‘Warm Bodies’: Heading for box office win on Super Bowl weekend?
Nicholas Hoult, left, Rob Corddry and Teresa Palmer in "Warm Bodies," which led the weekend box office. (Jonathan Wenk / Summit Entertainment)
LinkThis post has been corrected, as detailed below.
“Warm Bodies” — a film about a zombie who falls in love with a living, breathing teenage girl — opens in theaters this weekend. But does anyone want to see a romantic zombie movie?
Despite the film’s unusual conceit, Keith Simanton, managing editor at IMDB.com, predicted in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times that “Warm Bodies” would win the box office this weekend with about $17.4 million.
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He noted that the 2009 zombie comedy “Zombieland” made $24.7 million its opening weekend — but that it had some bigger names involved, including Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray.
“People had heard that Bill Murray was in it, and that added a cool factor,” he said. “Something like ‘Warm Bodies’ doesn’t have that cachet, so I’m already bumping the per-screen average down.”
“Warm Bodies” stars “X-Men: First Class” actor Nicholas Hoult as “R,” a kind of cute zombie who grows more cute and less zombie-like throughout the movie. His love interest, Julie, is played by Australian actress Teresa Palmer, who has a bit of a Kristen Stewart look.
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Comic actor Rob Corddry plays R’s best friend. John Malkovich, the biggest name in the film, plays Julie’s father.
What do you think? Can a sexy zombie entice you to see this film, or will the stench of decaying flesh keep you away? Tell us in the comments.
–Deborah Netburn
@deborahnetburn
[For the record, Feb. 1, 2013, 12:35 p.m.: A previous version of this post misspelled the last name of IMDB's Keith Simanton as Simonton.]
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