Brian Damage
07-18-2010, 12:01 PM
This weekend, the first truly great film of Summer 2010 hit theaters: Christopher Nolan's Inception has finally arrived, and it's so good that it almost single-handedly makes up for every other crappy movie that we've seen this summer. Meanwhile, Dreamworks Animation's Despicable Me is looking to weather the storm, and Twilight: Eclipse is trying to stay in the top five. Yep, seems like just another weekend at the box office, folks. But it feels like we're forgetting something, doesn't it? Wasn't there another big movie released this week, something that's supposed to be selling a lot of tickets? Oh, yes, that's right: Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which nearly no one was excited about seeing. Almost forgot about that one (much like we forgot about Dre). Keep on reading to learn how all these films are doing in the top five, my gentle Examiner readers...
You and I both knew Inception was going to be the film to beat at the box office this weekend, so let's try not to act surprised that it pulled down an awesome $62.1m over the past three days. Yesterday, the estimates were putting the film a little lower at $55m, but it looks like Inception is the film everyone wants to talk about come Monday morning. A $62m opening is a helluva long way off from Nolan's last opening, but at least it's not the less than $18m The Sorcerer's Apprentice earned on its first weekend of release. Good God, that's a bomb. Let's jump right into the top ten
1. INCEPTION: $62.1 million for the weekend
Considering how poorly Inception could have done with critics everywhere calling the film incredibly intelligent, thought-provoking, and challenging, all of us who root for the films we love to do well at the box office should really be thankful that the film's earned $62.1m this weekend. If Inception had bombed, Hollywood's would think (even moreso than they already do) that we're all a lot less intelligent than we really are. They wouldn't hesitate to greenlight Marmaduke 2. But intelligence prevailed this weekend, and now we're free to argue over Inception's final shot with one another. Me, I think it means that...well, we'll hold off on that for a couple more days.
2. DESPICABLE ME: $32.2 million for the weekend
Despicable Me's a great family movie (as per usual, you can click on the film titles to see the reviews for each of these films...except for that one down at the bottom, of course), is being presented in 3D, and features an awesome performance from Steve Carell. In other words, Despicable Me ain't going anywhere for a good, long while. If you haven't already seen it and you're worried that Inception might be too much for you to handle, go check out Despicable Me instead of The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
3. THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE: $17.8m for the weekend
Holy crap, is this movie bombing. Made for well over $100m, Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice is achieving some massive FAIL with audiences. For one thing, the trailers sucked: they looked shrill, annoying, and prominently featured Nicolas Cage doing what appeared to be a Han Solo/Gandalf impression. The special effects didn't look all that special, either. If this movie was gonna make any of that budget back it would need about $65m by now. But $17.8m? Ouch.
4. TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE: Estimated $15m for the weekend ($5m on Friday)
I have nearly nothing left to say about this movie. Click the title to read my review for some deep thoughts on the film itself, but otherwise, let's just report the facts and move on. This thing's gonna show up in our box office reports for another month at least, so I should probably pace myself. This time, I'll leave it at this: "Meh".
5. TOY STORY 3: $13.1m for the weekend
I love you, Toy Story 3, but what do I have left to say about you? The film dropped only 45% from the same time last week: that's pretty damn remarkable. Pixar's latest is still the best reviewed film of the summer, sitting pretty at 99% over on RottenTomatoes.com. That might actually be the best-reviewed film of the year, now that I think of it. Anyone know of a film that scored 99% or higher in 2010? Perhaps Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeekuel? Or was that in 2009? Congrats, Toy Story 3.
Ah, yes: "The rest". But first, a quick note on the "Weekend Box Office" versus "Box Office Reports". The former is the version we run on Saturday, the one that contains projections only. This one's for all the box office watchers that can't wait to find out how their favorite film's doing. The "Box Office Report", which you're reading now, is for all the people that complain about the "Weekend Box Office" because we couldn't possibly know the numbers yet (compare 'em, though, and you'll see they were pretty damn close). You can read one or the other, or you can read both. Totally up to you, Slappy.
Now, as for the Bottom Five, we had Grown-Ups trying to hold onto the top five and failing, coming in at sixth with just $12.2m for the weekend. M. Night Shyamalan's Last Airbender was right behind it with $7.2m (and a $115m cumulative). Is Last Airbender a total trainwreck? Not technically, but close. The real big story is Predators dropping an astonishing 80% to $6.8m this weekend. That movie wasn't all that bad, so I'm surprised to see it get the shaft like that. It brings the film's total to $40m (which, on a $35m budget means that it's already started generating profit-- after promo work, of course), but despite the low budget we shouldn't expect Predatorses any time soon. Knight and Day and The Karate Kid rounded out the top ten. Huzzah!
