Movies With Butter

This weekend looks like it’s going to be a box office combo breaker—the streak of highly-anticipated summer releases meeting with great reviews and huge earnings will be broken by this weekend’s pair of mediocrely-rated, less well-known releases. Still, in the movie biz, anything is possible; perhaps these films will surprise us.

Opening today is Think Like a Man Too (not a typo; that’s actually the title), the sequel to Think Like a Man, based on the Steve Harvey novel of the same name. The sequel, also based on a Steve Harvey book, reunites the cast of the first film (Adam Brody, Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Meagan Good, and Regina Hall) for a wedding in Las Vegas, which comes dangerously close to being derailed as Las Vegas-type hijinks ensue.

Critics did not think highly of this film in the slightest, rating it at only 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film ultimately comes across as lazy—a talented group of actors is brought together to do mostly nothing, in the hopes that the claim to fame from the first film will gain enough viewership to break even. Still, Box Office Guru has high hopes for the film, predicting a gross of $36 million over the weekend.

Also opening this week is the latest release directed by Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys. It is based on the true story of the formation of the ‘60s group The Four Seasons, and features such acting talent as John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, and Christopher Walken.

This film looks like a bit of a fall from grace for Eastwood’s films, as it falls just short of the “fresh” mark at 56% on the Tomatometer. The film relies heavily on rags-to-riches clichés, and is somewhat dull until the very end of the film. Accordingly, it can only expect around $12 million in earnings this weekend.

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