Top ten box office weekend estimates: "Cloudy" is still sunny and making money

The animated comedy "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" stayed atop the national box office with an estimated $24.6 million in ticket sales. Falling a mere 19% from last weekend's impressive take of $30 million, the Sony picture looks like it is benefiting from strong word-of-mouth among families (Saturday's gross jumped a whopping 99% over Friday's take), which will guarantee that the CG-animated feature will easily clear the $100 million mark in a few weeks time. A few days ago, I thought that the 3-D reissue of the first two "Toy Story" films might pose a serious threat to "Cloudy"s box office. But with the Pixar offering opening on 1,600 screens (or half of 'Cloudy's screen count), the damage done by Buzz and Woody could be somewhat diminished. After ten days, "Cloudy" has covered a terrific $60 million in sales.

Second place went to the Bruce Willis sci-fi actionier "Surrogates" with a mediocre $15 million in sales from 2,951 screens. The new $100 million film from the "Die Hard" star and "Terminator 3" director Jonathan Mostow, might have had an intriguing-enough premise to green-light the production, but the marketing campaign didn't do a decent enough job to sell it as anything more than a combo of "I, Robot", "Minority Report" and "A.I.". Unless word-of-mouth is spectacular, watch for Bald Brucie's latest film to do better on home video in a few months time.

Third place went another new film, the PG-rated remake of the 1980 film "Fame" with a weak $10 million from 3,096 screens. Burdened with bad reviews, weak word-of-mouth and being labeled a "High School Musical" clone, "Fame" did struggling distributor MGM no favors by having such a lousy opening.

Fourth place went to the Matt Damon/Steven Soderbergh comedy "The Informant!", which nabbed roughly $6.9 million. Off only 34%, the film has pulled $21 million to date and might end its run with a respectable $35 million in sales. Fifth place went to Tyler Perry's fast-fading but profitable "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" with $4.75 million in sales. Down 52% from last weekend, the film has pulled $44.5 million and should finish in the $50 million range.

Sixth went to the third opener of the week, "Pandorum", which flatlined with $4.4 mil from 2,506 screens. If sci-fi fans were indifferent to the Willis movie, they were flat out apathetic to the Dennis Quaid entry. Seventh place went to the Jennifer Aniston romace flick "Love Happens" with $4.3 million and a ten-day gross of $14.8 million.

Eighth spot went to "Jennifer's Body" which held up better than expected with $3.5 million and an overall gross of $12.3 million. Ninth spot was secured by "9" with $2.83 mil and a $27.1 mil to date. Rounding out the top ten in its sixth week was Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" with $2.7 mil and an overall gross of $114.5 million.

Weekend Box Office Preview: It's going to be 'Cloudy' again this weekend

This weekend three new films, two science-fiction and one musical, will enter the crowded box office field in the hopes of getting a piece of the financial action. None, however, will displace last week's champ "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" from the number one spot.

Opening to a nice-sized $30 million gross, "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" has held pretty well for an animated feature playing in September. With positive word-of-mouth from both critics and audiences alike, the film could experience a drop of only 35-40%. The real challenge for the film won't be a new animated film, but a pair of older ones coming out next week, and in 3-D to boot: "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2". With a whole new generation yet to experience Buzz and Woody on the big screen, watch for Pixar's dynamic duo to take a sizeable chunk out of "Cloudy"s grosses next weekend. In the meantime, the film will be holding course in over 3,100 theaters, which should yield it between $18-20 million in sales.

Bruce Willis has been rather low-key over the past couple of years. Despite performances in a pair of smaller films recently, the last time the 54-year old headlined a film was 2007's "Live Free or Die Hard", which turned out to be the highest grosser of that series. Well, Bruce is back in Jonathan Mostow's sci-fi thriller "Surrogates". Looking like a mash-up of "Minority Report", "I, Robot" and "A.I." among others, the film has been advertised pretty heavily over the past couple of weeks but buzz has been fairly muted. Early reviews have also been less than kind to it as well. Running a lean 88 minutes, "Surrogates" might benefit from being able to squeeze in a few extra screenings, but possible bad word-of-mouth might make that extended schedule all for naught. Opening in 2,700 screens, "Surrogates" might snag $16 million this weekend.

Another science-fiction entry opening this weekend is "Pandorum". Starring Dennis Quaid, the film looks like a cross between "Event Horizon", "Alien" and "Near Dark". I wish I could say more about the film beyond the other films it reminds me of, but I really don't know all that much about it. And with "Pandorum" opening head-to-head against "Surrogates", the potential opening weekend audience might be curtailed as sci-fi fans might opt for Bald Bruce instead of Dandy Dennis. Opening on 2,400 screens, "Pandorum" might grab $8 million this weekend before heading off to home video by year's end.

The third big opening of the weekend is MGM's remake of the 1980 Alan Parker film "Fame". Remaking this film is pretty much a no-brainer as the story of students in a New York City Performing Arts school is one that can be tailored to teens and young adults without much of a hassle. Of course, coming up with a cast of young adults who can act, a director who knows what he's doing (such as Alan Parker) and a script that doesn't suck always helps things move along as well. From the few individuals that I know who have seen the film, this new version offers none of those. The success on the film will have to rely on how well the marketing campaign has been in targeting the teen crowd. Soundtrack sales might help out as well. Opening on over 3,000 screens, "Fame" might pull in around $13 million for the weekend.

