r/BoxOffice Long Range Forecast: 'Love Hurts' and 'Heart Eyes'
Welcome to the newest edition of r/BoxOffice Long Range Forecast.
We're making long range predictions for films, 4 weeks out from their premieres. You will predict the opening weekend, domestic total and worldwide gross of these films. These predictions will be open for 48 hours and the results will be polled to form a consensus and posted the next week.
So let's meet the two films for the week and analyze each film's pros and cons.
Love Hurts
The film is directed by Jonathan Eusebio (in his directorial debut), and written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard and Luke Passmore. It stars Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Rhys Darby, André Eriksen, and Sean Astin. Marvin Gable is a successful realtor whose past as a violent hitman comes back to haunt him when his former partner reveals that his brother is hunting him.
Heart Eyes
The film is directed by Josh Ruben (Scare Me and Werewolves Within), and written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy. The film stars Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, and Jordana Brewster. Co-workers working late on Valentine's Day are mistaken for a couple by the infamous Heart Eyes Killer.
Now that you met this week's new releases, let's look at some pros and cons.
PROS
Action films should have a delight with Love Hurts, which has emphasized its resemblance to recent films like John Wick (producer David Leitch was the uncredited director on that film). Although its closest comparison is Nobody, which made $57 million worldwide back in 2021. Ke Huy Quan is also coming off his Oscar-winning performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once (Kung Fu Panda 4 was animated and he wasn't the lead), so there will be curiosity in seeing him handle an action comedy.
Needless to say, horror has been a reliable genre, and Heart Eyes looks promising. It could be a perfect movie for dates, especially considering Valentine's Day falls in its second weekend.
CONS
It's still a question mark if Ke Huy Quan is a box office star. The rest of the cast in Love Hurts aren't really popular, with the exception of Marshawn Lynch (and that's because of his football career). There's also the possibility that it could take a dive when Captain America: Brave New World opens the following week.
While Heart Eyes is a slasher, it's also a comedy. The horror comedy genre has been a mixed bag; Y2K was a failure back in December, while last February's Lisa Frankenstein also failed to find an audience. While Wolf Man will already be in its fourth weekend by this point, it will face The Monkey (another horror comedy) in two weeks.
And here's the past results.
| Movie | Release Date | Distributor | Domestic Debut | Domestic Total | Worldwide Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Den of Thieves 2: Pantera | January 10 | Lionsgate | $15,172,727 | $44,054,545 | $80,077,272 |
| Better Man | January 10 | Paramount | $4,820,000 | $14,005,000 | $64,655,000 |
| Wolf Man | January 17 | Universal | $21,209,090 | $63,463,636 | $132,863,363 |
| One of Them Days | January 17 | Sony | $6,860,000 | $21,320,000 | $29,500,000 |
| September 5 | January 17 | Paramount | $1,525,714 | $4,800,000 | $11,371,428 |
| Flight Risk | January 24 | Lionsgate | $7,725,000 | $22,181,250 | $40,256,250 |
| Presence | January 24 | Neon | $4,133,333 | $11,583,333 | $17,850,000 |
| Inheritance | January 24 | IFC Films | $2,850,000 | $8,064,285 | $16,071,428 |
| Dog Man | January 31 | Universal | $22,089,473 | $69,447,368 | $128,226,315 |
| Companion | January 31 | Warner Bros. | $6,887,500 | $19,778,125 | $34,150,000 |
Next week, we'll predict Captain America: Brave New World and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Before you comment, read these two rules:
1. Please provide specific numbers for your predictions. Don't do like "It'll make less than this or that" or "double this movie or half this movie". We want a real prediction.
2. Given that a lot of parent comments do not even bother to give predictions, we are establishing a new rule. The parent comment must provide a prediction with specific numbers. The rest of the replies to the comment do not have to make a prediction, but the parent comment absolutely has to. Any parent comment without a prediction will be eliminated.
So what are your predictions for these films?