Three wide releases for Super Bowl weekend

Super Bowl weekend could be a box office wild-card because of steep Saturday-to-Sunday dropoffs, so bizzers are butting heads on weekend forecasts. A trio of wide openers, including CBS Films chiller "The Lady in Black," Fox's "Chronicle" and Universal's whale-designed "Large Miracle" will turn to gain B.O. distance. "Lady in Black," which launches today at 2,855 Stateside locations, could hold well on Super Bowl Sunday, because the film targets a mostly female demo. In comparison, supernatural teen thriller "Chronicle," at 2,907 playdates, is targeted at teenagers, while U's PG-ranked "Large Miracle" (2,128) should attract healthy amounts of moms and youngsters on Sunday. Entering the weekend, "Lady in Black" keeps a small edge over "Chronicle," commanding three occasions the amount of first-choice votes from women. Experts expect "Lady in Black" hitting $ten million-$12 million through Sunday, then "Chronicle" and "Large Miracle," that could see bows somewhere within the high single numbers. However with the large game's uncertain impact onSunday B.O., both "Chronicle" and "Large Miracle" could perform more strongly than forecasted. Outdoors the U.S., "Chronicle" should see better weekend results with no Super Bowl distraction. Allocated in a reported $12 million, pic bows day-and-date in 36 marketplaces, including Australia, India, Russia, Taiwan and also the U.K. The Saturday-to-Sunday Super Bowl drop has in the past been 65%-70%. This time around this past year, B.O. champion "The Roommate," which opened up at $15 million, fell 75% from Saturday to Sunday "Black Swan" saw the frame's best hold on that day, shedding 64%. Because they did for last year's "The Roommate," youthful women are required to lift overall totals for "Lady in Black." CBS Films acquired the Daniel Radcliffe starrer from Hammer Films last May for any reported $3 million, by having an additional $15 million marketing spend. Distrib stored costs low by airing TV spots on its brother or sister nets such as the Eye and CW. "Chronicle," meanwhile, has strong appeal among teenagers. The Josh Trank-helmed pic follows three senior high school buddies, performed by Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan, who gain superpowers determination existence-altering discovery. Searching to draw in families, U's "Large Miracle," toplining Came Barrymore and John Krasinski, cost under $40 million, excluding marketing costs. The studio mounted a hostile television campaign within the holidays, in addition to trailering the film before holiday family fare. U launches the film overseas a few days ago in Russia and Portugal before growing on February. 9. "Large Miracle" is inspired through the true story of the Greenpeace volunteer (Barrymore) who works together with citizens of the small Alaskan town in order to save a trapped group of grey whales. In the niche B.O., the Weinstein Co. grows "The Artist" to simply north of just one,000 locations, up from 897. Last week, the film gained $3.3 million, improving its Stateside cume to $17.7 million by February. 1. Weinstein also opens Madonna's "W.E." at four locations. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com