The remainder of the top ten will see the holdovers from last weekend dropping like stones as "Jennifer's Body", "The Informant!" and "Love Happens" should all encounter drops of roughly 55 to 60% each. "Jennifer" should limp to $2.8 million, while "Informant" might nab $5.5 mil and "Love" will be lucky to reach $3.5 mil.

Check back Sunday for a recap on the weekend box office. Aside from the "Toy Story" reissues, next week will bring the horror comedy "Zombieland", the roller derby comedy "Whip It" and the Ricky Gervais comedy "The Invention of Lying".

David Cronenberg to remake his remake of "The Fly"?

According to a posting on the Hollywood Reporter's "Risky Business" blog, it appears that Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg may be expressing interest in doing an update (read: remake) of his 1986 take on the sci-fi classic "The Fly". The 1986 version, which starred Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, was a big critical and financial success for Fox. A sequel followed a few years later, but without the participation of Cronenberg, Davis or Goldblum (and boy, did it show). Fox has mentioned interest in doing an update of "The Fly" for a while now, and Cronenberg has stated that he didn't want anything to do with it. Something must have changed his mind though, be it a decent screenplay or just the opportunity to make a even grosser film using today's CG-effects, but he is showing interest.

While I would rather see Cronenberg focus his efforts on projects such as "A History Of Violence" or "Eastern Promises", any new film from Cronenberg is always worth one's attention. I just hope we're spared the birth scene in this one. The birth scene in the 1986 version was...man, the working definition of the word "vile" (although I could just imagine Cronenberg laughing his ass off behind the camera during the shooting of that scene).

Video pick of the week: Cracking good DVD and Blu-ray release, Gromit!

In the event that you have yet to experience Nick Park's absolutely wonderful claymation shorts featuring daft inventor Wallace and his smart-but-silent sidekick Gromit, today brings the release of the "Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Collection" on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Calling it "The Complete Collection" is a bit of a misnomer as it does not include the terrific 2005 entry "Curse of the Were-Rabbit", but it does offer up the four 30-minute short films that Park has created over the past two decades, three of which have won Academy Awards for Best Short Film: "A Grand Day Out", "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave". The fourth and newest addition to the W&G family is 2008's "A Matter of Loaf & Death". I haven't seen it yet, but if it's anything like the other shorts, I know it's going to be another winner.

If you have kids in your family who haven't seen Wallace and Gromit or if you just love animation in general, you owe it to yourself to pick this collection up. You won't regret it.

You can order "The Wallace and Gromit Collection" on either blu-ray or DVD by clicking on the link located to the right of this blog page.

Do we really need a 3-D version of "Titanic"? Um...NO.

In an article on Yahoo! Movie news, it appears that James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster "Titanic" may be heading back to theaters, this time in 3-D. According to Lightstorm Entertainment partner, and "Titanic" producer, Jon Landau, tests have been done on the Oscar-winner as well as Cameron's 1991 blockbuster "Terminator 2" and the process of converting the films to the 3-D format "are pretty far down the road". Landau hinted that "Titanic" could sail back into theaters as soon as 2010. The article also mentions the upcoming 3-D reissue of the first two "Toy Story" and the pricey downside to reissuing films in the 3-D format.

Now, I am all for seeing some computer-animated features in Digital 3-D, and I am curious about the film Cameron actually shot in 3-D right from the start, the upcoming "Avatar". But, "Titanic"? A 197-minute love story in 3-D? Granted, the drawing room scene in 3-D is very enticing. But I can't see where the first half of the film would gain any benefit. Billy Zane's Snidley Whiplash character is still going to be a jaw-dropping joke, and Cameron's dialogue will still induce wincing from those who have evolved beyond the junior high school level.

I guess the benefit of putting "Titanic" in 3-D would where the film really took off: the second half after the boat hits the iceberg and slowly sinks. Still, the idea of watching such a horrific event unfold in "crazy cool" (my pick for one of the worst phrases so far this century) 3-D isn't just wrong. It's an affront to those who died that fateful night over 90 years ago. Then again, so was Cameron declaring he was "King of the World" at the 1997 Oscars after winning Best Director. Let's just hope that Steven Spielberg doesn't decide to reissue "Schindler's List" in 3-D at some point.

Reissuing films like "Titanic" and possibly the "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" films (you just know New Line is thinking about that) isn't an artistic advancement on behalf of the film. It's just another way to get the average filmgoer to dish out even more money for something that they probably have already spent money on a couple of times -if not more- beforehand.

It's not the movies that got smaller, it's the home theaters that got better

SIlive.com had an interesting article on how the rise in popularity of home theaters have made a serious dent in multiplex attendance, and how theaters are now stuck in a position to reinvent themselves in order to lure people out of their living rooms and back into cinemas. With the Home Theater hardware getting better and better, not to mention cheaper and cheaper, theaters have tried everything from more comfortable seats to hosting live concerts and HD broadcasts of sporting events to gimmicks like IMAX and 3-D in an effort to get people back to theaters. In regards to the last two cinematic allures, theaters have been successful since they can charge more money for each while offering an experience that home theaters can't replicate...yet.

I have to admit, I'm torn on the whole home theater vs movie theater debate. I have a fairly decent home theater setup (I say 'fairly' as my setup pales in comparison to many of my friends): a 65" Mitsubishi DLP, a Playstation 3 that doubles as my Blu-ray player and a 5.1 surround sound setup powered by a Denon receiver capable of decoding lossless audio codecs such as DTS HD MA and Dolby TrueHD. When I play a film, it is always in focus, the sound is always nice and clear and I don't have to endure twenty minutes of forced ads and bad previews before I see a film. Perhaps the best argument for all for watching films at home is that you don't have to deal with the parade of morons around you, talking, texting or just being an obnoxious jerkass because they don't know any better. That in itself is enough to make me never want to step into another movie theater again.

