Next Week’s Coming Attractions: Planes, Purges and Pornos

It’s a vast array of titles on tap for next weekend at the box office.  First up, Dane Cook is back as the voice of lovable Dusty Crophopper who finds his way into the world of aerial firefighting in “Planes: Fire and Rescue”.  The original “Planes” was a mid range hit for Disney, opening to $22 million in August of 2013, finishing at $90 million.  Look for a slightly lower number this time around.

Speaking of return engagements, Universal offers up “The Purge: Anarchy”.  Ethan Hawke is gone from the original, which debuted to a healthy $34 million in June of 2013 on its way to a final resting place of $64 million, but director James DeMonaco is back and the Marketing team at Universal, led by Josh Goldstine, seem to have a handle on the film.  As with “Planes:FAR”, “Purge:Anarchy” probably won’t hit the $64 million take of the first but should enjoy a strong opening weekend take.

Meanwhile back at the raunch, the last of the three wide openings is the Cameron Diaz, Jason Segal R rated comedy, “Sex Tape”.  What’s truly encouraging about this film is the presence of director Jake Kasdan whose last two comedic efforts were the underrated “Bad Teacher” and the uproarious “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”.  Rob Lowe co-stars.  Yes, he co-stars in a film entitled “Sex Tape”.  Let that sink in for a second.

On the more limited side Focus goes out with 65 runs on the Zach Braff directed “Wish I Was Here”, in which he also co-stars along with Kate Hudson, Josh Gad, Ashley Green and Jim Parsons.  In addition, Fox Searchlight opens New York and Los Angeles on “I Origins” from director Mike Cahill.