''Shaggy Dog'' will roll over the box office competition

Thanks to Eight Below, Curious George, and Nanny McPhee, it’s been a pretty good year so far for family movies. Tim Allen’s Disney remake The Shaggy Dog should keep that streak going.

Allen, a Disney fave thanks to the Santa Clause films, shows off his physical-comedy chops in Shaggy, playing a guy who morphs back and forth into a pup. And audiences will lap it up. Expect Shaggy to open with about $20 million this weekend.

Also premiering is the horror remake The Hills Have Eyes, which real horror fans know costars Ted Levine from The Silence of the Lambs. Even without any A-listers, plenty of fright fans will climb these Hills, enough for a $15 million debut. And third place should go to the new Matthew McConaughey/Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy Failure to Launch with about $13 million.

With last week’s top film, Madea’s Family Reunion poised to take another big drop (possibly all the way down to No. 6), Eight Below and 16 Blocks could fill out the top five with $7 million each.