But then there is the cinephile side of me who still feels that no matter how nice your home theater setup is, it will never match watching an epic along the lines of "Lawrence of Arabia", "Apocalypse Now", "Gone With the Wind", or the "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" films on a 50 to 60-foot screen. And when it comes to comedies, a full house of people laughing along with you is always beneficial to a movie like "Borat". Then there are those filmmakers whose work I enjoy and respect so much that I feel the need to travel to the cinemas to support them. Scorsese, Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and hell, even James Cameron all produce work that should first and foremost be experienced on a big screen, no matter how large or small their film's stories are.

While the single-digit IQ, ADD-generation (that would be the age bracket of 15-29) will make every effort to ruin the big screen enjoyment (sometimes by simply being in the same theater) of myself and others, I will always find a handful or more reasons to go back into a theater. But on a majority of the films being released to theaters these days and despite the efforts of theater chains to pull people out of their homes, I find the privacy and comfort of my living room screen is more than adequate for viewing. I don't need a 50-foot screen, 3-D projection, leather seats or reserved seating in order to appreciate "The Informant!".

So what about you? Do you think its worth wasting gas, money and dealing with the public to watch movies? Or would you rather stay at home, wait a few months and rent the exact same film for one-third of the ticket price without dealing with too many hassles in order to do so?

U2 at Gillette Stadium 9/20/09

On Septmber 20th, two events occurred that centered around Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. One was bad and one was good. The bad was connected to the stadium's chief occupants, the New England Patriots. They suffered a rather humiliating defeat at the hands of the assheads known as the New York Jets at Jets Stadium. The good thing? A little band known as U2 played the first of two shows as part of their "360 Tour".


The 23-song performance, which played to an almost-sold out audience (thank you, ticket-scalping and reselling agency scum), was a terrific show for fans both old and new. Bookended by selections from their recent album "No Line On the Horizon", Bono and the boys served up some of their biggest hits, like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (which took on new relevance thanks to the recent rigged elections in Iran and the subsequent crackdown by its dictatorship), "New Year's Day", "Vertigo" and "With Or Without You". They also snuck in a couple of tunes that I had not heard live in a long time (The Unforgettable Fire) or ever (Ultraviolet). Based on what I read and heard from friends who attended the second night's show, U2 dropped a tune or two from Sunday night and added the seldom-heard "Your Blue Room" (from the 'Passengers' CD) and the one-two Wim Wenders' fueled "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and "Until the End of the World".


Stadium tours are always a dicey proposition. The last time I saw U2 at a Stadium show, it was at the old Foxboro Stadium in the summer of 1987 during the "Joshua Tree" show. If there are two things I remembered from that show, it is this: Bono had his arm in a sling and the sound kind of sucked. Well, Bono definitely was sling-free this time around and the sound, at least from where I was sitting, was excellent. Only once or twice did Bono's vocals display a slight bit of echo and that was only when he was talking to the audience (I could still hear him loud and clear). And with the massive overhead video screens capturing all the action, it wasn't tough to see the band from any angle.


Was it the best show I have seen from U2? Despite the excellence of last Sunday's night performance, I would have to say no. The massive set, while of benefit to those sitting far away (like myself), also seemed to keep the band at a slight distance from the audience. The band certainly did their best to remain close to its fans last Sunday night, but in the end the immense set won out.


The stadium itself may have also contributed to the energy level of the show, which seemed to be at a lower level than previous tours. Once again, this is not the fault of the band's performance. Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry all put their best foot forward and played the hell out of the songs. But the vast openness of a football stadium like Gillette, which is a hell of a nice place, let the energy trail out into the cool late-summer evening air hovering over New England. I left satisfied, as I always do after seeing U2 in concert, but I didn't leave quite as charged as I did following the June 2001 show I experienced at the TD Banknorth Garden. Come back soon, guys, it was great seeing you again. Just keep it indoors the next time around.

Weekend Box Office Estimates: 3D + Animation= Number One Spot

As was expected, the Sony CG-Animated feature "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" landed at number one at the national box office according to early estimates. The $90 million family comedy featuring the voice talents of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Mr. T (!!) among others played on a record 1,828 3D screens (3,117 totals) to help haul in a healthy $30 million estimated gross for the three-day period. Once again, it appears that the gimmick of 3-D technology, its higher ticket prices plus computer animation equals a trend that won't be going away anytime soon, for better or worse.

On Friday, I had written that the Megan Fox thriller "Jennifer's Body" should have no problem slinking its way into the second spot with a gross in the area of $17 million. Well, that was before I knew that the film had been sitting on the shelf for while (it was shot a full year and a half ago), the last of Fox's Atomic Pictures distribution arm (which closed a while back). Had I know that, I would have lowered my guess a bit. It probably would still have been too generous though as the film stiffed (huh huh...stiff) right out of the gate. Megan's bod and the hip pen of "Juno" writer Diablo Cody couldn't help "Jennifer" seduce any more than roughly $7 million in sales for fifth place. The poster said "Hell yes!". Audiences opted to say "Hell, no!"

Of course, the film's failure is instantly blamed on Cody, forgetting the fact that Megan Fox probably would have trouble writing the title of the film down if asked and that this is the, what, fifth horror film we've encountered in three weeks' time? I'm not defending the film or Cody, but I find it really hard to believe that she was the one and only reason why this film tanked, honest to blog.

