True, it's still a great movie. My only point was that it made a lot more than the first two and wasn't as good.

I'm still pissed TS3 didn't beat Shrek 2. It is so undeserving of being the highest grossing animated film.

Toy Story 3 is pretty easily better than Toy Story.

I thought TS3 was the best of the series. Just ahead of 2 and way better than 1.

And Shrek 2 is fun. Right place right time.

same here,

but overall AWESOME films

Cars 2 might not have the extra gross from IMAX 3D because Disney is forcing film programmers to choose between Cars 2 in IMAX and Transformers 3 in IMAX - you get one or the other. My theater is the only one in the market getting this movie in IMAX 3D, so hopefully it means we do gangbusters. The remaining 4 IMAX screens are being utilized for Transformers. Anywho,

Cars 2 - 85 mil
BT - 25 mil
GL - 21 mil

Good call. My theater doesn't have Cars 2 in IMAX either. IMAX is also an extra 2 dollars a ticket here compared to non-IMAX 3D. So that should be taken into account.

That should also help Super 8 next week a little, since it won't lose all of its IMAX screens.

Cars 2- $91 mil OW

Bad Teacher will be the first real test of Diaz' starpower in a while.

It also had Kutcher. While I do think that Segel is somewhat known now, I don't think he is much of a selling factor here. This one relies just on Diaz.

Star power aside, Bad Teacher has a great trailer. It's gotten huge laughs with single movie it has been attached to. There hasn't been a comedy since The Hangover. So I wouldn't be surprised if this over performs and gets into the low 30's.

I see quite a few over-predictions for Cars 2 here...I know it is Pixar still this skews a lot younger which means less frontloading over the weekend, though there being no animated movie in over a month will help if for sure, I see an opening of $78m-$80m

Bad Teacher as of now for me is a toss-up, it can do very well and then it just fail itself since the cast in itself is not huge anymore, for now I'd say somewhere in the middle for $22m

Cars 2 - $78m
Bad Teacher - $29m

Bad Teacher will breakout.

Here one positive review from THR

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... iew-203082

Pfft, people bring up the animation overload argument ALL the time. I see no reason why the same logic wouldn't apply to the R-rated comedy audience.

I think that's about the max it can do, considering TS3 did 110m and it won't approach that. But I'd be really surprised if it goes much under this, it's a pixar sequel, it's going to have a massive fanbase. 300m+ is still easily happening if you ask me.

Variety has a postie review as well so things aren't looking too bad.

massive under predicting for Cars 2. It's doing over 80 mil easily.

I still think Cars 2 is a slight wildcard and not a complete slamdunk, even if it is Pixar. There are a lot of other factors at play.

Cons:
-Nascar isn't as popular as it was in 2006.
-Cars 2 is more internationally themed than Cars 1 was (with the Route 66 theme). That didn't help out Ratatouille opening weekend.
-The DVD argument is there, but what was the one movie that beat Cars in 2006? POTC 2. That didn't have the best wom and #3 dropped almost 1/3 in admissions. So DVD sales alone can't be used to explain audience perception. DVD sales have also seen a sharp decline.
-5 years is a long time for a sequel to Cars.
-Generally lower trend for family films.
-Huge competition with HP7 and Transformers and Zookeeper.

Pros:
-Better reviews.
-Pixar brand.
-Underperforming family movies does leave an opening.
-3D to amp up grosses.
-Merchandise sales
-Pixar's first sequel outside of Toy Story, a built in audience.

I missed a number of factors, but these are some of them.

Cars can certainly outpace its predecessor. But if Toy Story 3 could do $110 m with 3D last year, I have trouble seeing Cars get anywhere close to that type of opening.

Reel Source
CARS 2: 80
BAD TEACHER: low 20s

Future
TRANSFORMERS: over 180 million (6 day)
LARRY CROWNE: high 20s (4 day)
MONTE CARLO: high single digits (4 day)
ZOOKEEPER: mid 20s
HORRIBLE BOSSES: mid 20s (slightly ahead of Zookeeper)

http://www.hsx.com/forum/forum.php?id=3&pid=113582

That seems about right for both Cars and Bad Teacher.
Transformers is obviously being under estimated, though it still says 6 day, so perhaps they are not including the Tuesday 9pm previews, which will be widespread apparently. They might be able to gross 10-15 million.

High single digits for Monte Carlo's 4 day...? I'm pretty sure it'll do over 10 million...

Yeah, it's a gross underestimation. I'm guessing about $15M for the session.

I like those numbers for Bad Teacher, let's hope MTC agrees for Cars 2

Monte Carlo what the heck ? Transformers is already tracking huge...I am sure it will increase

MTC Tracking
CARS 2: 63
BAD TEACHER: 25

http://www.hsx.com/forum/forum.php?id=3&pid=113812

Too low for Cars (probably hedging their bets after Kung Fu Panda) by $13-15M, imo.. But good for Bad Teacher.