Anyone 'Wanna See It'?

Apparently not.

January is known for being a "slow" month.

But, come on.

The only major release this week was the Nicolas Cage supernatural action film "Season of the Witch." Not to be confused with the third "Halloween" movie.

Basically it's about some warriors that have to transport a witch to a monastery. "Hellboy" himself Ron Perlman also stars.

The film is directed by Dominic Sena, who worked with Cage on "Gone in 60 Seconds." Guess lightning doesn't strike twice.

On Friday the film had a one percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One percent.

By Sunday that number rose a tad to four percent. That comes out to three "good" reviews and 72 negative. Even those three reviews know the film is bad, but found something to like about it.

That point can and probably will cause an argument about how to critique movies (we will likely have it.)

The film grossed around $10 million with a reported budget of $40 million. As Stephanie likes to say, it will have to make a lot of money overseas.

The most hilarious thing, considering it's the first release of the year, is to see it ranked as the "top movie of the year" here.

On a side note, the "Oscar" films of this season, that are still in theaters, are doing very well.

"Black Swan" $61 million total.
"True Grit" total $110 million total.
"The Fighter" $57 million total.
"The King's Speech" $33 million total.

Box office Monday

There were no surprises at this week's box office, with "Paranormal Activity 2" taking the top spot. It brought in an impressive $41.5 million, which Paramount is no doubt ecstatic about considering the film's $3 million budget.

It also played in IMAX at select theaters and those tickets always add a few extra dollars to the pot. The interesting thing will be how it competes next week against "Saw 3-D."

In second place was "Jackass 3-D," which had a 57 percent drop off but still managed to bring in $21 million. The film has already grossed more than $87 million, which means Paramount has already greenlit the sequel. Look for "Jackass 3.5" to be released late 2010-early 2011.

The rest of the top five included: "Red" with $15 million, Hereafter with a dismal $12 million and "The Social Network" at $7 million.

There shouldn't be much change to next week's box office with only "Saw 3-D" opening. However, the weeks after that include "Due Date," "Megamind," and "Skyline."

Of course, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" comes out on Nov. 19 to blow everything out of the water.

Putting 'Scott Pilgrim' into perspective

With today being a holiday and all, I decided to do something a little different and kick "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" while it was down.

After the results of this weekend's box office came in, the movie is now in 18th place with a grand total of $28.9 million.

Its budget is $60 million, so unless it makes a ton of money overseas it's going to be considered a bomb.

So, to rub salt in the wound here are some movies that actually, and surprisingly, did better at the box office:

"Charlie St. Cloud" - $30 million
"Vampires Suck" - $33 million
"Marmaduke" - $33 million
"Meet the Spartans" - $38 million
"Step Up 3D" - $41 million
"Tooth Fairy" - $61 million

Heck, "Norbit" even made $95 million!

"Norbit!"

I am not a total monster.

I will give "Scott Pilgrim" a little bit of credit.

It did make a lot more than "From Justin to Kelly."

'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse': will vampires and werewolves defeat Batman and Joker?

I'm pretty sure we all know that "Eclipse" will be No. 1 in the weekend box office, and will put up some huge numbers. But will it put up bigger numbers than "New Moon?"

No one was expecting "New Moon" to give "The Dark Knight" and "Spiderman 3" a run for their money as the biggest opening weekend of all time, which "The Dark Knight" still holds at $158.4 million. However, it did shatter the midnight showing and opening day box office records held by "The Dark Knight" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

I don't think it's ridiculous to think that "Eclipse" will shatter the records held by its predecessor. But will it touch, or even break the seemingly untouchable number put up by "The Dark Knight" and break the weekend box office record?

I think the numbers will be closer than people think. The promotion for "Eclipse" has been huge, and it is getting more great reviews from top rated critics than bad ones. This franchise gets bigger every year, and I think it may just do the impossible. These are my predictions:

Midnight Showing sales:

"New Moon": $26.3 million
"Harry Potter 6": $22.2 million
"The Dark Knight": $18.4 million
"Eclipse" prediction: $30 million (yup, I said it. $30 mil.)

Opening Day sales:

"New Moon": $72.7 million
"The Dark Knight": $67.2 million
"Eclipse" prediction: $78 million (however, I really want to say $80 mil)

Opening Weekend sales:

"New Moon": $142.8 million
"The Dark Knigh"t: $158.4 million
"Spiderman 3": $151.4 million
"Eclipse" prediction: $155 million

Now, I would really like to say "Eclipse" will break the opening weekend box office record, but the numbers put up by "The Dark Knight" seem just a little too out of reach. However, I have no problem thinking it will pass "Spiderman 3." The reason I think it will however, give "The Dark Knight" a run for its money is because the only other movie opening this weekend is "The Last Airbender," which isn't nearly as anticipated as "Eclipse," and isn't opening until Thursday. Plus, "Toy Story 3" is still making a good portion of money.

