A Haunted House 2 – All My Life… I Wanted To Be A Blogster

On this coming Easter weekend, four new titles make their debut at multiplexes: the Johnny Depp sci-fi thriller Transcendence, the Christian themed drama Heaven Is for Real, the horror parody sequel A Haunted House 2, and the Disney nature doc Bears. You can find my individual prediction posts on each right here:

My predictions reflect a belief that Transcendence should open first, though it may face competition from Rio 2 in its second weekend. That animated sequel should suffer a rather small decline that isn’t as steep as last weekend’s returning champ Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Heaven Is for Real could be poised for a solid opening with its shrewd Easter debut while I see fairly disappointing results for A Haunted House 2 and Bears.

And with that – my top six predictions for the holiday weekend:

1. Transcendence

Predicted Gross: $30.8 million

2. Rio 2

Predicted Gross: $25.9 million (representing a drop of 34%)

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Predicted Gross: $18.9 million (representing a drop of 54%)

4. Heaven Is for Real

Predicted Gross: $17.5 million (predicted five-day opening of $24.8 million)

5. A Haunted House 2

Predicted Gross: $10.6 million

6. Bears

Predicted Gross: $8.9 million

Box Office Results (April 11-13)

As predicted, Captain America: The Winter Soldier held onto the top spot in its sophomore weekend with $41.2 million, a bit below my $45.3M prediction. The animated Rio 2 opened right on pace with its predecessor with $39.3 million (the first did $39.2M out of the gate), slightly below my $41.7M estimate. The horror flick Oculus had a middling start with $12 million for third place, just above my $11M projection while Kevin Costner’s Draft Day had a weak fourth place debut with only $9.7 million, under my $13.2M estimate. Noah rounded out the top five with $7.5 million, on target with my $7.4M prediction.

That’s all for now, folks! Until next time.

Arriving just 15 months after the unexpected success of its predecessor, A Haunted House 2 starring Marlon Wayans hits theaters Friday. The horror flick parody follows the original which debuted in January 2013 to a solid $18 million opening weekend on its way to a $40 million domestic gross.

While the original was a sleeper hit (especially considering its miniscule $2.5 million budget), expectations are a little more this time around. In my estimation, this sequel won’t match up either. Simply put, while A Haunted House did good business, audiences weren’t overly impressed by what they saw. This helps explain why it did nearly half its overall gross in the first three days.

While A Haunted House 2 certainly could approach what the first accomplished, I think it’s unlikely. As I see it, this will struggle and a likely gross is in the low double digits seems in the cards.

A Haunted House 2 opening weekend prediction: $10.6 million