Box Office Report: Jackie Robinson Pic '42' Takes the Early Lead

In this weekend’s early box-office innings, the baseball biopic 42 has taken the lead, while Scary Movie 5, the other new wide release, is lagging behind.

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While the numbers are still coming into focus, 42, from Legendary and Warner Bros., is proving to be a more powerful hitter than the tracking had indicated. The film, which focuses on the legendary Jackie Robinson, who broke the baseball color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, appears headed for a $6 million to $7 million Friday and a weekend that could inch above the $20 million mark. If its streak continues, it will surpass the $15 million to $17 million predictions for the film’s opening.

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Meanwhile, Dimension’s Scary Movie 5, which observers had expected could contest the top spot with 42, is having a harder time getting on base. Preliminary estimates put its Friday number at around $5..5 million, which could result in a potential $13 million-plus weekend. One key to the movie’s performance will be the number of teens that show up for its evening performances.

Financed by Legendary Pictures, whose CEO Thomas Tull personally produced the project, the PG-13-rated 42 was written and directed by Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale), and stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as the Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey.

Scary Movie is the latest installment in the long-running franchise from The Weinstein Co.’s Dimension label that dates back to 2000. Malcolm D. Lee, who last directed 2008’s Soul Men, handled the directing reins of the PG-13 comedy, and the cast is something of a rogue’s gallery of boldface names including Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Simon Rex and Ashley Tisdale.