Sam Raimi‘s OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL finally hits theaters tomorrow, but will it be successful? The film is poised for a $90- million dollar debut according to pre-release audience surveys. Disney is predicting a little less at $75 million. If it does, Oz will be one of the bigger openers this year. Regardless of all this numbers talk, Disney is already prepping a sequel.
We don’t have any information on the second installment at this point, but we know that Mitchell Kapner, the screenwriter on the first is back on for another. Also, the OZ as you might already know, is a prequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ. However, if they want to use any of the legendary props from the OZ of 1939 then they’ll have to talk to Warner Bros. about that. The studio owns that film. I’m sure they can work something out, right?
I really like the cast involved for Oz, and the film looks visually gorgeous, but I just don’t have the greatest of feelings about it unfortunately. The trailers have made it look a little underwhelming. There are a lot of good things going for the film, but something is just off about it.
Maybe you’ll be checking it out this weekend. For those who have seen it early, let us know in the strikebacks what you thought.