It's receiving lousy reviews and unexcited buzz, but Relativity Media's The Immortals is the favorite to win the weekend box office race. Its principal competition comes from two other newcomers, Warner Bros.' J. Edgar , directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo Dicaprio (which opened on Wednesday) and Sony's Jack and Jill, starring Adam Sandler (which received even worse reviews than The Immortals ). None of the pundits are ruling out the possibility that Puss in Boots, the Dreamworks Animation feature that has topped the box office for the past two weeks, may do so again. The entire slate, however, is not expected to push the box office above its performance for the same weekend a year ago. The Immortals is expected to earn around $25-30 million; Jack and Jill, around $20-25 million; and J. Edgar , around $10-15 million. The wild card is Puss in Boots, which astonished box office gurus last weekend when it dropped only 3 percent from its opening gross -- the smallest second-week drop ever.

11/11/2011