Box Office 10/2

There is a jam-packed box office this weekend with a lot of openers and some decent holdovers from last weekend (Eagle Eye, Burn After Reading). Though they all target different demos, the competition might bring the individuals down.

The top two this weekend are Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. One's a family friendly sing-a-long helped out by a traditionally popular animal ("yo quiero taco bell"), and the other's a teen comedy with red-hot young star Michael Cera. Cera's one-note, deadpan awkwardness has seen solid response from the comedy crowd that went for Superbad and the Apatow laughers, as well as the quirky, indie audience that first hopped on the Juno bandwagon. Since Chihuahua has a wider appeal (someone has to bring those kids to the movie) and is opening on more screens (3,215 compared to Nick and Nora's 2,421), I think it's a shoe-in for the top spot. My guess is that it will bark up somewhere in the $26 million range while Nick and Nora will play to the likes of $18 million.

Other major openers include Blindness, a dark story about a worldwide epidemic that causes almost every person to go blind, based on a book that got rave reviews from my literary sources. With a star-studded cast and solid marketing strategy, it could carry some weight, but something tells me with the current mood of the country (see: the Dow Jones), most people will opt for something lighter. Look for the 35+ crowd at the theaters. The movie might see (haha... get it?) double digits, but will probably come in somewhere around $7.5 million.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, with starrers Kirsten Dunst, Simon Peg, and, a college fan-boy fav, Megan Fox, is a comedy that looks rotten so far, but may make for a decent show if my prediction about the need for light entertainment holds true.

Other small screeners are the western Appaloosa, which has received decent reviews and widens its release, and Bill Maher's docu, Religulous, which, personally, seems like the best shot at real entertainment this weekend.

An American Carol, the blatant spoof on Michael Moore, looks silly, stupid, and saveable only by a member of the Farley family. Don't look for it in the top ten.