the critics like it, and Ebert awarded three stars. Expected gross: about $9 million in 2000 theaters, placing it approximately sixth for the weekend

The PG-13 post-911 drama, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, is also a new release, more or less. It expands to 2500 screens from its current total, a whopping 6. This film has been the disappointment of awards season, given its excellent literary provenance (an acclaimed best seller), its director (Stephen Daldry), and the fact that it stars the best-loved actors in the business (Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks). Despite the raised expectations and Oscar hopes, the critics have just not taken the bait, and generally feel that it is a manipulative heartstring-tugger. Only 49% of the reviews have been positive, and Roger Ebert awarded only 2.5 stars out of 4. The film is expected to finish somewhere between third and fifth at the weekend box office, with a gross somewhere near $12M.