“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which opens Friday amid overwhelming early praise, is a slam-dunk to end Harry Potter’s three-week reign at the North American box office.
Although the Walt Disney Pictures release is unlikely to get near the $103 million bow generated last month by “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Narnia” should open well north of $50 million. The PG-rated film inevitably will take a hit next week, when Universal Pictures’ “King Kong” opens, but it should play well for the rest of the year.
The only immediate clouds on the horizon are snowstorms forecast throughout the Northeast, which could hurt ticket sales.
Co-produced by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz’s Walden Media for a reported $150 million, “Narnia” could launch a megafranchise much in the same vein as Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Harry Potter” series and New Line Cinema’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
