“Speed Racer” seems stuck in the slow lane.
The Wachowski siblings-directed film opens Friday in about 3,600 theaters, and it has been considered one of Warner Bros.’ tentpole releases of the summer boxoffice season. But the PG-rated “Speed Racer” — a big-screen adaptation of the Japanese cartoon of the ’60s and ’70s — has been tracking unimpressively in prerelease surveys.
That suddenly means that if “Iron Man” should gross even half as much as in its first Friday-Sunday frame, the Paramount/Marvel comic book adaptation likely would repeat at No. 1 next weekend. Final figures released Monday put the weekend’s “Iron Man” tally at $98.6 million, with the Robert Downey Jr. starrer toting a $102.1 million cume since bowing Thursday night.
So does “Speed Racer” have a shot at winning the frame?
“It’s too early to tell,” Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman said. “But this is the first real family movie of the summer, and we’re going to give it our best.”
- From THR