Box office roundup

[K9]

My favourite bit so far is when he's flying backwards through the death star trench while the Indiana Jones theme tune plays in the background.

And wow...

[rk47]

LOL i am sooo confused, which ones are the good guys with all the repeated xwing and tie fighters blowing up i can't tell

[Khaldun]

I use Soylent Green in my course on the history of the future--the first time I re-viewed it, I was sort of surprised at how it's been reduced to camp in a lot of people's memories because of the memorable final line. Heston's performance is really quite good--the ferocity of his character's amorality is really compelling in a lot of scenes.

[Samwise]

Funny Games, awful movie to be avoided even if you can rent it for a dollar.

The plot, what little of it there was, went completely off the rails when one of the main characters picked up a remote and rewound the movie.  Yes, that is right, rewound the movie.   

I watched it without sound and then backwards, Memento style, a few weeks ago. Still didn't do it for me.

I thought it was fantastic. But then, I like fun.

I wouldn't go as far as "fantastic", but as random Netflix picks go I thought it was pretty good.

[justdave]

Human brain crust shield for Earth.  Oh this is awesome, thank you for the link.

"But in reality;
how strong their weapons be;
The enemies of the earth in galaxy;
did not have brains."

That's some fucking Shakespeare right there.

[Oban]

That was fucking awesome. 

Made me really miss MST3K.

[Slyfeind]

Wow. This summer's blockbuster movie fest has been like a Saturday filled with the awesomest cartoons ever, and now it's 11 AM and Soul Train is on.

[stu]

Funny Games, awful movie to be avoided even if you can rent it for a dollar.

The plot, what little of it there was, went completely off the rails when one of the main characters picked up a remote and rewound the movie.  Yes, that is right, rewound the movie.   

I watched it without sound and then backwards, Memento style, a few weeks ago. Still didn't do it for me.

I thought it was fantastic. But then, I like fun.

Try watching the chapters in reverse order. It's better.

edit: This film isn't meant to be fun for anyone. That's why it was (re)made.

[Jeff Kelly]

I saw my 'Name is Bruce' last week at the Fantasy Filmfest in Nuremberg. It's definitively a must-see for every Bruce-Campbell fan out there

[Evildrider]

I saw my 'Name is Bruce' last week at the Fantasy Filmfest in Nuremberg. It's definitively a must-see for every Bruce-Campbell fan out there

I hate you!   

[HaemishM]

Saw Sicko this weekend. Despite Michael Moore being a shameless asshole lying propagandist, this is a good movie to watch. In fact, it should be shown at both national political conventions.

[kaid]

Sicko was a good film I can only criticize more a bit because he got a bit silly with some of the stuff like the cuba stuff when it really was not necessary the stories are out there and shocking enough they really don't need any stupid stunts to make a very troubling documentary.

Still sicko was about the most restrained I have seen him and I recommend that everybody should watch it.

[Oban]

Watched 21, needed more tits and a sandwich.

[Jain Zar]

Wow. This summer's blockbuster movie fest has been like a Saturday filled with the awesomest cartoons ever, and now it's 11 AM and Soul Train is on.

THIS.   This is the truest statement ever.  Soul Train was the death knell of fun TV on Saturdays for an entire generation.  It came on it was time to go play videogames or break out the Transformers and GI Joes.

And so appropriate given how much awesome and cool (even if I seem to be the only person who really liked Speed Racer.  You soulless heartless moviegoing public fuckfaces.. x_x ) was shown this summer, which has now turned into a long period of "who gives a shit?" releases.

Which is saving me a good 40-60 bucks a month so that's nice.  Oh.  Wait.  DVD releases of the Summer stuff. 


SHIT.

[Velorath]

Wow. This summer's blockbuster movie fest has been like a Saturday filled with the awesomest cartoons ever, and now it's 11 AM and Soul Train is on.

Yep.  This last weekend was the worst in the last five years (in regards to ticket sales for the top ten movies).  The last movie that was #1 at the box office that had lower sales than Bangkok Dangerous was Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.  Things should improve a little this Friday with Burn After Reading and Righteous Kill opening, but all in all there's very little to look forward to over the next few months.

[Evildrider]

I'm not a Nick Cage fan at all, i think he's overrated... and it looks like the movie going public finally caught on.   

[K9]

I enjoyed gone in 60 seconds, otherwise I can't think of a single half-decent move he's in.

[stray]

Eh, Gone in 60 Seconds? I LIKE Cage, and that movie is trash!

