'Resident Evil: Afterlife' overcomes its crappiness, wins the weekend

[Brian Damage]

This weekend, a few new movies were battling for the top spot at the box office, and they couldn't have been more dissimilar. Resident Evil: Afterlife offered up crappy-movie thrills in 3D, while Joaquin Phoenix's I'm Still Here covered the dramedy front. Meanwhile, the Drew Barrymore rom-com Going The Distance struggled to stay relevant, and George Clooney remained near the top in The American. Read on for the full report, my fellow film geeks...

Despite the fact that no one with any taste in movies had an interest in seeing Paul W.S. Anderson's latest hate-crime-on-film, Resident Evil: Afterlife whooped the hell out of the box office competition this week: not only did it take the top spot from many better films currently in release, but it proved to be a record for the franchise. Prior to this absurd new entry in the series, the best-ever opening weekend was $23.6m (for the last one), so a $28m haul for this one's good news for all involved. Bad news for the rest of us, who are almost certainly going to see another Resident Evil movie before someone gets wise and takes away Anderson's funding.

And, yes, of course the 3D ticket prices have something to do with this. Didn't think that was even worth pointing out. Look, the Resident Evil franchise has a built-in audience. Dudes who live in trailer parks and drink way too much Mountain Dew love the Resident Evil series, because it gives them precisely what they want in spades: hot chicks, exploding heads, and unlikely action set-pieces. Paul W.S. Anderson may be stuck directing these things for the rest of his life, though: these seem to be the only Anderson movies that earn any respectable money. And meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim's dying a lonely death somewhere in the top twenty. It's a cruel world, folks.

The other new film in release was the Casey Affleck/Joaquin Phoenix documentary I'm Still Here, which offered up a limp-wristed mockumentary for anyone that hadn't gotten enough already with Borat and Bruno. The film failed to crack the top ten, which means we're still not sure what the film earned this weekend. But considering that the film in tenth place-- Inception, which has been in release for over two months-- earned $2.8m, it can't be good news. Oh, well, guys: you tried, and we respect your efforts.

The other story out of this week's top ten is the film Takers, a movie that no one-- including the studio behind the film-- thought was going to earn decent money. A few of the actors in the film (namely Hayden Christensen) have all but disowned the movie, but it's been a surprise hit for the past few weeks, and this weekend in pulled in another $5.7m (for a new total of $47.5m). Congrats to all involved. Except for the poster. That thing was atrocious. Anyway, let's look at the full top ten (numbers via Deadline):

1. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [3,203 Theaters]
Friday $10.9M, Saturday $10M, Weekend $28M2. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,191 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.5M, Weekend $5.9M, Estimated Cume $48M

2. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,191 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.5M, Weekend $5.9M, Estimated Cume $48M

3. The American (Focus Features) Week 2 [2,833 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $5.8M (-56%), Estimated Cume $28.2M

4. Machete (Fox) Week 2 [2,678 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.7M, Weekend $4.2M (-63%), Estimated Cume $20.8M

5. Going The Distance (NL/Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,030 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M (-42%), Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.8M (-44%), Estimated Cume $14M

6. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 6 [2,246 Theaters]
Friday $1M, Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.7M, Estimated Cume $112.8M

7. The Last Exorcism (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,731 Theaters]
Friday $1.0M, Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $38.2M

8. The Expendables (Lionsgate) Week 5 [3,058 Theaters]
Friday $940K, Saturday $1.5M, Weekend $3.3 Estimated Cume $98.5M

9. Eat Pray Love (Sony) Week 5 [2,339 Theaters]
Friday $890K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $3M, Estimated Cume $74.7M

10. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 9 [1,583 Theaters]
Friday $835K, Saturday $1.3M, Weekend $2.9M, Estimated Cume $282.3M

http://www.examiner.com/film-geek-in...ns-the-weekend