Forecast

Jennifer Lopez and her billion-dollar booty star in The Cell, an extended music video about what would happen if she dumped Puff Daddy for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

The serial killer thriller on the sci-fi tip marks New Line's first and last picture of the season, and a release date that they've made into a studio tradition for their darker pictures. It started in 1995 when Mortal Kombat opened to $23.3 million on this very same weekend and finished with $70.5 million. Spawn had a $21.2 million birth in 1997, while Blade sucked up $17.1 million in 1998. The studio also unleashed Seven back in September 1995 to $13.9 million and eventual $100.1 million total. On the other hand, they're not infallible as duds like last year's The Astronaut's Wife and 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau were also launched at this time.

The Cell will be Lopez' first test as a headlining star. Her two previous major roles, Out of Sight and U-Turn, opened with $12 and $2.7 million respectively. Selena and Anaconda were sizable roles as well, but she wasn't pushed as the star of either in their campaigns. The triple platinum sales of her debut album, On the 6, while high didn't match the hype and were dwarfed by the diamond plus sales of the teeny-boppers. Hence, Lopez and her prodigious boot-ay seem to be more famous for being famous than anything else right now. Co-star Vince Vaughn may be "money," but the former Swinger's pictures haven't made money. Since his big break he's starred in such bombs as the similarly advertised Psycho remake and Return to Paradise.

With such a weak marketplace, topping the chart should be accomplished handily though, but how high will this former Fly Girl fly? After all, the imagery strikes a chord in a similar way as The Matrix. Mind blowin' into 2,411 theaters, The Cell could have one hell of an opening, say, in the low twenty million range. Booty-licious!

After allowing uber-hack Roland Emmerich to use Godzilla as a platform to make his own Jurassic Park, Sony does right by the fans by releasing a real Godzilla movie in all its rubber-suited glory. The domestic rights reportedly cost less than $1 million with an additional $12 million going towards prints and advertising. Not much of a risk, and potentially quite profitable. Sony hopes to capitalize on kids' interest in Japanese products such as Pokemon, as well as on grownups' nostalgia. The dialogue was even intentionally dubbed out of sync. Still, the primary audience could be too niche to equal significant business, while the less devout will wait for it to appear on TV where most of them know the giant lizard from anyway. Rampaging through 2,111 theaters, Godzilla 2000 could amass around $5 million this weekend.

The not-so Original Kings of Comedy marks the first comedy concert film to get a prominent release in quite some time. The last one was Martin Lawrence's You So Crazy which opened to $2.5 million from 417 theaters back in 1994, totaling $10.2 million. MTV has featured spots of the four "kings" chillin', only their humor is rather bland and obvious, about as funny as, say, Jay Leno. Perhaps the "original" was added to the title to help differentiate it from the Martin Scorsese picture of the similar name, or to make it sound kind of like "original gangstas." At any rate, it's odd since Richard Pryor and even Eddie Murphy precede these sitcom stars. Their WB shows don't have that many viewers, and only a fraction of which is liable to pay to see a taped performance of them on the big screen. Live yes, as the trailer points out that a million tickets were sold during their tour. Plus The Cell should have the urban market tied up. Playing at 847 halls, these Kings could have a serf-like opening of around $4 million, possibly finishing outside of the top ten.

Though more than half of its audience dissipated last weekend, Hollow Man still narrowly slipped past Space Cowboys for the top spot. It won't be a photo finish this time. The aged astronauts' trajectory is et for another strong hold to around $9 million, allowing them to orbit second place once again. Meanwhile Hollow's descent should not abate by much, putting it neck and neck with The Replacements. The Keanu Reeves football comedy hasn't achieved good enough field position to score much more than around $6.5 million.

Chick flicks haven't been holding up too well lately. Earlier this year Hanging Up and Where the Heart Is, for instance, tumbled 45% and 38% respectively in their sophomore sessions. With a terminal case of poor word-of-mouth, Autumn in New York could fall even more precipitously, 50% to around $5.7 million. Bless the Child was leaving a lot of moviegoers cursing as well. Though it might not plummet into the abyss quite as quickly, it could lose 45% to around $5 million.

Over the same frame last year, The Sixth Sense continued to dominate, down just 7% to $24 million, crossing the century mark on the way to $293.5 million total. The new releases were part of the usual August dump-a-thon. Mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes took in $10.2 million for third place and was soon fuggoddabout with a $33.9 million total. Universal Soldier Return-ed with little fanfare, mustering just $4.6 million en route to $10.6 million total. Teaching Mrs. Tingle, the directorial debut and finish of Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, flunked out in tenth place on course to a $9 million total.