Weekend Box Office: Raimi or PIXAR?

Last week saw the battle between Stiller and the T-800s, and Stiller and the inhabitants of the Smithsonian won out.   This weekend, the battle might not be such a toss-up.   Sam Raimi’s return to horror, ‘Drag Me to Hell,’ is going up against PIXAR’s latest, ‘Up.’

Everyone and their dog is saying ‘Up’ is going to come out on top of this one, and some are even claiming ‘Drag Me to Hell’ could come in third place this weekend behind ‘Night at the Museum.’   ‘Up’ opens on 3766 screens and ‘Drag Me to Hell’ bows on 2508 screens, so the gap on those numbers are pretty wide.   PIXAR has a pretty good history with opening numbers.   The only PIXAR film since the first ‘Toy Story’ to open with less than $57 million was ‘Rataouille’ in 2007.   Even that one opened with $47 million.   The chances of ‘Up’ doing worse are slim to absolutely none, and slim just left town.

If you’re looking at Sam Raimi opening weekend numbers, you kind of have to look outside the ‘Spider-Man’ bubble.   ‘Spider-Man’ was a brand unto itself, and Raimi’s name really didn’t have much bearing on those opening numbers.   Outside of the ‘Spider-Man’ movies, the best opening Raimi has had was just over $13 million for ‘For Love of the Game.’   Even that movie didn’t draw much on the Raimi name, since it wasn’t much of a Raimi film.   Nonetheless, ‘Drag Me to Hell’ and its marketing of plastering Raimi’s name all over the posters and commercials should help it pull in some decent numbers.   The fact that it is getting glowing reviews from all over won’t hurt, either.

If we’re talking Ben Stiller and second weekend numbers, you might be impressed, as well.   The second weekend take for the original ‘Night at the Museum’ were, actually, up from the first weekend.   This was the last weekend in December, so don’t expect to see the same thing happen here.   However, the big battle this weekend could be for second place between ‘Drag Me to Hell’ and ‘Night at the Museum 2.’

What do you think?   Drop us a comment or two below with your takes on this upcoming weekend and its box office?   ‘Up’ will surely be number one.   How much will it rake in?   Will ‘Drag Me to Hell’ come up at number two, or will ‘Night at the Museum’ shine once again?   How much of a dropoff do you see ‘Terminator Salvation’ having?   Speaking of, is it too early to consider ‘Terminator Salvation’ the first, box-office bomb of the Summer?

Here’s the way I see the weekend breaking down:

• ‘Up’ – $65 million
• ‘Drag Me to Hell’ – $31 million
• ‘Night at the Museum 2’ – $30 million
• ‘Terminator Salvation’ -$18 million
• ‘Star Trek’ – $15 million

Give out your numbers in the comments section below!