Box Office Challenge

Hitting the screens this weekend ...

Life As We Know It My Soul to Take Secretariat It's Kind of a Funny Story Waiting for 'Superman'

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With this weekend, the box office is looking at a whole new batch. And from the looks of it, they couldn’t be more different! On one hand, we’ve got the rom-com with a splash of drama in the form of Life as We Know It, but on the other hand, Craven’s bringing out brand new slasher fare with My Soul to Take. Then again, Secretariat is no dark horse (shameful pun intended) in the box office race either. But do any of these have what it takes to tackle the Social Network?

My best guess is no. Then again, that’s giving a lot of credence to my guesses. Either way, The Social Network is a formidable opponent and sadly, I don’t feel like most of this weekend’s new stuff has the level of exposure necessary to topple this portrait of a media mogul.

Still, America flocks to its underdog stories like there is no tomorrow. Secretariat may not interest some critics (okay, who are we kidding? I was talking about me) but I doubt that will stop audiences.

Katherine Heigl’s been having a rough go of it at the movies lately and it doesn’t look like Life As We Know It will be all too different, despite its good intentions. What can I say? Life itself may be uncertain, but Life As We Know It is, well the title says it all, we know it already.

My Soul to Take won’t be any Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Craven, who publicly spoke against the remake, better put his money where his mouth is, but sadly, My Soul to Take probably won’t be the one to help him do that. Then again, with Scream 4 on the horizon, I can’t feel too bad for him.

Finally, Legends of the Guardian stands a chance, but only because it’s got the IMAX/3D market working for it. No big surprise there, but I’m expecting a kind of distant finish.

Each week with the Box Office Challenge we’ll take a look at the box office and see if we can’t nail the Top 5 films (in correct order). Along with that, we'll guess how many millions the #1 movie will make.

It’s harder than you think. If you don’t believe, let’s see what your answers are.

My prediction for the weekend of Oct. 8-10 ...

1. The Social Network - $17 million

2. Secretariat

3. Life As We Know It

4. My Soul to Take

5. Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

So what are your Top 5 at the box office this weekend?