[posted by Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel]

“Cars 2″ opens on thousands of 3D screens across America today. This Pixar picture isn’t rolling in great reviews the way previous Pixar titles did, but audience interest is high. If it disappoints, it would be a very serious blow to the embattled 3D movie format.

It is opening on some 7,000 screens, 2,500 of them 3D, as Brandon Gray at Box Office Mojo notes.

As the box office guru says of 3D animation, “it’s not that big a deal anymore.” Opening weekend numbers for 3D toons have been sliding since “Megamind.” “Cars” has both Pixar and the established title working in its favor. His $65 million prediction is our benchmark. If, like “Green Lantern,” this one falls far short of that it’s Katy bar the door time.

Pixar, Variety says, is already low-balling what they expect from the film. $50 million or so.

Pixar is the cinematic equivalent of Toyota. Everybody cut them a lot of slack for a very long time. The reviews are reflecting a sudden realization on the part of some folks that they have their shortcomings, and a movie that will easily click over into the black thanks to its toys tie- in has driven this franchise all along. Long as it is, it is kid-friendlier and funnier and more action packed than the first one, and I’m not the only one saying so,  so we will see.

Next Wednesday, “Transformer 3″ opens on 2000 3D screens. It, too, will face fans who have to make a choice — to spend the extra few bucks, or not?

With the 3D under-performance of movies going from a blip to a trend to an all-out “What happened?” this spring and summer, this strikes me as the week where the future of the format is decided. Theaters have already invested in the infrastructure, so it’s not like it will go away. Studios, however, may choose to forget how much they nagged theaters to convert screens and back away from the format for most movies. And when it comes to how they treat the theaters, studios can be bloody ruthless.

“Bad Teacher” is at a few thousand theaters itself this weekend. In a summer over-saturated with R-rated comedies,the guru figures $19 million would be a nice mark for Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake to hit. I think there’s more buzz for it than that, but we’ll see.

See the original post here: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2011/06/box-office-a-make-or-break-week-for-3d-begins-today.html