Box Office Predictions: June 29 - July 1st

Hey everybody! Just thought I'd start a new section for the site, Box Office Predictions. The title pretty much explains itself, so I won't waste your time with pointless ramblings. Although I could, if you want. I get lonely sometimes. Call me.

BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS, JUNE 29 - JULY 1

1. Ratatouille, $55 million
2. Live Free or Die Hard, $36 million
3. Evan Almighty, $14 million
4. 1408, $10 million
5. Fantastic Four: RotSS, $9 million
6. Ocean's Thirteen, $7 million
7. Sicko, $6 million
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE, $4 million
9. Evening, $3 million
10. Shrek the Third, $3 million

It's going to be an interesting weekend, as animated giant Pixar releases its latest family-friendly film, Ratatouille, against John "Yippee-Ki-Yay" McClane and his latest family-unfriendly film, Live Free or Feel the Wrath of Bruce Willis' Bald Head. Although Pixar will pull in huge numbers of families and gross more than all of the teenagers' allowances combined that will be spent on Die Hard, it will still disappoint with an opening weekend lower than that of their previous film, Cars.

Live Free or Die Hard, meanwhile, will impress with a better-than-expected take of almost $40 million, further cementing the fact that Bruce Willis is a bad ass, the Die Hard franchise is bad ass, and that Justin Long can finally make money from acting and not Mac ads, which I guess is pretty bad ass. For him, that is. Expect the success of this film to push the next Indiana Jones and the Untitled Movie and John Rambo to numbers bigger than Stallone's biceps as action films enter a new sub-genre: the over-the-hill franchise resurrection.

Don't expect any record-breaking numbers from either Sicko or Evening, as Michael Moore's latest opens in limited release and Evening looks about as appealing as a naked Michael Moore, which can fortunately not be seen in his newest film.