Second place instead went to Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!", which hauled in roughly $11 million in estimated sales. A little lower than I expected due to its 2500-screen count, "Informant!" was anything but a commercially-accessible film. With a subject matter more worthy of a low-budget independent film than a major Hollywood release (I'm sure having Matt Damon as the lead helped bump the project up to the A-list), this film was a little too sly and demanding on the attention span to click with mainstream audiences looking for laughs on a weekend night. But with a price tag of only $22 million, Warner should be able to make back its investment on the film, and possibly give Damon a push for some awards consideration.

The weekend's fourth release, the romantic comedy "Love Happens", opened with roughly $9 million in sales. Apparently, the lame ads ideally conveyed exactly what the film delivered: a love story where two gun-shy adults overcome their personal issues to end up together. Sounds like the perfect material for something you would watch when you're channel surfing when you're stuck at home during a snowstorm. The film is yet another dud in a long line of box office flops for Universal Pictures, who really hasn't had a huge hit domestically (they own the rights to 'Inglourious Basterds' overseas) since last April "Fast and Furious" made $155 million.

The other spots in the nation's top ten box office went to leftovers. Last week's big hit "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" collapsed by about 65% to $10.5 million est. and third place for $38 million to date. Sixth spot went to the other CG-animated fest "9" with $5 mil (down roughly 50%) and a $22 million est gross. "Inglourious Basterds" scalped $4 million more for seventh place and a $110 million gross. "The Final Destination" was eighth with $3.5 million ($64 mil to date), "All About Steve" was ninth with $3.7 million ($27 mil to date) and tenth was "Sorority Row" with $2.6 million and a $9 million gross.

Next week brings the trio of "Fame (2009)", the sci-fi/horror film "Pandorum" and the Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller "Surrogates".

Weekend Box Office: Cloudy with a chance of hitting number one

This weekend at the national box office, the forecast is looking crowded as four new films enter the fray, featuring the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon, Megan Fox, Bill Hader and Amanda Seyfried. With a fairly wide variety of films to choose from, the box office should continue to pick up steam as fall officially gets underway in a few days.

Based on the children's novel by Ron and Judi Barrett, "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" looks to take the top spot at the box office and possibly by a wide margin. The marketing campaign by Sony Pictures has been pretty aggressive, and its 3,117-screen count (more than half devoted to 3-D presentations) will no doubt help drive grosses quite high during the crucial Saturday and Sunday matinee periods (pricier tickets for the 3-D showings won't hurt either). On top of that, the film has received a fair shake from the critics (86% approval rating thus far from Rotten Tomatoes), which is rare these days for a CG-animated feature that doesn't have the word "Pixar" associated with it. Watch for "Meatballs" to drop around $27 million this weekend.

It's been two years since the indie comedy "Juno" made its screenwriter, Diablo Cody, a bit of a celebrity and the receipient of a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Well, Diablo is back and this time, she isn't exactly writing award-worthy material. The horror/comedy (I am guessing it's supposed to be funny) "Jennifer's Body" stars "Transformers" babe Megan Fox and "Mama Mia!"s Amanda Seyfried in a tale of a popular girl and her dorky friend whose friendship takes some strange turns after Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon. The film is aimed squarely at the teen market despite the 'R' rating, the fact that this is the second horror film released within a week's time (Remember "Sorority Row"? Thought not) and who could care less about the less-than-kind critical receiption, which is right around 39% (or roughly 18% better than Fox's last film, "Transformers 2"). Landing in just over 2,700 theaters, watch for "Jennifer's Body" to attract roughly $17 million this weekend.

With kids and teens pretty much covered by "Meatballs" and "Jennifer", adults may find some interest in the new Matt Damon/Steven Soderbergh comedy "The Informant!". Based on a true story, "Informant!" gives Damon one of his best non-Jason Bourne roles as a corporate whistleblower who only makes matters worse for himself each and every time he opens his mouth. The subject matter could have made for a pretty serious drama, and could have fallen apart as a black comedy were it in other, less capable hands. But Soderbergh works best with this type of material, and as mentioned before, Damon turns in a terrific performance. "The Informant!" is a smart film that requires the viewer to pay close attention to what is going on. Of course, this could limit its weekend sales potential. Films aimed at adults, however, tend to start small and hang on at the box office, providing they are any good. Witness the recent "Julie and Julia". It opened fairly well but has hung on week after week to nab a very impressive $90 million thus far. I'm not sure "The Informant!" will meet a similar fate, but if audiences like it, it could stick around for a while. Debuting in 2500 theaters, look for "The Informant!" to pull in roughly $12-15 million.

The fourth new film to open is the one that has had the least amount of buzz, which is a bit surprising given the fact that Jennifer Aniston headlines it. And it's a romantic comedy! I can understand why Universal hasn't advertised "Love Happens" more: it looks amazingly average. In fact, I think I had the entire film figured out within the span of the thirty seconds of footage I saw in one of the TV spots: the characters played by Aniston and Aaron Eckhart have had their hearts broken in one way or another. They meet, get close, attempt to overcome their own personal obstacles in order to end up happily ever after at the end. If anyone sees the film, see if I am right. Television isn't the only place that Universal has been keeping the film a secret: I couldn't find a single review for the film in advance until yesterday afternoon. Hell, even "Jennifer's Body" had SOME advance reviews (the film is currently at a woeful 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes). The date crowd may gravitate toward the film, but I can't see anyone else outside of that group plunking down $11 for a ticket. Watch for "Love Happens" to cuddle up to roughly $8 million from 1850 screens en route to the video shelves by the end of the year.

