In Theaters This Weekend: Reviews of 'White House Down,

UPDATE: Sony's summer gamble on a non-superhero film, White House Down, hits the big screen today  Friday, June 28.

The action-thriller stars Channing Tatum as a Secret Service agent who must protect the U.S. president, played by Jamie Foxx, from being harmed by a paramilitary group attacking Washington, D.C. Helmed by Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, the movie also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins and Jason Clarke.

For a more comical weekend, Paul Feig's The Heat sees Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock teaming up as an unlikely pair -- potty-mouthed detective Shannon Mullins (McCarthy) and uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) -- to catch a drug lord on the loose.

_____________________________________________________________

HOLLYWOOD -- Roland Emmerich's big-budget tentpole White House Down, starring Jamie Foxx as the president and Channing Tatum as a wannabe Secret Service agent. The two characters find themselves uniting after America's most famous residence is overrun by terrorists and the U.S. Capitol destroyed.

Appealing to the female set is The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock as a straight-laced FBI agent who is forced to team up with a crass Boston street cop played by Melissa McCarthy, one of Hollywood's hottest box-office stars. The 20th Century Fox film reteams McCarthy with Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.

Disney and Pixar's Monsters University could beat both new films in its second weekend as it continues to wrangle the family-friendly crowd.

White House Down, costing Sony $150 million to produce, could mark one of the lowest openings for a Roland Emmerich tentpole, particularly when accounting for inflation. In summer 2004, The Day After Tomorrow debuted to $68.7 million. Independence Day -- which also featured the destruction of the White House -- opened to $50.2 million in July 1996.

Part of the issue could be that White House Down comes out just three months after FilmDistrict's White House-under-seige film, Olympus Has Fallen. Nevertheless, Tatum and Foxx have sizable fan bases, and White House Down could overperform.