This weekend is shaping up to be the most important of the fall for pop culture retailers (at least in terms of movie openings), with Serenity and Mirrormask debuting and A History of Violence expanding from limited to wide release.  Joss Whedon's Serenity, which is based on his prematurely canceled Firefly TV series, opens in 2,188 theaters and offers a plethora of tie-in merchandise including trading cards from Inkworks, comics from Dark Horse, books and magazines from Titan, action figures from Diamond Select and a role-playing game from Margaret Weis Productions.

Serenity, which has 'cult hit' written all over it, has actually been picked by some experts to capture the weekend box office crown, even though Jessica Alba's bikini-powered Into the Blue opens in substantially more theaters (2,789).  Serenity, which one critic called 'the most character-driven sci-fi adventure in 25 years,' has gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews and will also benefit from a clever fan-based marketing strategy that has hardcore fans completely energized (see 'Grassroots Marketing Flogging Serenity').

David Cronenberg's adaptation of John Wagner's A History of Violence graphic novel has received even better reviews than Serenity (87% positive on the Rotten Tomatoes site versus 80% positive for Serenity).  DC has published a new edition of the graphic novel, but it will be up to retailers to make the connection for consumers because no one involved in the movie has been playing up (or even acknowledging) the film's graphic novel origins.

The critics have not been especially kind to Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Mirrormask, though nearly all point out the film's visual brilliance.  Opening in just 17 theaters this weekend, Mirrormask is destined to be a quintessential limited-release 'arthouse' flick, but one that fans of Gaiman's and McKean's work will definitely want to see.  Gaiman's new novel Anansi Boys has just been released and DC and Diamond are offering retailers a consignment package of Gaiman backlist titles that should make sense for many stores given the number of reviews of Gaiman's new novel (and Mirrormask) that will be appearing over the next month. 

In spite of the limited number of theaters, Mirrormask will debut in a number of major markets including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Washington D.C., Dallas, Austin, Cambridge, Berkeley, Irvine, Royal Oak, and Palo Alto.