Fearless Forecast: Tyler Perry 'Preys' on 'Burn' and 'Righteous Kill'

With all the movie stars hitting theaters this weekend - everyone from Clooney and Pitt to De Niro and Pacino to Meg Ryan - I have a feeling the box office will belong to Tyler Perry. A few weeks ago, I read an article about Perry's remarkable success; Forbes has its eye on him to become one of the next billionaires in show business. Last year, for example, he made more money than Tom Cruise, Jennifer Maniston, and Bon Jovi... combined. You can't do that working outside the system, as Perry does, without loads of fans. They usually pick smart weekends for his new movies; you'll never see Madea go up against Batman, for example. This week, there are a lot of new flicks, but none of them have that $40 million opening aura. So it's a perfect time to release another Tyler Perry film, in this case, the drama The Family That Preys. Of the other major releases, I expect Burn After Reading to do the best business. It's been as heavily marketed as any Focus Features movie I can remember, the Coens just won Oscars, and Clooney and Pitt onscreen together is usually a good formula. Positive reviews should help, too. Righteous Kill is selling De Niro and Pacino, and that's about it. In fact, I saw a commercial last night that said: "De Niro...Pacino...What else do you need to know?" Unfortunately for Righteous Kill, those guys aren't big, big stars anymore. Look at their past few films, and you'll see that outside of Meet the Fockers, there's nothing to write home about. And can The Women get that Sex and the City audience to flood the theaters, at least on opening night? Uh...no. The Top Five: 1 - The Family That Preys ($16 million)
2 - Burn After Reading ($14 million)
3 - Righteous Kill ($12.5 million)
4 - The Women ($11 million)
5 - Tropic Thunder ($4.5 million)