Tyler Perry headed to No. 1 at box office, again

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Four movies open in wide release across North America this week, and all should ring up decent returns in a competitive session that could alter early fall’s reputation as a dumping ground for low-quality fare.

Weekend honors will likely go to Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself, with prerelease tracking suggesting an opening in the $25 million-$30 million range for the Lionsgate release.

Perry’s previous outing, Madea Goes to Jail, posted a personal-best $41 million bow in February en route to grossing $90.5 million domestically. Yet during this frame’s comparable weekend last year, Perry’s The Family That Preys fell on the lower end of his openings with $17.4 million for a movie that went on to pull in just $37.1 million in North America.

Focus Features got a jump on the competition by debuting its animated feature 9 on Wednesday, with the intent of adding a few more venues for the weekend. The well-reviewed picture, produced for an estimated $22 million, could fetch $15 million or more during its first five days.

Also yesterday, Summit Entertainment debuted the horror picture Sorority Row and Warner Bros bowed the supernatural thriller Whiteout, starring Kate Beckinsale.

The R-rated movies both target younger moviegoers. So though prerelease interest appears decent among both males and females for each, the audience overlap could keep each from opening any higher than in the upper-single-digit millions.