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Fresh from his surprise hit Ghost Rider, Nicolas Cage has the unenviable task of trying to generate some excitement with the thriller Next, in which he plays a Las Vegas magician who battles terrorists.
The Paramount Pictures release will vie with the new Disney teen mystery The Invisible to end the two-week reign of Disturbia, also a Paramount film.
Also entering the fray are Lionsgate's action movie The Condemned, starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin; and Yari Film Group's Kickin It Old Skool, starring Jamie Kennedy.
The PG-13 Next, directed by Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day), boasts the tagline, "If you can see the future, you can save it," which sounds like a spin-off from NBC's Heroes.
When it comes to opening movies, Cage's track record veers wildly, but he posts his best numbers with action fare. Most recently, he propelled Ghost Rider to a $45.4 million opening in February. In 2004, National Treasure enjoyed a $35.1 million bow. Next, though, isn't looking as if it's anywhere in that territory and will probably score a minor victory if it crosses the $10 million mark.
The PG-13 Invisible stars Justin Chatwin--who played Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds--as a seemingly dead teen who must solve the mystery of his demise: It's like he's a dead guy who can see living people.
Directed by David S. Goyer--a fan favorite for his work as a writer on the Blade and Batman franchises--the film could yet surprise as Disturbia did, particularly if it inherits some of the Disturbia teen crowd. But right now, it appears to be aiming for $10 million at the high end.
The R-rated Condemned should have a lock on World Wrestling Entertainment fans as they cheer on Austin, playing a prisoner dropped off on a desert island where he must fight for his life against nine other condemned inmates--think Survivor with real consequences. It, too, will be aiming for that $10 million mark if all goes well.
In Skool, Kennedy plays an '80s breakdancer who awakes from a 20-year coma to confront the modern world. Harvey Glazer makes his directorial debut with the PG-13 comedy. It will likely be consigned to the lower range of the single-digit millions.
Among the exclusive openings, Sony Pictures Classics will raise the curtain on Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne, an Australian film inspired by the Raymond Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home, which also provided one of the story threads for Robert Altman's Short Cuts.
ThinkFilm is offering Robinson Devor's R-rated Zoo, his documentary about a Seattle man who had what proved to be a fatal attraction to horses.
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