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'Scary' Story

Joshua Rich's box office prediction: ''Scary Movie 4'' will win Easter weekend, topping animated flicks ''The Wild'' and ''Ice Age 2''

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'SCARY MOVIE 4'

Scary Movie 4: Marni Grossman

By Joshua Rich

Joshua Rich

Joshua Rich is a staff editor for EW.com

Here we go again... The first Scary Movie movie was a huge hit, opening in 2000 with $42 mil and making a mint for the wascally Weinstein Brothers, who saw a nice return ($157 mil) on their 25-cent budget. But the second Scary Movie movie got a bit of a scare, earning just $71 mil. So what did those wascally Weinsteins do? They switched up the series, bringing on Airplane! genius David Zucker to direct the third Scary Movie movie as a tamer, more broadly appealing PG-13 comedy. The result: a $48 mil opening and $110 mil total gross in 2003. Smart guys, those wascally Weinsteins!

So the fourth Scary Movie movie hits 3,602 screens this weekend (the biggest opening yet for the fledgling wascally Weinstein Company) with all the same ingredients — Zucker, PG-13, funny stuff. The opening number, too, will be almost the same as the last: $43 mil. Because, really, what better way to observe the resurrection of Jesus Christ than to sit through 90 minutes of fart jokes?

Not much else that's new happening in box office land over the Easter weekend, which will find a lot of kids out of school on Good Friday. That'll help boost the box office of the weekend's other wide opener, Disney's The Wild, which'll bring in $23 mil, besting Ice Age: The Meltdown's third-weekend take of $13.5 mil. Fox Searchlight's Thank You for Smoking will build on its strong limited run — it's earned $6.6 mil so far — by expanding to 1,015 screens and adding another $4 mil to its humidor. And The Benchwarmers will hold onto about half of its big opening-weekend audience for a $10.5 mil sophomore run around the bases. Because, really, what better way to observe the resurrection of Jesus Christ than to sit through 90 minutes of Rob Schneider antics?

Posted Apr 13, 2006 | Order Article Reprints