Check in on Sunday for the weekend box office totals. Next weekend, the remake of the 1980 film "Fame" and two sci-fi action flicks, the Bruce Willis entry "Surrogates" and the Dennis Quaid space flick "Pandorum" make their debuts.

My Beatles Article

My overview on the recent Beatles reissues is now up online at MusicOMH.com. I don't really have much to say about the actual content. I mean, come on now, is there anything left to say about the Beatles' output other than it's virtually impossible to ever get tired of it? No, my quick overview is a to see if the reissues are actually worth the upgrade. Check it out.

Patrick Swayze

Yahoo! movie news is reporting that Patrick Swayze has passed away at the age of 57 following a well-publicized battle with pancreatic cancer. Swayze, the star of films such as "Dirty Dancing", "Point Break" and "Ghost", had been battling the disease for the past twenty months.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. His last role was an A&E show titled "The Beast", which the network had opted not to pick up for a second season despite a respectable audience turnout.

Weekend Box Office: I Can Do Business All By Myself

As expected, the new Tyler Perry flick "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" nabbed the top spot at the weekend box office by a wide margin. Perry's latest comedy/drama featuring his popular alter-ego Madea grossed roughly $24 million in its first three days. While not as big as the openings of some of his other movies, such as the $41 million pulled in during the first three days of "Madea Goes To Jail" seven months ago, the $24 mil pulled in by "Bad" is a tremendous amount for any film that is opening right after Labor Day.

In second place for the weekend was the better-than-expected bow of the PG-13 animated feature, "9". Opening last Wednesday (9-9-09), the film pulled in $10.9 million for the weekend and $15.3 million in five days. Reviews were mixed on the CG-animated tale, but with the marketing focusing on Tim Burton and Timor Bekmambetov's involvement in the film reviews were no doubt ignored by those curious to see what the producing duo helped conjure.

Third spot went to Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", a film that is proving to be just as durable as its title characters. Dropping 44%, the popular World War II flick nabbed another $6.54 mil for a $103.4 million gross. Watch for "Basterds" to pass "Pulp Fiction" next week as Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date (pre-'Pulp' gross inflation, that is). Just a heads up, the film is due on Blu-ray and DVD in mid-December. Nothing says "Happy Holidays!" more than Eli Roth bashing a Nazi's brains in with a baseball bat.

Falling less (49%) than I thought it would given the dire word-of-mouth attached to it, the Sandra Bullock comedy "All About Steve" nabbed fourth place with $5.4 million for a ten-day gross of $21.8 million. Whether it holds up in the upcoming weeks is anyone's guess, but the less than 50% drop proves that no matter the quality of the film, people are in the mood to laugh this year.

Dropping from first to fifth was the 3-D horror hit "The Final Destination", which nabbed $5.5 million for a $58.6 million gross. In sixth place was the other horror film in the top ten, the DOA T&A slasher flick "Sorority Row". With an anemic $5.6 million for its opening weekend, this film will be all but a bad memory by next Friday. Faring worse was the Kate Beckinsale misfire "Whiteout", which pulled in $5.1 million for seventh place. Watch for a DVD/Blu-ray announcement on this Warner Brothers write-off sometime within the next week or so.

Spots eight through ten were occupied by holdovers: in eigth was the hit "District 9" with $3.6 million and a $108.5 million gross (Please Sony, no sequel. Leave well enough alone.). Ninth spot went to "Julie and Julia" with $3.3 million and a $85.3 million gross, while tenth went to the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't Gerard Butler actionier "Gamer". Dropping a huge 66%, the Lionsgate release just over $3 mil and a ten-day gross of $16.1 million.

Next week, another quartet of new titles hit cinemas: the family feature "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", the Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy "Love Happens", the Matt Damon corporate comedy "The Informant!" and "Jennifer's Body", featuring Mensa member Megan Fox, whose fifteen minutes of fame, or at least the amount of time she is allowed to actually speak, is hopefully coming to a fast end.

Because the last two were SO damn good: here comes a fourth 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film

According to an article at The Hollywood Reporter.com, Walt Disney confirmed that Summer 2011 will bring us a fourth chapter in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" saga, subtitled "On Stranger Tides". Johnny Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow, no word on whether Kiera Knightley, Geoffrey Rush or Orlando Bloom will return as well.

Apparently, it doesn't matter that the two "Pirates" sequels, 2006's dreadful "Dead Man's Chest" and 2007's "At World's End" were, well, pretty bad. But, between the two films, they hauled in a whopping $2 billion in ticket sales. This, of course, is what matters when it comes to continues a film series, not the burning desire to tell a continuing story. If the filmmakers are smart, they will ignore the nonsense of the sequels and get back to the straightforwardness of the 2003 original (and perhaps just bring back Depp and Rush only), which might not be a great film but at least it was fun.

Larry Gelbart 1928-2009

Sad news to report tonight. Larry Gelbart, the man who created the classic TV version of Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" and wrote the screenplays for 1977's "Oh, God!" and my all-time favorite comedy, 1982's "Tootsie", passed away this morning following a long bout with cancer. He was 81 years old.

A brief overview of his career can be found at The Hollywood Reporter.

Weekend Box Office preview

The weekend after Labor Day is usually the lowest grossing weekend of the entire calendar year for movies. Kids are back in school, the new television season is gearing up as is the new NFL season. So, Hollywood tends to use it as dumping ground part two (after Labor Day), films so undesirable that they aren't even good enough to open on Labor Day weekend. Last year, the rancid Nic Cage misfire "Bangkok Dangerous" opened at number one with a scant $7.8 million, one of the lowest-grossing number one openings in recent memory.