Here's the way I see it. Obviously there are people out there not interested in "Eclipse." But there is nothing else that opens this weekend for an audience that is not interested in fantasy. So people will either be seeing "Eclipse," "The Last Airbender" or "Toy Story 3." The female audience, will be seeing "Eclipse," which leaves the males to see the other two.

However, with the amount of fangirl power that Twi-hards have, you can expect the female audience to go back and see "Eclipse" at least 3 times in the first couple days. I saw "New Moon" twice in the first 24 hours of its release, and that doesn't even come close to true fangirl power.

Anyway, I was just wondering about it today, and figured I would write up a blog of my thoughts. So there it is. One thing we do know for sure, "Eclipse" will have a huge opening, that we can count on.

Box Office Tuesday

Since we didn't do a show last week, Tim and I didn't have a chance to do our box office predictions. Had we done a show I would have predicted "Valentine's Day" to be No. 1. However, I would have never thought it would have made $66.8 million.

I know the film was tailor made for the holiday, but no one could have seen that coming. I guess all that star power paid off. It's no surprise that the studio already has a sequel in the works.

"Percy Jackson" was a surprising second place with $38.7 million. I suppose the counter programming to all the hearts and flowers is a family movie.

Right behind it in third was "The Wolfman" with $36.4 million. While that is a respectable opening, I think the studio was hoping for better. The reviews and word of mouth haven't been that strong so I don't know if this is going to be the blockbuster they were hoping for.

"Avatar" and "Dear John" rounded out the top five.

The success of "Valentine's Day" can obviously be attributed to the holiday falling during a four day weekend. It will be interesting to see if the movie can sustain its audience without any holidays helping it.

This week's big opening is "Shutter Island" so "Valentine's Day"could continue making money as an alternative to the Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio thriller.

Yikes, we were wrong

So the mighty "Avatar" was dethroned this weekend.

And by a Nicholas Sparks' adaptation no less. "Dear John" earned around $30 million, beating
"Avatar" by about $8 million.

So, yes, Stephanie and I were dead wrong. We didn't take the Super Bowl into account or star Channing Tatum's movie star pull.

A tad embarassing if you ask me.

At least we both knew that "From Paris with Love" would bomb (which it did with $8 million.)

On a side, great note, "The Princess and the Frog" passed $100 million. So, good news at least. It is/was the 32nd film 0f 2009 to do so. "Sherlock Holmes" passed $200 million domestically and $400 million worldwide.

Maybe we'll pass on box office predictions this week...

Box Office Monday

So Tim and I drastically overestimated the weekend box office. While we were both correct in calling "The Princess and the Frog" the No. 1 movie of the week, it made $25 million, which was a lot less than we had predicted.

Though it is a strong opening by normal standards, animated Disney films traditionally have much better openings. This film ranks right up there with all the Disney classics, so this lackluster opening can only be blamed on the massive storm that hit large parts of the country.

"The Blind Side" continued its impressive run with a $15 million second place and only a 22 percent drop off in its fourth week. As we get further into award season it will be interesting to see if the buzz translates into nominations for Sandra Bullock.

"Invictus" was third with $9 million and "New Moon" and "A Christmas Carol" rounded out the top five.

In the next few weeks a lot of big name movies are opening so it will be interesting to see how the box office shapes up as it competes with the distraction of the holidays.

SO close, yet so far

So, after all the hoopla and frenetic wishing by me and Stephanie, "New Moon" held onto the No. 1 spot at the box office.

If you could see my face right now, it's one of sadness and soul crushing apathy for "Twilight" fans.

According to Box Office Mojo, it made about $42 million, which is a hefty 70 percent loss from last week. But, then again when you make $142 million it's always going to be a big drop off.

Enough of "Twilight."

"The Blind Side" had an amazing weekend, actually increasing it's take over last week with $40 million. It's not every weekend that a movie makes more in its second weekend. With the $40 million and the holiday numbers, the film has now crossed the magical $100 million mark.

Word of mouth in action right here, that is all I can say.

"A Christmas Carol" also was up over last week with $15 million. It also crossed the $100 million mark.

The other new releases "Old Dogs," "Ninja Assassin" and "The Road" were kind of left in the dust with $24, $21 and $1.9 million each.

The best per screen average of the week went to "The Princess and the Frog" which is playing on two screens and made $393,095 on both. As a point of reference, the best per screen average ever was "The Lion King" with $793, 377. "Pocahontas" is No. 2 with $448, 285. That makes "The Princess and the Frog" No. 3.

Not a bad weekend overall. Expect "New Moon" and "The Blind Side" to battle for No. 1 again since the only releases for this week "Armored," "Brothers" and "Everybody's Fine" don't appear to be ready to set the box office ablaze.

'Twilight' didn't protect its 'Blind Side'

And the award for cheesiest headline ever goes to...

*Rips open the envelope*

ME!

