Box Office Prisoners Headed For $20 Million Debut 3D Wizard of Oz Wows

Denis Villeneuve's $30 million dark crime thriller Prisoners topped the Friday box office with $7 million putting the movie on course for a solid $20 million debut.

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Fully financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment the Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal starrer is being fueled by adults who gave the film a B CinemaScore. Warner Bros. is distributing the movie which opens in roughly the same corridor that the studio used to launch Ben Affleck's Argo last year.

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Also starring Viola Davis Maria Bello Terrence Howard and Paul Dano Prisoners tells the story of two families whose daughters are kidnapped. Jackman's character the father of one of the girls begins to clash with the police detective in charge of the investigation (Gyllenhaal) and takes matters into his own hands.

Prisoners made its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this month before heading to the Toronto Film Festival.

Insidious 2 which opened to a rousing $40.3 million last weekend is expected to take in north of $13 million to in its second outing a solid number for a genre film and putting the film at No. 2. By Sunday the film's domestic cume will be roughly $60 million for FilmDistrict and the producers.

Overall box office revenue isn't expected to be hurt by this week's release of video game Grand Auto Theft V which has already racked up an unprecedented $1 billion in worldwide sales in its first three days of release since none of the new offerings directly goes after the video game audience. Prisoners is being billed as an adult drama while Sony/Screen Gems' Chris Brown 3D dance movie Battle of the Year will cater to younger females.

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Battle of the Year the weekend's only other new nationwide release may have trouble crossing $4 million in its debut a dismal number. Costing $20 million to produce and directed by Benson Lee the 3D movie stars Brown opposite Josh Holloway Laz Alonso Josh Peck and Caity Lotz. The film is based on Lee's documentary about break dancing.

Imax's exclusive 3D release of The Wizard of Oz is doing impressive business opening to $753 000 on Friday from 318 theaters for a projected weekend gross of $2.5 million.

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