MTC Tracking: 'Battle: Los Angeles', 'Red Riding Hood', and 'Mars Needs Moms'

Tracking reports have come out for this weekend's new releases: Battle: Los Angeles, an alien invasion actioner, Red Riding Hood, a Twilight-esque fairy tale adaptation, and Mars Needs Moms, Disney's latest animated offering. Per usual (these days), the numbers aren't looking too hot. Check out these early weekend box office predictions:

Battle: Los Angeles – $28 million
This sci-fi thriller has built buzz effectively since its much-talked-about preview at Comic-Con last year. A $28M weekend would be a nice start for Battle: Los Angeles, though not quite out of this world—the film cost a big $100M to produce.

Red Riding Hood – $18 million
Seems a bit low to me. I figured Warner Brothers would really amp up the promotion and motivate the Twihards, but excitement actually seems to have decreased over the last few months. Still, I think Red Riding Hood could end up surprising people at the box office and launch a major franchise. Amanda Seyfried is one of the only young actresses who can open a movie. I'm thinking this should break $20M.

Mars Needs Moms – $10 million
This CG animated movie looks like it was meant to come out during the Chicken Little era of Disney animation. It lacks the artful quality of a Pixar film, the romanticized nostalgia of a fairy tale film, and the cuteness of talking animals. Its box office should be equally meh.

[via HSX]
MTC Tracking stands for "Major Theater Chain" tracking. These numbers are taken from box office tracking reports that are sent out to theater owners and posted anonymously on HSX.