Action films shouldn’t have large box office impact


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With President’s Day Weekend behind us and the Academy Awards creeping up in about a week, new releases are sparse this weekend, with a pair of action films lacking in both good marketing and critical acclaim.

This week’s new releases, Pompeii and 3 Days to Kill, are both targeted toward the male demographic, a shift from last weekend’s romantic trifecta. Neither film has a lot of promise, but the relative lack of quality films in theaters right now could mean that they garner decent amounts of viewers.

Pompeii, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, known for the Resident Evil franchise and Alien vs. Predator, tells the tale of a slave-turned-gladiator who must save his true love during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Kit Harington, better known for playing Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, stars as protagonist Milo, and is supported by a cast including Emily Browning as love interest Cassia and Kiefer Sutherland as Cassia’s villainous fiancé. Although the films sounds like a rehashing of the plot of Titanic, replacing a sinking ship with an erupting volcano, this film should not receive same acclaim or viewership. The film should do reasonably well this weekend, but won’t sit atop the box office.

3 Days to Kill, starring Kevin Costner as an aging government agent who must fulfill one last assignment while reconciling with his estranged daughter, also seems oddly reminiscent of an earlier film, Taken. When Taken came out in 2008, it helped jumpstart Liam Neeson’s career as an older action hero. Despite being involved with some major projects recently (Man of Steel, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), don’t expect Costner to recreate Neeson’s traction. 3 Days to Kill seems like a standard run-of-the-mill action flick, so don’t expect it to rank very high in the box office.

The Lego Movie should continue to its third week atop the box office grosses. The film is the only one in theaters that targets the family demographic, plus it comes off a strong President’s Day weekend where it exceeded expectations. The film has already grossed $200 million worldwide and shows no signs of slowing down. About Last Night should remain at a distant number two, relying on the popularity of Kevin Hart and the general lack of quality films released this early in the year.