Big Daddy vs Batman and Other Fun Kick-Ass News

Posted by on Apr 16, 2010 in Movies

Nicolas Cage, who stars as Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, made an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno this week to promote his new superhero action film, which opens in theaters today.

For Cage’s appearance on the late night talk show, host Jay Leno decided to test the actor’s knowledge on Batman by going beyond just asking him trivia questions. Instead, he had Adam West, who played Batman on the 1960′s television series Batman, come out to play against him! Now, Cage is known for his love of comics and superheros, but can he really beat Batman in a Batman trivia contest?

As for how Kick-Ass is looking this weekend, hollywoodreporter’s got the story:

A $50 million production, “Kick-Ass” was directed by Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) and features Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz (“(500) Days of Summer”) as a foul-mouthed, costumed father-and-daughter duo. Aaron Johnson (“Nowhere Boy”) portrays the latex-suited title character.

Lionsgate acquired domestic rights to the film for teen millions in August. Internet buzz for the R-rated action comedy — stoked by the distributor’s online-heavy marketing campaign — has been building for months, and a bow in the $25 million-$30 million range appears in the offing.

Fanboys are the target audience, but positive word-of-mouth could broaden pic support notably. On the other hand, the film’s restricted rating poses a built-in barrier to many prospective teen patrons.

Lionsgate launches “Kick-Ass” on Thursday night, with nearly 1,500 locations programming 10 p.m. and midnight performances. The movie is set for 3,000-plus locations starting Friday, and the Thursday coin will be included with Friday boxoffice.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, and I’m confident that it’s playability will be great,” Lionsgate executive vp distribution David Spitz said.

“Kick-Ass” totes a ho-hum international cume of $12.5 million from earlier bows in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, where it was hurt by its positioning opposite the first two weeks of “Clash of the Titans.” That Warner Bros. action fantasy should begin winding down a bit this weekend, its third, with prospects of adding teen millions to a current cume of $118 million.