Matrix Still Top Choice with Moviegoers

The Matrix is poised to dominate the box office again. With positive word of mouth, high repeat business, and no real direct competition, it should have another blockbuster weekend of around $20 million, raising it's total to around $70 million in just 12 days.

Never Been Kissed had a bankable premise. 25 year old reporter goes undercover at high school for story (a la 21 Jump Street), and uses the opportunity as a chance to relive and set right her own painful high school experience. Throw in a hot star like Drew Barrymore, and you have a $14 million + opening from the teens and twenty-somethings, right? Well, not necessarily. Unfortunately for Kissed, it has been released right after a glut of teen pictures and at the same time as another one (Go). This lessens its event status as appetites for this kind of picture have long been satiated. In fact, box office for this type has decreased since the double whammy of Varsity Blues/She's All That. This picture should still make money, just not as much as it could have, had it been released at another time.

With strong buzz and popular stars like Katie Holmes, Go seems like it can somewhat overcome its similarities to Pulp Fiction and the bomb Very Bad Things to do decent business. Being edgier than most recent teen flicks helps. But the dominance of The Matrix, with its similar demographic, should keep it from breaking out.

For more specific predictions, see the Forecast.