Adaptation, Vampire's Kiss, Raising Arizona, Moonstruck, Leaving Las Vegas

[schild]

The Rock.

[stray]

Y'know, yeah... I agree.

[WayAbvPar]

I loathe Nic Cage. It is getting to the point where he is almost making me hate one of my favorite all time movies (Raising Arizona) just by the sheer overpowering suck he is responsible for since then.

[stu]

Playing an all-out tough guy in Con Air set his career on an odd course. Since then, the only worthy thing he's done was a cameo in Grindhouse.

[stray]

Technically, he started the tough guy schtick in uhh... some crappy David Caruso movie.. can't remember now. It was very strange at the time.

Kiss of Death, I think it was called.

Con-Air.. whew. What a pile of crap. And that's with Cusack and Buscemi in it. Quite an accomplishment really.

I seriously recommend Vampire's Kiss though. That's a sleeper. One of my favorite vampire movies ever. If you can even call it that (you'll see why).

[stray]

I forgot how freaking EVIL John Lithgow is in Ricochet.

Almost equal to Kurtwood Smith's immortal evil bastard portrayal of "Clarence" in Robocop. 


Other unlikely evil bastard roles? I'm drawing a blank...

[Ironwood]

Yeah, but he should have won an Oscar solely for the 'Bitches Leave' line.

[stu]

Starship Troopers, a guilty pleasure of mine, is now available on Hulu.

[FatuousTwat]

Nothing to be guilty about IMO. Love that movie.

[Merusk]

Welcome to the Roughnecks.

[stray]

One of the greatest travesties in cinematic history: Betty Rubble, played Rosie O'Donnell

[Evildrider]

Welcome to the Roughnecks.

Rasczak's Roughnecks!  Hooah!

[shiznitz]

Starship Troopers, a guilty pleasure of mine, is now available on Hulu.

That is awesome.

[WindupAtheist]

I haven't done one of these in eons, but there's a lot of stuff out that I feel like talking about and this strikes me as being a better idea than posting in six different movie forum threads. As always, numbers are lifted from Box Office Mojo, a superlative site that anyone with any interest in the business side of Hollywood ought to frequent.

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#1 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Week 1
Weekend gross: $79.5m
Total gross: $159.7m
Budget: Unknown (Previous HP film cost $150m)
Sites: 4325

Another Potter movie, another giant bucket of money. This is the second-lowest opening weekend for a HP flick (last one did just a little less) and rather short of the $100+ million Goblet of Fire did when it opened, but it doesn't really matter. This is a shitload of money. Maybe people aren't quite as fired up about Harry Potter as they were a few years ago, but they're far from sick of it. (As Velorath pointed out, I am a dumb newb and based on the 5-day this is actually the biggest HP.)

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#2 - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Week 3
Weekend gross: $17.7m (-35.9%)
Total gross: $152m
Budget: $90m
Sites: 3817 (-285)

Dreamworks never beats Pixar head-to-head at the box office unless Shrek is involved, but they always make a good showing, and this year is no exception. It'll get up past $200m before it's done, and that's plenty respectable.

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#3 - Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, Week 4
Weekend gross: 13.8m (-43.2%)
Total gross: $363.9
Budget: $200m
Sites: 3857 (-436)

Ebert wrote a couple weeks ago "The opening grosses are a tribute to a marketing campaign, not to a movie no one had seen. [...] The test is: Does the film have legs?" Well yeah, Roger, it kinda does. It'll end up making four times as much as that huge opening, very good for this sort of movie, and will probably beat everything else out this year by a hundred million or so. Sorry.

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#4 - Bruno, Week 2
Weekend gross: $8.4m (-72.7%)
Total gross: $49.6m
Budget: Unknown (Borat cost $18m, Bruno rumored to be much higher)
Sites: 2759 (+3)

Utter abject collapse, as predicted after the movie's sharp Friday-to-Saturday drop. Average viewer rating was in the C range. This is what it looks like when word of mouth poisons a movie. It'll make back whatever it's budget was, plus some, but it's no Borat. I also should throw in this article Pants linked in the Bruno thread on the Twitter effect as an explanation for that sudden collapse.

