Fearless Forecast: 'The Rite' Leads a Weak Box Office Weekend

The Mechanic and The Rite are the two wide-release newcomers this week and out of the two, The Rite should easily be able to top the charts.  That's not to say that they will have a successful weekend.  In fact, I think The Rite will do south of $15 million.

Unfortunately, The Rite has failed to generate much buzz online which is rare for the Horror genre.  Their are some die hard horror fans out there and they've failed to discuss the film.  In fact, the film's Facebook page only has 14,000 supporters.  Well, at least they tried as I see the TV ads and the massive billboards all around Los Angeles.

On the other hand, The Mechanic didn't try at all and will completely rely on Jason Statham fanboys/girls which should be enough for $9 million.  I think The Mechanic will be lucky to be #5 in the box office rankings this weekend as No Strings Attached and The King's Speech should have a pretty strong showing for already released films.  The King's Speech has opened the floodgates to 2,553 theaters and No Strings Attached got decent reviews and should have some staying power.

Here is GTBP.net's Top 5 for this weekend:

1.  The Rite - $14 million

2.  No Strings Attached - $12.5 million

3.  The King's Speed - $11 million

4.  The Green Hornet - $10 million

5.  The Mechanic - $9 million