This year, it's a little different. There are four films opening this weekend, two that may have the potential to last longer than one to two weeks. In fact, there is a good chance that this weekend's new offerings and the long-running holdovers from August may be enough to raise ticket sales above last weekend's holiday take.

Opening in a little over 1,600 theaters is the CGI-animated sci-fi film "9" (the film actually opened on, you guessed it, 9-09-09). The advertising campaign has been fairly heavy for the PG-13 tale that was boasts the producing talents of Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted). The film took in $3.1 million on Wednesday, but mixed reviews and so-so word-of-mouth might make for tough going as it heads into the weekend. Watch for "9" to nab roughly, erm $9 million from Friday to Sunday and $14 million overall for its first five days.

At this point in his career, Tyler Perry could shoot his alter-ego Madea reading the phone book and it would pull in big bucks on its opening weekend. Perry's new film, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself", should have no problem nabbing the number one spot. While the film may not have the big names some of his other films have, it does have the character Madea, which will no doubt be a big draw for Perry's target audience. I haven't seen any of Perry's films, but I have to hand it to the man: he makes movies that people want to see and chances are he always turns a profit for the studio backing him, which gives him the freedom to develop whatever he wants. Watch for "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" to nab somewhere around $20-25 million for the weekend.

The third new entry to the market is the T&A slasher flick, "Sorority Row". The third slasher film aimed at teens in as many as two weeks, "Sorority" looks like a rip off of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" as vapid bimbos are picked off one by one by some crazed killer that apparently they wronged (my money is on a rejected sorority pledge). Granted, there may be some fun in watching a bunch of scantily-clad airheads get stabbed and skewered for 90 minutes, but something tells me the sure-to-be atrocious acting/writing/directing would make it too difficult to endure. Besides, they already gave away the biggest scare in the commercials: the sight of Carrie Fisher as the Sorority house mom. You've dropped a long way since the days of the slave Leia outfit, Carrie.

Teens that aren't burnt out on horror films yet will be the only ones seeing "Sorority Row" this weekend, so watch for the gross to land in the $10 million range before fading into the sunset next weekend, when another horror film opens, the Megan Fox vehicle "Jennifer's Body".

The fourth film opening this weekend is the one that will probably do the least amount of business: the Kate Beckinsale thriller "Whiteout". Directed by Dominic Sena, the visionary genius behind "Swordfish" and the remake of "Gone In Sixty Seconds", "Whiteout" is the story of a U.S. Marshall (Beckinsale) attempting to solve a murder mystery in Antartica before the continent's winter takes over. Advanced word on this is absolutely dire, and the ad campaign has been minimal at best. Watch for this one to vanish almost as fast as "Sorority Row". This weekend, "Whiteout" may pull in around $7.5 million.

With four new movies opening, one being a horror film, watch for "The Final Destination" to drop down to fifth, possibly even sixth (behind "Inglourious Basterds") with roughly $6 million in ticket sales. "Inglourious Basterds" should have another decent weekend with roughly $6.5 to $7 million, while the Sandra Bullock film "All About Steve" should suffer a direct word-of-mouth hit and drop to around $5 million.

Next week, watch for another quartet of titles to enter into a crowded marketplace: the animated feature "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", the Matt Damon black comedy "The Informant!" (see my mini-review below), the Jennifer Aniston/Aaron Eckhart romantic comedy "Love Happens" and the aforementioned "Jennifer's Body".

The Informant!: A Quick Review

When the nadir of journalism TMZ.com reported that actor Matt Damon had died, it was instantly debunked by Damon's publicist. Of course, being the wise-ass that I am, I instantly quipped that perhaps they were talking about his career. Of course, that too is utter bunk. As if right on cue to prove my joke was nothing more than that, Damon's latest collaboration with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, "The Informant!", was screened tonight in Boston. After seeing Damon's performance in the corporate comedy, it is safe to say that Damon's career is nowhere near Death's door.

Damon, who will no doubt be nicknamed "Fatt Damon" due to the actor pulling a DeNiro by adding 30 lbs for the role, plays Mark Whitacre, a biochemist who is on the rise at agro-giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) but decides to become a mole for the FBI in order to expose a multi-national price-fixing conspiracy going on at ADM. All seems to be going along well for the investigation, which culminates in the arrest of many of the top executives at ADM. Unfortunately for the bureau, what should be the high point of the years-long investigation turns out to be the beginning of a nightmare that centers around Whitacre.

If you can overlook the often obtrusive cinematography by Peter Andrews (a.k.a. Steven Soderbergh) and a soundtrack by Marvin Hamlisch (!) that seems to be scored for another movie altogether, you will find that "The Informant!" is a smart, consistently funny comedy for adults. It respects its audience's intelligence and offers up an engaging, often surprising story that is chock full of great performances, especially Damon's. Whitacre is a man who not only sticks his foot in his mouth, he puts his entire leg in there. Watching Whitacre spiral out of control as the scenes click by is what drives this film, and Damon's solid performance only makes that journey all the more entertaining.

It may not get Oscar recognition, but Damon's performance is certainly one of the better ones I have seen this year, and "The Informant!" is definitely one of Soderbergh's better commercial efforts. It certainly is a major improvement over the last two debacles the filmmaker did with Damon: "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen". Rated R. 109 minutes approx. Three stars out of four. Opens September 18th.

