Pixar Rat Set to Eat Bruce Willis' Lunch

Photo Gallery

LOS ANGELES - After a 12-year hiatus, Bruce Willis stormed theaters to protect the nation from cyber terrorists, and his fellow citizens took notice.

Live Free or Die Hard, from 20th Century Fox, took in $9.1 million Wednesday on its first day of national release, the studio said.

Still, Willis' John McClane character, who has handily defeated effete Eurotrash in the past, is destined to find himself overshadowed this weekend by a Parisian rat with a refined palette.

The fourth Die Hard didn't set any records--the current record-holder for an opening Wednesday is Spider-Man 2, which bowed to a single-day gross of $40.4 million on June 30, 2004.

But Fox executives pronounced themselves pleased with both the day's opening number--which included some Tuesday night showings--as well as positive responses from audiences.

By the time the dust settles Sunday night at the North American box office, Remy the rat, the animated hero of Pixar Animation Studios' Ratatouille, is expected to emerge as the weekend winner, outgrossing Willis' time-tested and constantly embattled ex-cop--at least on the basis of the Friday-Sunday returns. Nevertheless, McClane could have the last sardonic laugh if Die Hard ends up with a larger cumulative gross after five days in the marketplace.

Buena Vista's release of Ratatouille is arriving on a wave of rave reviews for the latest film from director Brad Bird. Disney-owned Pixar--whose brand has been front and center in the marketing of the film--and Bird have set themselves a tough challenge because Bird's last movie, The Incredibles, opened to $70.5 million in November 2004. In fact, when Pixar's Cars debuted in June 2006 to $60.1 million, it was regarded as something of a disappointment.

The G-rated Ratatouille does face obstacles, what with a rat as its protagonist and a title that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but the film is sure to reach out to families as well as college-age and older adults. It should easily nudge aside the previous weekend's No. 1 film, Evan Almighty, which also is courting the family crowd but which appears destined to fall to third place overall.

Still, some weakness in the tracking suggests that whatever its ultimate take, Ratatouille might be hard-pressed to climb above the $40 million mark for the weekend.

Die Hard, on the other hand, should easily outperform earlier installments in the franchise. The original first started blowing things up nearly 20 years ago in a different movie universe--it grossed $7.1 million during its first wide weekend on its way to a cumulative $83 million domestic haul. The 1990 sequel, Die Hard 2, bowed to $21.7 million and eventually grossed $117.5 million, while 1995's Die Hard: With a Vengeance scored an opening of $22.2 million and a $100 million total.

Directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld: Evolution), the latest Die Hard has been designed as a PG-13 rather than an R rating. The weekend is aiming for a three-day tally that crosses the $30 million mark.

Focus Features' Evening and the Weinstein Co.'s Sicko both are opening in fewer than 1,000 theaters--977 and 441, respectively--but Michael Moore's latest documentary, which takes on the ills of the health-care industry, enjoys the edge.

Sicko has been generating news stories even before it debuted at Cannes in May even as the Weinstein Co. has been working hard to downplay expectations, insisting that the documentary is more likely to perform similarly to 2002's Bowling for Columbine, which finished up with $21.6 million in the U.S., than 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11, which scored $119.2 million. Insiders are pegging Sicko's bow at about $4 million, but it could reach the $5 million-$7 million range.

Making a bid for the older female audience--just like The Devil Wears Prada, which countered Superman Returns on the comparable weekend last year--Focus will unwrap Evening, director Lajos Koltai's adaptation of Susan Minot's novel about a dying woman looking back on her life.

Starring Vanessa Redgrave, the film boasts one of the most impressive lineups of actresses in some time, with Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Natasha Richardson, Claire Danes and Toni Collette among others vying for screen time along with Patrick Wilson and Hugh Dancy. However the film fares over the long run, though, it probably will face a modest beginning, bowing somewhere less than the $5 million mark as it attempts to establish a foothold in the top 10.