If I seem like I'm in a foul mood today, it could be because of the extremely poor slate of films this past weekend, all of which failed to impress anybody at the box office. Or it could be that I woke up early, the remote control was out of reach, and I found myself sitting through Pizza, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was so bad that I had to stick around and see how badly they'd screw up the ending. On a related note: What the hell ever happened to Ethan Embry? I thought he'd be big sh*t after Can't Hardly Wait...
1. The Final Destination- $12.4M/$47.5M
Perfectly capturing just how lousy this week's films performed, last week's champeen skidded 55% and still handily defeated all other contenders. Boosted by the increased cost of 3-D showings, the 4th film in the franchise is well on course to surpassing the final tally of the other films, even if fewer people are actually attending.
2. All About Steve- $11.2M
Can someone explain to me what the hell this movie is about? Seriously. The TV spots were hella confusing. I get that Sandra Bullock is crazy....right? But what's the deal with Bradley Cooper? He doesn't appear to be doing much of anything. Is it just a movie about making fun of a crazy person? Is it a rom-com? It doesn't matter. You couldn't get me to see this crap if you paid me...ok, maybe if you paid me. But that's the only way. Considering the success of Bullock's The Proposal, and Cooper's The Hangover, this lousy start has to be a disappointment.
3. Inglourious Basterds- $10.8M/$91M
Tarantino's WWII revenge fantasy slipped 44%, but already is the director's 2nd highest grossing film after only 17 days. Not too shabby. Overseas the film has pulled in an estimated $83M. With numbers like these, it's all but a certainty that we'll get to see that proposed Basterds prequel sometime in the near future. Hooray!
4. Gamer- $9M
Yeah, this is about what I expected. Despite my anticipation for Gerard Butler's next actioner, about a world where death row inmates are forced to participate in deadly deathmatches for their freedom, the marketing for Gamer was unimpressive and failed to set itself apart from the rest of the pack. Instead, they chose a campaign that was as haphazard as the film itself, when they should've perhaps focused more on Butler as the leading man. Then again even if they had done that, I doubt it would've had much of an effect on these numbers. This is a movie made solely for guys, and considering the wealth of other films targeting the same demo, Gamer had a tough uphill battle from the start.
5. District 9- $7M/$101.3M
Continues to hold on strong, showing that the somewhat controversial sci-fi flick has some serious staying power, boding well for the already planned sequel.
6. Halloween II- $5.6M/$25.6M
After two weeks, Rob Zombie's slasher sequel has grossed less than Halloween did in it's opening weekend alone. Dropping a whopping 66% from last week, the film never gained a foothold after it's disastrous horror showdown with The Final Destination.
7. Julie & Julia- $5.2M/$78.8M
8. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra- $5.1M/$139.4M
9. The Time Traveler's Wife- $4.2M/$54.5M
10. Extract- $4.2M
Well, I guess the campaign to equate Extract with Mike Judge's legendary workplace comedy Office Space worked because 4.2M is exactly what Office Space brought in on it's opening weekend. The chances of this film reaching Space's status, however, are slim and none due in no small part to a weak premise and uninteresting characters.
Remember Taking Woodstock? Ang Lee movie? Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch...no? Apparently everybody else forgot it existed, too, because in it's second week it only brought in $1.5M and stumbled down to 15th on the charts. Ouch.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen finally surpassed the $400M mark. Unbelievable for a movie so many people "hate".
I have to say something about The Cove, the documentary highlighting the merciless slaughter of dolphins in the Taiji cove in Japan. While the film only brought in about $670,000 here in the States, the attention it's brought to the issue has been phenomenal. Now, it's recently been reported that the man behind The Cove, Rick O'Barry, returned to Taiji to report on the annual slaughter and found that miraculously it was no longer taking place. Awesome. It just goes to show that sometimes these movies do have a real lasting impact, and no amount of money earned can ever take that away.
