Gitesh Pandya at Box Office Guru is predicting Eddie Murphy’s “Norbit” will take in $31 million at 3,136 locations this weekend. That would make this the biggest opening so far of 2006, which has gotten off to a blah start, and would doubtless further enlarge its star’s swollen bank account (he has a full producing credit, as well as a writing credit on “Norbit”).
If Gitesh is right, “Norbit” will easily vanquish the other wide opening, the Anthony Hopkins-less “Hannibal Rising” (which garned a meagre 33 of 100 points at Metacritic and a lone star from Kyle) on 2,900 screens. Gitesh sees this one as opening at $15 million for the Weinsteins and their consortium of international producing partners.
If “Norbit” triumphs, it will be without much help from the critics. Metacritic rates the reviews at a dismal 22 on a scale of 100. (Your humble reviewer gave it a perhaps overly generous one star, which translates to 25 points at Metacritic). Even the more favorable reviews are barbed. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune (50 points) dubs Murphy “the Peter Sellers of blockbuster toilet comedy movies.”
Ouch. Murphy, who’s up for an Oscar for “Dreamgirls” (like “Norbit” a DreamWorks product distributed by Paramount) is caught up in a tsnumani of nasty media speculation over whether “Norbit” (in concert with his less-than-heartfelt acceptance speeches) will sabotage his well-deserved trip to the podium at the Kodak theater.
Within 11 days of the Oscar ballot deadline, even Hollywood’s Hometown Newspaper has belatedly weighed in on the brouhaha, which had been previously relegated to its awards-oriented website.
“Every time I pass that billboard, it makes me sick,” the paper quotes an unnamed Oscar consultant as saying, referring to the image of Murphy playing a large, scantily clad woman under the slogan “Have You Ever Made a Really Big Mistake.”
“I think his performance in ‘Dreamgirls’ is so fabulous” and deserves to win the Academy Award,” says the consultant, who adds that Murphy’s latest comedy offering “doesn’t help.”