By Chris Kavan - 01/23/14 at 07:57 AM CT
Although the year has been kind to the box office overall, January is known for being one of the dumping grounds for movies they don't have a lot of faith about. But this years has seen some clear winners arise - and it's been a much better start to the year than 2013. Now, I fear, we're going to be seeing a lot of familiar faces as there is one lone (wide release) entry entering the fray, and I don't think it's going to challenge any of the major films this weekend.
I, FRANKENSTEIN The source material comes from Kevin Grevioux - also responsible for the Underworld franchise, so it's no surprise this reminds me of that particular series. However, I, Frankenstein was also originally supposed to come out last year and was pushed back a couple of times. More than Underworld, however, I, Frankenstein reminds me of Legion and Priest - dark fantasy but, judging by the trailers I have seen - not enough edge. For one, I don't see Aaron Eckhart as an action star, despite being in Olympus Has Fallen and Battle Los Angeles - he just seems too, well, normal to be some badass on screen. It also doesn't help that he looks less like a monster than a GQ model who happened to survive some accident (the scars just aren't enough). Not even the screen presence of the great Bill Nighy or the promise of sexy Yvonne Strahovski can convince me this will be a worthy theater film. In fact, this is the kind of movie I would watch over Netflix just to see how bad it turns out. Sometimes I am surprised - Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters turned out to be better than I expected. Even so, I predict hard times ahead for I, Frankenstein. Even if can court the younger crowd (given its PG-13 rating, it at least has a chance) I still don't see it opening at number 3 at the best - and I would consider it a win if it breaks into the top five.
I don't expect it to be a very exciting week at the box office. The biggest story will be to see how Ride Along fares in its second weekend and if Lone Survivor can make it to $100 million. Otherwise it looks to be a relatively low-key weekend. I'll be here Sunday with the final results.
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