'Princess' reigns but 'Avatar' poised to seize box office crown next weekend (HWT)
By R. Kinsey Lowe
The box office race should be very interesting this weekend.
Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" represents the widest opening as the studio's return to hand-drawn animation expands from two venues to more than 3,300.
The movie has taken in an impressive $2.8 million through Wednesday in just two locations - a single venue each in New York and Los Angeles - and it's tracking well among females under and over 25.
"Princess" was the biggest seller on both major online ticketing sites MovieTickets.com and Fandango.com with 38% and 42% respectively.
It's expected that "Princess" - which some guestimated could do between $30 million and $35 million, or higher depending on whom you asked - will enjoy a solid lead this weekend, with "The Blind Side" (WB) holding fairly well in its third frame and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (Summit) continuing to fade as diehard repeat viewers become distracted by newer movies.
The next surest thing at the box office, however, will be James Cameron's "Avatar" (Fox), which arrives at midnight next Thursday. "Avatar" advance sales are already gaining on "Princess" on both online vendors.
Returning to the weekend at hand, also opening wide but in more than a thousand fewer locations was Warner Bros.' potential awards contender from Clint Eastwood, "Invictus," in roughly than 2,100 venues.
Among movies debuting in limited release, Paramount/DreamWorks has Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" and the Weinstein Co.'s "A Single Man."
Solid performers "Me and Orson Welles" (Freestyle) and Paramount's "Up in the Air" are also moving into more locations.
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