Tom Cruise's 'One Shot'

Tom Cruise's 'One Shot': Three Actresses Testing to Play His Leading Lady (Exclusive)Tom Cruise may find his latest leading lady this weekend.Cruise is gearing up to make One Shot, a Paramount-Skydance adaptation of a 2005 Lee Child crime thriller. Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote Cruise's Valkyrie movie, penned the script and is directing

On Saturday, McQuarrie and the studio were reading at least three actresses for the female lead: Hayley Atwell, Alexa Davalos and Rosamund Pike.

Atwell is best known to US audiences as the female lead opposite Chris Evans in Captain America.

Davalos last appeared in Clash of the Titans as Andromeda and counts Defiance, The Mist and The Chronicles of Riddick amongst her credits.

Pike drew acclaim for her work in the British movie Made in Dagenham and Barney’s Version. She also appeared with Carey Mulligan in An Education. One Shot centers on a Jack Reacher, an ex-Army cop who gets sucked into the mystery surrounding the arrest of a sniperaccused of killing five random people in a shooting. The female role is that of tough lawyer and daughter of the discrict attorney.

The studio is said to be seeking a pedigreed yet non-A-list actress for the movie. Brit Marling was an early favorite but sources say her schedule didn't work

The studio is eyeing a fall shoot in Pittsburgh. Paramount had no comment.
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Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Another strong day for Fox's Twentieth Century Fox's prequel Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes which scored a $19.2M Saturday (only -3% from Friday, indicating word of mouth was good about those CGI animals and Andy Serkis). That makes for a 3-day weekend of $53M, so very much more than the $35M which Hollywood expected. No doubt about it: origins story movies are working this summer if they're done as well as this and X-Men: First Class which was another prequel on a Fox franchise. The other major studio new release, Universal's The Change-Up, surprisingly ticked up (+8%) from Friday for $5.2M Saturday but that's still a very disappointing $14M weekend.
Full analysis and more numbers coming...

SATURDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: Twentieth Century Fox's prequel Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is leaping to an easy box office lead in 3,648 North American theaters. Hollywood initially thought the origins story with digital animals, Andy Serkis, and James Franco would follow the same trajectory as last weekend's Cowboys & Aliens which went on to a $36.4M Friday-Saturday-Sunday. But, remember, that pic got Smurf-ed. The far better reviewed Apes is faring stronger with a very healthy $19.7M Friday (including a low-key $1.254M midnights in only 1,124 locations) for a projected $50M weekend or even higher. Its CinemaScore was an 'A-' and exit polls showed males making up 54% of the audience which was 59% at or over age 25. Nice win for former News Corp No. 2-turned-showbiz producer Peter Chernin and his film lieutenant Dylan Clark. "Phenomenal opening validating a sensational marketing effort led by Oren Aviv and Tony Sella," a Fox exec gushed to me Friday night.

And that's without the hype and pedigree of DreamWorks/Universal's Cowboys & Aliens which fell -64% from last Friday to 3rd place this week but at half the budget ($93M, or so Fox claims). Sony Pictures' The Smurfs held -55% for 2nd place.

But this weekend's other major studio release, Universal's The Change-Up, is bottoming in 4th place with $4.7M Friday and just an estimated $13.4M for the weekend from 2,913 venues. This truly isn't Ryan Reynolds' summer of stardom after the collapse of Green Lantern here and abroad. It's a disastrous start considering that stars like Reynolds are supposed to open movies to at least $20M. "It's disappointing. We're kind of confounded by it," a Uni exec tells me about the raunchy comedy with a $50M budget from the director of Wedding Crashers and writers of The Hangover. "This movie tested unbelievably well and played like the best R-rated comedies we have." But reviews have hammered this lame body-switching premise. Full analysis and refined numbers coming. Overall moviegoing this weekend looks like $150M, which is up +12% from last year.

Here's the Top 10:

1. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (Fox) NEW [3,648 Theaters]
Friday $19.7M, Estimated Weekend $50M
2. The Smurfs - 3D (Sony) Week 2 [3,395 Theaters]
Friday $5.9M (-55%), Estimated Weekend $18M, Estimated Cume $73M
3. Cowboys & Aliens (DreamWorks/Universal) Week 2 [3,754 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M (-64%), Estimated Weekend $15.6M, Estimated Cume $66.6M
4. The Change-Up (Universal) NEW [2,913 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Estimated Weekend $13.4M
5. Captain America - 3D (Marvel/Disney/Paramount) Week 3 [3,620 Theaters]
Friday $3.7M, Estimated Weekend $13M, Estimated Cume $143.2M
6. Crazy, Stupid, Love (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,020 Theaters]
Friday $3.7M (-43%), Estimated Weekend $11.5M, Estimated Cume $41.6M
7. Harry Potter/Hallows Pt 2 - 3D (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,175 Theaters]
Friday $3.3M, Estimated Weekend $12M, Estimated Cume $342.6M
8. Friends With Benefits (Sony) Week 3 [2,398 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $49.3M
9. Horrible Bosses (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 5 [2,025 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $105M
10. Transformers 3 - 3D (Paramount) Week 6 [1,854 Theaters]
Friday $850K, Estimated Weekend $3.3M, Estimated Cume $344.5M

Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and aliens trailer, cowboys and aliens review, cowboys, olivia wilde, cowboys aliens Jon Favreau's big-budget Cowboys & Aliens is picking up the pace at the Friday box office, and could open north of $40 million for the weekend, according to early estimates

Earlier on Friday, Universal had lowered its weekend estimate for the movie, but by early evening, upped the projection after traffic picked up at the multiplex.

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Elsewhere at the box office, Sony's new 3D kids pic The Smurfs was doing strong business, and could gross as much $30 million or more for the weekend. Warner Bros.' Steve Carell-Ryan Gosling comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love likewise is off to a strong start, anticipating an $18 million to $29 million debut.

Cowboys, starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, couldn't have better pedigree. Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks oversaw production and co-financed the $163 million pic with Universal and Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment also have a producing.

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But original stories are always a risk, not to mention mixing the Western and sci-fi genres. Westerns generally draw older moviegoers, and Cowboys has indeed been tracking best among males over 25, followed by males under 25, who are

Favreau and sci-fi fans.

Cowboys grossed a soft $700,000 in midnight runs Thursday night, suggesting that younger fanboys weren't rushing to see the film. Universal will be watching closely on Friday night to see what demos are turning out.

 

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So far, the movie is tracking ahead of Super 8, District 9 and Battle: Los Angeles.

Earlier this summer, Super 8 grossed $13.1 million on its first Friday, along with $1 million in special sneaks the previous Thursday night. Super 8 went on to post an opening weekend gross of $36.5 million.

The big difference between the two movies is their price tags. J.J. Abrams' Super 8 reportedly cost $55 million to make.

 

DreamWorks financed half of Cowboys' budget, while Universal and Relativity Media each put up 25%.

Box Office Update: 'Cowboys & Aliens' Gaining Strength