More posts soon!

Hi all,

This week has been a bit crazy with work and what not, so the posts have been light. In fact, the poster from Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" may best sum up the type of week I have been having (as I am sure many of you have as well). But, the week is almost over, the stress levels seem to be subsiding a bit and I will be back with more news and views starting tonight with a quick look at the new Matt "I'm not dead, damnit!" Damon/Steven Soderbergh comedy "The Informant!".

Till then, have a good one!

Weekend Box Office wrap up

The 2009 summer movie season quietly came to a close over the Labor Day weekend, with a trio of new films being largely ignored. Those who did make it to the theaters over the four-day weekend span (all grosses reported in this article reflect the Friday-Monday period and are estimates) opted instead for holdovers instead that have benefited greatly by word-of-mouth.

For the second weekend in a row, people wanted to cheat death in 3-D and put "The Final Destination" back on top with an estimated $15.4 million. Dropping 44% from its opening weekend, the fourth entry in New Line's popular horror franchise has pulled in roughly $51 million and may see its way to around $70 million, making it the most popular of the series. That should all but guarantee that this indeed will not be the "Final" of the series.

Speaking of horrors, the 57% second-week drop for "Halloween II" might help finally put that series six feet under. Rob Zombie's sequel yanked $7 mil for a 11-day estimated gross of $27 million. The Weinstein Company announced last weekend that there would be a third film out next year, one in 3-D and one without the participation of Zombie. But given that company's financial woes these days, that might not happen after all.

Of the three new films that did debut this weekend, only the Sandra Bullock/Bradley Cooper comedy "All About Steve" broke the $10 million barrier in ticket sales with an estimated $13.9 million. After sitting on the shelf for two years, 20th Century Fox found a window of opportunity to release this after Bullock and Cooper each had their biggest career hits this summer with "The Proposal" ($162 million to date) and "The Hangover" ($273 million), respectively. Those who showed up on opening day quickly found out that "Steve" was neither.

After scoring a hit in July with the comedy "The Ugly Truth", Gerard Butler returned to the action genre with the film "Gamer", which flatlined its way to an estimated $11.2 million. With its target audience going back to school or busy playing an actual videogame as opposed to watching a film about someone playing one, this Lionsgate feature was largely ignored. The Rotten Tomatoes score of 21% didn't help matters much either. Then again, the target audience probably doesn't read reviews -or read, period- to begin with.

The third film that opened this weekend was Mike Judge's "Extract", which landed in tenth place with a worse-than-expected $5.3 million. Judge's films play perfectly at home, where I recommend you check it out, so watch for the Jason Bateman workplace comedy to attract a larger audience in a few months when it hits home video.

The remaining top ten entries from this Labor Day weekend were holdovers that have benefited from audience word-of-mouth all of last month. "Inglourious Basterds" nabbed the number two spot with $15 million ($95.2 mil to date), "District 9" was fifth with $9 mil ($103.3 mil), "Julie and Julia" was seventh with $7 million ($81 mil to date), "The Time Traveler's Wife" landed in ninth with $5.5 mil ($55.8 mil to date) and "G.I. Joe" proved to be a real American box office hero with another $6.7 million for eighth place ($142 million to date).

This week, he fall film season kicks off on Wednesday with the computer-animated sci-fi film "9", followed two days later by the horror film "Sorority Row", the new Tyler Perry film "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and the Kate Beckinsale (apologies to the other Kate) thriller (I think it's a thriller) "Whiteout". While "9" has been hyped to the, erm, nines, watch for Tyler Perry to land yet another number one with his new film by next Sunday.

Weekend Box Office: what we're all NOT doing this weekend.

According to Box Office Guru's Friday Estimates, not many of us are heading to the theaters this Labor Day weekend, and can you blame us? The weather is beautiful, this is technically the final weekend of the summer and, for myself, I have way too much music to add to the iPod to bother seeing such leftovers as the ones that were trotted out yesterday.

The Sandra Bullock comedy, "All About Steve" (a film that was shot over two years ago and has a whopping 6% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), looks to have tied with last week's champ "The Final Destination" for the top spot yesterday and possibly for the long weekend. "Steve" nabbed an estimated $3.6 mil yesterday, roughly the same as "Destination", which dropped a predictable 67% from its opening day the week before. Look for both to finish in the neighborhood of $14-17 mil by Monday night.

NERD ALERT! The Gerard Butler actionier "Gamer" opened with $3.3 mil on Friday and looks to reach roughly $13 mil for the weekend. I saw the trailer for this film before "Terminator: Salvation" in May and found the two minutes of ADD-esque, ear-shattering footage to be enough of a chore to sit through. Sitting through another 100 minutes or so could only prove suicide-inducing.

As expected, Mike Judge's workplace comedy "Extract" (see my mini-review from a few days ago below) opened with a tiny $1.5 mil and will be lucky to make it to $6 million for the holiday weekend. "Extract" isn't a bad film by any means, but it's not something one has to drive out to the theaters to see. Then again, neither are any of the films I've already mentioned in this article. If you have to see one of the new films that came out this weekend, make it this one. At least you'll walk away entertained and not feeling like you and your wallet were just violated.

As for the holdovers, watch for Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" and the sleeper hits "District 9", "Julie and Julia" and "The Time Traveler's Wife" to hold close to what they grossed last weekend. This should bring "Basterds" up to around $95 million, "District" up and over the $100 million milestone, "Julie" to roughly $78 mil and "Wife" to a very healthy $53 million.

