'Karate Kid' Remake Testing "Through the Roof"

Around Christmas, the first trailer for the update of The Karate Kid was released. There's lots to pick on about that movie: Will Smith bankrolling a project for his son in an effort to make him a star, the fact that young Jaden is both physically too small and chronologically a little young, the pesky reminder that, even though karate does have roots in China, it would be a lot more common to just have The Kung-Fu Kid if you're going to make the movie there, and so on. But actually...the trailer's not bad at all. For the audience (families), it actually looks like a ground rule double or, against really weak pitching, a possible home run. Little Jaden seems up to the task and Jackie Chan appears intense and focused. Now comes news (via Entertainment Weekly) that the film is testing "through the roof" with audiences. Sony tells the magazine that the approval rating for The Karate Kid is in the 97th percentile, which as you can figure out, is excellent. The studio's record setter in that department is Hitch, so the magazine says, and that did very well for Smith a few years ago. And there's no reason to think this remake was going to do poorly even before hearing that number. Truth be told, I think this could upset the apple cart for quite a few summer movies. Though family films tend to do better if they're animated, there are an awful lot of them this summer: Shrek, Toy Story, Marmaduke, Despicable Me, Cats and Dogs, and Ramona and Beezus all fire away between May and Labor Day. If this catches on, though, it will be the last live-action family film until Ramona, which is late August. Sure, Cats & Dogs is technically live action, but it does have talking animals. That might as well be a cartoon. And anyway, it won't be that big. So while I'm not predicting $400 million or anything, if the film is already testing this well, it should hang around for a long time when it counts, beginning its run on June 11th.