RIDE ALONG EXPECTED TO RIDE TO BOX OFFICE VICTORY

Although a new Jack Ryan movie is hitting the screens over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, most analysts don’t see it doing the the kind of business done in years past by the four previous movies based on the Tom Clancy character. Most figure that Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit will have a tough time crossing the $20-million mark, and they include the marketing folks at Paramount, who are predicting an opening of around $15-20 million for the three-day weekend and about $3 million more for the four-day holiday. However, reviews have been mostly positive, and the box-office pundits have apparently been peering into a cloudy crystal ball of late. They were way off last weekend with their predictions for Lone Survivor, which they now say should earn around $20-25 million, about what they thought it would earn last weekend only to see it soar to $37.8 million, which would put it in second place behind the comedy Ride Along which they expect to take first place with $25-30 million over the regular weekend and $30-35 million for the holiday. Devil’s Due, another found-footage horror flick, also hits theaters this weekend. A clever viral marketing campaign that featured a video showing an animatronic “devil baby” scaring New York pedestrians could help boost attendance for this movie, which follows Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, another found-footage horror-flick, which opened just two weeks ago and quickly tanked. A new animated family film, The Nut Job, is also being added to the mix, but its prospects are poor, the analysts say, and it will be lucky to wind up with $10-15 million. Meanwhile, several Oscar nominees will be returning this weekend, including Gravity, which is even coming back to IMAX theaters, Captain Phillips, 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club.