ZombieLand- Rated R, no big stars
World War Z- PG13+Brad Pitt
You guys are under estimating a PG13 Zombie flick, staring Brad Pitt, based off a popular book in a time where Zombies are huge(just look at the Walking Dead's TV ratings)
Plus the movie doesn't have much competition after it other than the real Summer bomb-White House Down
I'm calling it right now -- World War Z is going to be this year's Green Lantern. It'll have a respectable opening weekend, probably somewhere between $50-60 million. It's going to be a close battle for the no. 1 spot that weekend with Man of Steel, which should hold it if word of mouth is good. But WWZ will drop drastically -- at least 60 percent -- the following week and will barely make it past $100 million.
White House Down looks to be pure stupid fun. If 2012 can do well in the fall with John Cusack as the lead, then a movie leading with Channing Tatum (how the hell did he become a big star all of a sudden?) and Django with a more friendly approach to Die Hard in the White House should do well, especially with Emmerich pushing it. The only thing that might hold WHD back is Olympus Has Fallen earlier this year.
WWZ has bomb written all over it. Anecdotally, most people I know don't even know it's a zombie film. It's as if the marketing has done its damnedest to to turn this into The Happening with Brad Pitt -- a respected actor running away from an unknown enemy. We can only hope this has near the entertainment value of Mark Wahlberg talking to a tree.
If 28 Days Later's enemies are considered "zombies," then the infected in I Am Legend could be considered "zombies" as well.