Movies With Butter

Coming out today is the highly anticipated Oz: The Great and Powerful, a prequel to the classic film (based on the classic books) telling of how the wizard first came to Oz, and the epic struggle he stumbled upon.

Despite its epic scope, the critics weren’t overly impressed—the film received a 57% from Rotten Tomatoes. While the film is entertaining enough visually, it is a little lackluster in most other respects. Despite its mixed reception, HSX still puts its weekend profits at between $79.5 million and $80 million.

Also entering theaters today—and living somewhat in the shadow of Oz’s big debut—is Dead Man Down, from director Niels Arden Oplev, who brought us the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In his first American film, Oplev comes out with a complex (arguably convoluted) action-revenge thriller.

Unfortunately, the film trails Oz not only in fame, but in ratings. It received a 41% on the Tomatometer. Most critics agree that the film is uncharacteristically short on brains and heavy on violence for Oplev, and was accordingly a little disappointing. Its weekend gross is expected to be between $4.5 and $7 million.

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