Ladies & Gentelmen...The Beatles!

As this is the Labor Day weekend and I just received my Beatles Stereo Box Set in the mail today, the posts may be lighter than usual. That is unless I decide to start writing about the remastered Fab Four discs.

Gladiator on blu-ray: Unleash hell...on the jerk who okayed the transfer

Ask any owner of a blu-ray high-definition disc player what titles they would like to have in their library, chances are that they will mention Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" as one of their top choices. And why not? The film's visuals would look phenomenal in 1080p resolution, and the uncompressed audio would certainly shake, rattle and roll the living room. And hey, the film isn't all that bad either.

Well, Paramount Home Video granted not one but two wishes for blu-ray owners on September 1st. Along with Scott's Oscar-winning epic, Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning historical epic "Braveheart" made its much-anticipated debut in the high-def format. The two titles were released as the first of Paramount's "Sapphire Series", which promised the best quality in picture and sound for the best movies, which I am guessing are the films that have won the coveted top prize for the studio (Gladiator won Best Picture for Universal and Dreamworks in 2000 but have since lost the home video distribution rights).

While Mad Mel's Scottish drama does live up to the promise of the best video and audio presentation, "Gladiator" is anything but. Using what has to be an old master that was probably used for the original DVD release nine years ago, the new blu-ray is a hit-and-mostly-miss mess, full of an artifical sharpening technique known as Edge Enhancement and Digital Noise Reduction, or DNR, which can render a film's image to be as smooth as glass and make the film's actors look like a bunch of wax figures (or vampires on a day pass). DNR and Edge Enhancement are used quite a bit on DVD in the format's earlier years. The use of both has subsided slightly, but it still manages to rear its ugly head from time to time. With six times the resolution available on Blu-ray, there is absolutely no need for either technique to be applied to get a knockout image. As the master used for the "Gladiator" was done years before blu-ray hit the market (and transferring films to digital video became more refined), the edge enhancement and DNR orginially applied is as clear as day and magnified to the point of taking one out of the film entirely. In contrast, "Braveheart" displays little if any of either.

So why did I say the transfer for "Gladiator" is hit-and-miss? Well, there are two cuts of the film to watch: the 154-minute theatrical and a 171-minute "extended cut" that was released a few years back as part of a 3-disc set. In the longer cut, the 17 minutes of restored footage looks terrific. Edge Enhancement is minimal at best and the actors no longer look like Madame Tussaud statues. Since these scenes are spread throughout the film, the transfer goes from looking rather ghastly to the way it should look in High Definition, which makes watching this disc all the more of a chore.

Of all the movies that Paramount has released on blu-ray, this one has to be right up there as one of the most disappointing. I can understand if Universal gave Paramount an old transfer to work with. Hell, if I was a studio and wasn't going to see dime one off of what was sure to be a best seller, I wouldn't put any effort into it either. But Paramount should really have stopped and looked at the picture quality of what they were putting out. When you put one of the most popular films of the decade out as part of your premiere high defintion line, you damn well better make sure it looks as great as it can. I know remastering a film can be a pricey task, but it's "Gladiator". I have no doubt that if it were done right, they would have made their production costs on the disc back several times over if not more. But as it stands right now, this is simply a matter of taking the money and running.

This week's video pick: State of Play

Kevin MacDonald's American remake of the 2003 BBC drama "State of Play" is one of 2009's better films. MacDonald, who also directed the critically-acclaimed "The Last King of Scotland" and "Touching the Void", does a solid job condensing the six-hour runtime of the British original about a pair of reporters out to expose a murder that may be tied to an elected official, without losing too much of the story or character development. In the midst of its twists and turns, it even makes an astute observation on the state of the print media industry in the electronic age.The ensemble cast, led by Russell Crowe (where's Tugger?), Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright-Penn, Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck, all give solid performances.

The only place the film slightly runs off-track is in its wrap up, which is different from the miniseries and is a bit on the obvious side. That aside, "State of Play" is an intelligent, rock-solid thriller for adults, one that places more of an emphasis on character motivation and development than it does shootouts or chases. Four stars out of four. 128 minutes. Universal Home Video DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Disney buys Marvel Entertainment: Stan Lee is rich! Again.

According to an article over at The Hollywood Reporter, The Walt Disney Company has acquired Marvel Entertainment for a whopping $4 billion.

This gives the Mouse House a great catalog of legendary comic book characters to choose from to keep the money coming in through ancilliary markets such as cartoons, comic books (duh) action figures and, of course, movies.

Of course, Disney won't be raking in all of the Marvel profits just yet. Three of Marvel's most popular film characters, Spider-Man, Iron Man and the ones associated with the "X-Men" series are currently tied to rival studios Sony, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, respectively. Sony recently announced that there will be three more web-slinger films (an announcement no doubt prompted by then-rumors of the Disney buyout), Paramount has a deal with Marvel to release five more films (including two 'Iron Man' sequels and 'The Avengers' in 2011) and Fox has at least three more "X-Men" films in the works: a "Wolverine" sequel, a "Magneto" origin film and possibly a fourth film using a host of the "X-Men" characters. Universal may have an option to do another film that centers around "The Incredible Hulk".

Still, if your studio is going to spend $4 billion on buying another studio, you couldn't do much better than Marvel. Aside from the fanboy market, Disney will always have a new generation of boys and girls that you can sell Spidey, Hulk and Iron Man to, be it through cartoons on the Disney Channel or animated theatrical features (think Pixar, folks), the Mouse House should be able to recoup their $4 billion in a few years time.