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#5 - The Hangover, Week 7
Weekend gross: $8.3m (-16.3%)
Total gross: $235.9m
Budget: $35m
Sites: 2667 (-335)

The budget-to-payout success story of the year, this movie will probably do a little more than Star Trek did for less than a quarter the price, and Trek was no slouch. As an example of the movie's legs, take a look at this: It's #116 for all-time opening weekends, but #55 for all-time second weekends, and #18 for seventh weekends. Granted "eighteenth highest seventh-weekend gross of all time" isn't something one typically brags about, but it all adds up in the end.

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#6 - The Proposal, Week 5
Weekend gross: $8.3m (-21.8%)
Total gross: $128m
Budget: $40m
Sites: 3043 (-115)

Yep, Ryan Reynolds is a viable leading man. This is the second-highest grossing movie he's ever been in (behind only Wolverine) and the highest by far where he's been the male lead. I wouldn't be surprised if this played a big part in his landing the Green Lantern role. Let's also not overlook the fact that this is Sandra Bullock's highest grossing movie ever, and her first $100m+ picture since Miss Congeniality almost 9 years ago. That isn't bad for an actress who turns 45 years old in less than a week. Yes really.

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#7 - Public Enemies, Week 3
Weekend gross: $7.6m (-45%)
Total gross: $79.5m
Budget: $100m
Sites: 3118 (-218)

It's not a loser or anything, but the budget gives one the impression that they expected this movie to do somewhat more than it has. If so, it's their own stupid fault. This is right in line with what Michael Mann and Johnny Depp usually gross. Mann has only ever broken the $100m barrier once (barely, with Collateral) and Depp only twice outside of the Pirates movies.

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#8 - Up, Week 8
Weekend gross: $3.1m (-33.3%)
Total gross: $279.6m
Budget: $175m
Sites: 1706 (-495)

I've said it before and I'll say it again now: This is the golden age of American feature animation. (Mostly due to Pixar, but also due to the Disney/Pixar machine having real competition in the form of Dreamworks.) Anyway it's Pixar, it makes money. This is their second-best showing ever, behind only Finding Nemo and it's $340m gross. Hell, Pixar's average gross is $241m, and their lowest ever was still $162m for Bug's Life.

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#9 - My Sister's Keeper, Week 4
Weekend gross: $2.8m (-34.2%)
Total gross: $41.5m
Budget: $30m
Sites: 1967 (-477)

A tear-jerker tossed into the middle of blockbuster season as a bit of counterprogramming. I suppose it could have worked out better, but it also could have worked out much worse. I have to tell you, the appeal of a "my kid has cancer" movie is even more elusive to me than the appeal of torture-porn horror flicks. Frankly I think I'd rather take my chances with that weird-looking dude from Saw than watch a child of mine die of leukemia.

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#10 - I Love You Beth Cooper, Week 2
Weekend gross: $2.7m (-45.8%)
Total gross: $10.3m
Budget: $18m
Sites: 1872 (+14)

Flop. Not a huge money-loser since the budget was so small, but still a loser. If Hayden Panettiere wants a movie career, she's going to have to get herself in something better than a teen comedy turd like this.

[K9]

Good roundup, nice to see information of this type all collated in a single place

[Velorath]

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#1 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Week 1
Weekend gross: $79.5m
Total gross: $159.7m
Budget: Unknown (Previous HP film cost $150m)
Sites: 4325

Another Potter movie, another giant bucket of money. This is the second-lowest opening weekend for a HP flick (last one did just a little less) and rather short of the $100+ million Goblet of Fire did when it opened, but it doesn't really matter. This is a shitload of money. Maybe people aren't quite as fired up about Harry Potter as they were a few years ago, but they're far from sick of it.

This Harry Potter as well as Order of the Phoenix, had Wednesday openings instead of Friday, hence the lower opening weekends.  5 day totals for Half Blood Prince blow the other HP movies out of the water.  It had the second biggest Wednesday opening of all time (behind Transformers 2) and the biggest midnight opening.


Edit:

Also,

#2 - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Week 3
Weekend gross: $17.7m (-35.9%)
Total gross: $152m
Budget: $90m
Sites: 3817 (-285)

Dreamworks never beats Pixar head-to-head at the box office unless Shrek is involved, but they always make a good showing, and this year is no exception. It'll get up past $200m before it's done, and that's plenty respectable.

Ice Age is made by Fox, not Dreamworks.  Dreamworks' last pic was Monsters Vs. Aliens.

[WindupAtheist]

Ah, good to know, thanks. Fucking hate these mid-week openings, but I should have noticed thanks to the weekend to total gross disparity. Editing the roundup. /derf