One Direction: This Is Us Box Office Prediction

And now, my friends, we arrive at the culmination of my movie blogging experience thus far: predicting the opening of a One Direction concert film!

One Direction: This Is Us opens this Friday and hopes to cash in on the English boy band’s fame and turn multiplexes into a party of screaming teenage girls. The timing of the release is somewhat curious. Its target audience is heading back to school and you have to wonder if an earlier summer release might have been more appropriate.

When looking at previous pop superstar concert flicks, there’s a wide range of box office openings. Before he went all R. Kelly and started peeing on things on camera, Justin Bieber had a huge opening with Never Say Never to the tune of $29.5 million. Michael Jackson’s This Is It (his posthumous concert footage pic) made $23 million in its debut and the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert film earned a whopping $31 million for its opening.

On the flip side, there’s Katy Perry: Part of Me, which sputtered with a weak $7 million debut. I believe the best comparison for This Is Us is probably The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, which managed an OK $12.5 million opening.

I know what you’re thinking… nearly 200 words into this post and I haven’t named my favorite member of One Direction. Jordan Knight? Johnny Gill? Lance Bass? Tito? I mean… how do you choose?

One truly interesting aspect of this concert flick is it director, Morgan Spurlock. You probably know him best as the documentary filmmaker who did Super Size Me and now has a weekly show on CNN. What attracted him to this? Beats me. Blogger’s note: I actually met Spurlock in downtown Columbus a couple of years back. He was filming a documentary and I had a pleasant five minute chat with him. Seems like a nice guy.

One Direction: This Is Us debuts over the four-day Labor Weekend so my prediction reflects my estimated Friday to Monday gross. The same will hold true for the other two debuts this coming weekend, Getaway and Closed Circuit.

One Direction: This Is Us opening weekend prediction: $14.9 million

For my prediction on Getaway with Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/getaway-box-office-prediction/

For my prediction on Closed Circuit with Eric Bana, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/closed-circuit-box-office-prediction/