Hollywood has one thing to give thanks for tomorrow: the strikes are over.
At the same time, the movie biz doesn’t look like it will have a very profitable holiday week with two new releases: Disney’s “Wish,” and Sony’s “Napoleon” (with Apple).
Last night’s previews were pretty disappointing, although that may have had a lot to do with the terrible weather conditions for most of the country.
“Wish” made just $2.3 million. “Napoleon” took in $3 million.
Will things improve tonight and over the weekend? Both studios hope so, by a lot. Unfortunately, reviews for both movies are lukewarm. “Wish” now has the lowest rating of any Disney animated film ever, just 48%. “Napoleon” is better at 65%, but not very inspiring to get people out of their houses.
It looks like the big winners this weekend will be more Taylor Swift and “Hunger Games.” We’ll see what happens.
PS I’m told that one of the weird parts of “Napoleon” is that Joaquin Phoenix is pretty tall. Napoleon was famously short, and as my friend Bill McCuddy pointed out, there’s a whole complex named for him. At least he’s got the hat!
