George Lopez. Jennifer Lopez. Kevin Costner--What do those three have in common?

All of them are featuring in a Latin American themed film in 2015. Obviously, Costner is not a Latin American, but he can also bid for the highest distinction of the three by leading a Latin American-themed film to box office success.

Jennifer Lopez’s “The Boy Next Door” might not tell a Latin American story the way that George Lopez’s “Spare Parts” or Costner’s upcoming “McFarland USA,” but it stars two Latinos in the lead role and thus places an emphasis on the culture in its marketing and sale of the film. Among Lopez’s hits, it ranks rather low with a below average (for her) $33 million gross. It continued a trend of declining box office grosses from the singer-actress.

George Lopez’s star vehicle “Spare Parts,” which tells the real life story of a group of illegal Hispanic high school students who win a robotics competition, was distributed by Pantelion and managed an intake of $3.3 million in its four weeks. Thirty-eight percent of that gross came on that opening weekend and the film is not expected to put up better numbers in coming weeks, especially with the release of “McFarland USA,” another true life adaptation about high school students who win a state-wide track competition. Furthermore, “Spare Parts” is only showing in 54 theaters around the U.S. and has decreased its theater count in every week after its launch.

The Costner starrer has a number of advantages that its genre cousin did not. It is the product of Disney’s Buena Vista, which has ensured stronger marketing overall for the film.

“Spare Parts” opened its run in 440 theaters, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons that it did not put up a huge box office haul. There is no certainty on how many theaters Buena Vista plans to unleash “McFarland USA,” but it will likely be a wide release of well-over 600 theaters. That should undoubtedly help its box office draw.

Reviews should also help “McFarland,” as early reception to the film has been overwhelmingly positive. At the time of this writing, the film has an 81 percent aggregate approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes (it is a small sample size of six reviews), while “Spare Parts” had just 54 percent approval on 24 reviews overall.

Furthermore, there is no Super Bowl looming large or any major releases to worry about for “McFarland.” “Spare Parts” had to compete with the likes of “Paddington” and the Kevin Hart film “The Wedding Ringer” (and the expansion of awards films) in early January to make money while “The Boy Next Door” was battling it out with Johnny Depp’s latest box office failure “Mordecai” and other awards contenders. “McFarland’s” competitors during this weekend are “The DUFF,” a teen comedy that will probably flop without major star talent and “Hot Tub Machine 2,” a sequel that despite its successful predecessor is unlikely to take away from “McFarland’s” core audience.

That said, the Oscars could prove fatal for “McFarland” in its opening weekend. Opening weekends are every film’s greatest hope of a big box office intake as it is rare for most films to pick up steam in subsequent weekends. Fortunately the Oscars are Sunday night, which means the film has a chance to make its mark on Friday and Saturday, but poor results on those days will not make for a promising picture.

What makes this trickier is that “50 Shades of Grey” is still in the box office and looking to continue its solid momentum after launching with an $81.7 million opening weekend. That film should at worst grab another $25 million during Oscar weekend (a massive and unlikely 70 percent drop), which will cut into the amount of money “McFarland” can hope to nab during its debut weekend.

The ensuing weeks should be more generous to the film, but its window for success is minimal once mid-March comes around and Disney puts its efforts on its new “Cinderella” movie. Competition from other franchise films such as “Insurgent” and “Furious 7” on March 31 should take away from its hopes.

There is no telling how well this film can do. Having Costner in the lead role should draw crowds that extend beyond Latin Americans, but a lot depends on reception and theater count.