Ryan Reynolds’ ‘IF’ To Lead Box Office With $40 Million Opening

Paramount will hold its head high amid all the headlines from Sony and Skydance buyouts and keep the summer box office buzzing with the Ryan Reynolds-led, John Krasinski-directed family film, IF, who hopes to strike 40 million dollars. This is after the outperformance of Disney with that of the 20th century studios. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which posted an opening of $58.4 million.

IF‘s goal is to be a five-part film that will appeal to everyone from ages 2 to 80. It’s been a while since the market has had a PG-rated original live-action film, so if the studio hits $40 million on this $110 million production, celebrate it.

Paramount has IF reserved in more than 4,000 cinemas equipped with high-end large format screens. Scripted by Krasinski, the pic is about a girl who discovers she can see everyone’s imaginary friends – and what she does with this superpower – as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect the IF forgotten with their children.

Previews begin at 5 p.m. Thursday. The film has already raised around $4 million since its release last weekend in France and Belgium. IF arrives in 56 markets this week, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

When it comes to access to a summer audience, the market offers 3% off at K-12 schools and 75% off at colleges on break.

In the meantime, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes after a Monday of $4.4 million and a cumulative total of $62.8 million, it appears to be down 55-60% for a $23 million to $26 million second weekend. The Wes Ball-directed sequel will keep its 400 Imax screens this weekend.

But there is more depth to the weekend, and I hope all boats rise.

Lionsgate Has R-Rated Horror Reboot The Strangers – Chapter 1 which is in play on 2,800 sites. Tracking has a feature film production of $8.5 million between $7 to $9 million. Previews begin Thursday at 5 p.m. The Renny Harlin-directed film follows a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) after their car breaks down in a spooky town. They are forced to spend the night in an isolated cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike mercilessly and seemingly without motive. THE Foreigners the franchise across two films has grossed over $113.4 million. The first film was released in 2008 and starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman and was written and directed by Bryan Bertino.

Reviews on No Rotten Tomatoes for Strangers-Chapter 1 And IF Again.

And Focus Features has the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to black from StudioCanal. Focus purchased an MG for less than $20 million in several foreign territories, including the United States. The film, via StudioCanal, was released in the United Kingdom where it grossed $13 million for a current offshore total of $34.1 million. Reviews are not good at 39% on RT for this film directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson which stars Marisa Abela as Winehouse and Jack O’Connell. The prospects for monitoring are 4 to 6 million dollars in 2,008 rooms. Previews take place Thursday at 5 p.m. for this R-rated film.