It's an odd fact that some of the very people who are likely to rail against anyone including spoilers in online discussions of movies are also the ones to turn out in droves for movies based on popular books -- and God help the director or screenwriter who deviates drastically from the original plot. This weekend two movies based on novels will be endeavoring to unseat The Hunger Games , also based on a novel, from its perch at the top of the box office, where it has accumulated $341 million since it opened on March 23.. The two are Sony/Screen Gems's Think Like a Man and Warner Bros.' The Lucky One. The latter is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks and is the seventh Sparks novel to morph into a movie. (In 2010, Dear John , another film based on a Sparks novel, knocked Avatar from the top of the box office after seven weeks). Think Like a Man is based on the book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by comedian/actor/TV host Steve Harvey. A third new film is the Disney documentary Chimpanzee , which is not based on a book. Box office trackers are far from unanimous in predicting the weekend outcome. They're saying that The Lucky One and Think Like a Man should wind up with around $15-20 million and Chimpanzee with about $6-8 million. But Hunger Games is likely to put up a good fight. Last weekend, when it wound up with $21.1 million, it began drawing considerable repeat business, and it could do so again this weekend. The pundits are predicting it will wind up with around $12-15 million.

20/04/2012