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15166-Comedy-Examiner~y2010m7d18-Box-Office-Report-Inception-dreams-up-a-621m-opening-Sorcerers-Apprentice-bombs-in-third
You and I both knew Inception was going to be the film to beat at the box office this weekend, so let's try not to act surprised that it pulled down an awesome $62.1m over the past three days. Yesterday, the estimates were putting the film a little lower at $55m, but it looks like Inception is the film everyone wants to talk about come Monday morning. A $62m opening is a helluva long way off from Nolan's last opening, but at least it's not the less than $18m The Sorcerer's Apprentice earned on its first weekend of release. Good God, that's a bomb. Let's jump right into the top ten
1. INCEPTION: $62.1 million for the weekend
Considering how poorly Inception could have done with critics everywhere calling the film incredibly intelligent, thought-provoking, and challenging, all of us who root for the films we love to do well at the box office should really be thankful that the film's earned $62.1m this weekend. If Inception had bombed, Hollywood's would think (even moreso than they already do) that we're all a lot less intelligent than we really are. They wouldn't hesitate to greenlight Marmaduke 2. But intelligence prevailed this weekend, and now we're free to argue over Inception's final shot with one another. Me, I think it means that...well, we'll hold off on that for a couple more days.
2. DESPICABLE ME: $32.2 million for the weekend
Despicable Me's a great family movie (as per usual, you can click on the film titles to see the reviews for each of these films...except for that one down at the bottom, of course), is being presented in 3D, and features an awesome performance from Steve Carell. In other words, Despicable Me ain't going anywhere for a good, long while. If you haven't already seen it and you're worried that Inception might be too much for you to handle, go check out Despicable Me instead of The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
3. THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE: $17.8m for the weekend
Holy crap, is this movie bombing. Made for well over $100m, Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice is achieving some massive FAIL with audiences. For one thing, the trailers sucked: they looked shrill, annoying, and prominently featured Nicolas Cage doing what appeared to be a Han Solo/Gandalf impression. The special effects didn't look all that special, either. If this movie was gonna make any of that budget back it would need about $65m by now. But $17.8m? Ouch.
4. TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE: Estimated $15m for the weekend ($5m on Friday)
I have nearly nothing left to say about this movie. Click the title to read my review for some deep thoughts on the film itself, but otherwise, let's just report the facts and move on. This thing's gonna show up in our box office reports for another month at least, so I should probably pace myself. This time, I'll leave it at this: "Meh".
5. TOY STORY 3: $13.1m for the weekend
I love you, Toy Story 3, but what do I have left to say about you? The film dropped only 45% from the same time last week: that's pretty damn remarkable. Pixar's latest is still the best reviewed film of the summer, sitting pretty at 99% over on RottenTomatoes.com. That might actually be the best-reviewed film of the year, now that I think of it. Anyone know of a film that scored 99% or higher in 2010? Perhaps Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeekuel? Or was that in 2009? Congrats, Toy Story 3.
Ah, yes: "The rest". But first, a quick note on the "Weekend Box Office" versus "Box Office Reports". The former is the version we run on Saturday, the one that contains projections only. This one's for all the box office watchers that can't wait to find out how their favorite film's doing. The "Box Office Report", which you're reading now, is for all the people that complain about the "Weekend Box Office" because we couldn't possibly know the numbers yet (compare 'em, though, and you'll see they were pretty damn close). You can read one or the other, or you can read both. Totally up to you, Slappy.
Now, as for the Bottom Five, we had Grown-Ups trying to hold onto the top five and failing, coming in at sixth with just $12.2m for the weekend. M. Night Shyamalan's Last Airbender was right behind it with $7.2m (and a $115m cumulative). Is Last Airbender a total trainwreck? Not technically, but close. The real big story is Predators dropping an astonishing 80% to $6.8m this weekend. That movie wasn't all that bad, so I'm surprised to see it get the shaft like that. It brings the film's total to $40m (which, on a $35m budget means that it's already started generating profit-- after promo work, of course), but despite the low budget we shouldn't expect Predatorses any time soon. Knight and Day and The Karate Kid rounded out the top ten. Huzzah!
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15166-Comedy-Examiner~y2010m7d18-Box-Office-Report-Inception-dreams-up-a-621m-opening-Sorcerers-Apprentice-bombs-in-third