Anywho, big news in the world of box office numbers. For Thanksgiving Thursday, "New Moon" was not the No. 1 movie in America.

"The Blind Side" was!

Yeah, amazing right?

But, it was razor thin close.

According to Box Office Mojo, "The Blind Side" made $9.4 million, while "New Moon" took in $9.2 million. Yes, in the world of box office receipts $200,000 is very close.

Another way to look at it is that "The Blind Side" is playing in almost 1,000 fewer theaters than "New Moon" and still made about $1,000 more per screen.

In a preview of the weekend totals, the other new releases "Old Dogs" and "Ninja Assassin" are doing much less with both hovering around $7 million for Wednesday and Thursday.

Box office Monday

So apparently America loves watching the world end. The No. 1 movie this weekend was "2012" by a mile. It brought in $65 million, well above "A Christmas Carol" in second place. It only brought in $22 million.


Then there was a huge drop to "The Men Who Stare At Goats," which only brought in $6 million.


The huge story of the weekend has to be "Precious" which brought in $6 million on 174 screens.

Hey kids, Tim here. Stephanie agreed to an experiment where she had to give up the Internet for a week. Guess what she was doing when the project started?

OK, so I'll finish up here.

Two other big stories of the weekend were "Couples Retreat" and "Paranormal Activity" both crossed the $100 million mark. Making them the twenty second and twenty third films to do so this year.

This year still needs a few more hits as 2008 had 29 films that crossed $100 million.

"Pirate Radio" did well in it's per screen average, $3,293, but with a reported budget of $50 million they sure didn't try hard enough with it. Especially only releasing it on 882 screens.

This week is "Planet 51" and "The Blind Side." Both of which should find a good audience with children and people looking for a heartwarming story.

No other movies opening, despite what you might see on the news or on the cover of EVERY freaking magazine.

Nope, no other movie...

Box Office Monday

Halloween weekend is usually a time for horror films to rule the box office, however, with very few big releases opening, "Michael Jackson's This Is It" was able to grab the No. 1 spot with $21 million. Its current total stands at $33 million with $101 million worldwide,

This news has made Sony make the unsurprising announcement that the film will stay in theaters until the Thanksgiving weekend.

"Paranormal Activity" continued its Cinderella story with a strong $16.5 million second place showing. "Law Abiding Citizen," "Couples Retreat" and "Saw VI" rounded out the top five.

"Saw VI" has had the poorest showing of all the "Saw" movies, could it be that we've reached our torture porn limit.

The only other new release of the weekend was "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" which only brought in $462,000 on 68 screens. Its per screen average was just under $6,800 which tells me that the cult following of the first film is not rubbing off on the second.

Box office Tuesday

This box office included the special Labor Day holiday, so the weekend numbers are a bit larger than normal.

In a surprise move, "The Final Destination" held onto the No. 1 spot with around $15 million, bringing its two week total to $50 million. Its budget was only $40 million, so its a hit.

The new films that attempted to dethrone "The Final Destination" included "All About Steve," "Gamer" and "Extract."

"All About Steve," with some really horrible reviews (sitting at five percent at Rotten Tomatoes), managed to be somewhat critic-proof pulling in around $14 million. "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler came in at No. 4 with $11 million.

"Extract" didn't fare too well only pulling in around $5 million and at the No. 10 position, behind movies like "G.I. Joe" and "The Time Traveler's Wife."

A survivor from last week "Halloween 2" only dropped 56 percent from its first week, a far better percent than the first Rob Zombie "Halloween" which saw its second week drop a staggering 63 percent.

A bright spot this weekend was another film passed the $100 million mark, the nineteenth film to do so, "District 9." With the budget at $30 million this is a big hit of not only the summer, but the year.

Another big thing was "Transformers 2" passed the golden $400 million mark. With a budget of $200 million, this is a monster movie money making machine (gotta love alliteration!). Its worldwide total is a jaw dropping $830 million! Wowza. Point of reference, last year's No. 1 "The Dark Knight" made a little over $1 billion worldwide and 2007's "Spiderman 3" did $890 million.

One last maybe-milestone: The new "Harry Potter" film is about $2.5 million away from breaking the $300 million dollar club.

"Transformers 2" is the lonely at the top, it needs company.

Box office Monday (on Tuesday)

Well Tim called it, "The Final Destination" was the number one movie of the weekend, pulling in $27 million. Apparently the extra dollars generated by 3-D screenings pushed it over the top.

Coming in second with $19 million and a 49 percent drop off was "Inglorious Basterds." Like most Tarantino films it seems to be splitting viewer reaction right down the middle.

In third was "Halloween II," who lost the battle with "Final Destination" and could only pull in $16 million. However, since it only had a $15 million budget everything it makes from now on will be profit. Plus movies like these tend to do very well on DVD.

Rounding out the top five were "District 9" which added $10 million to its $90 million total and "G.I. Joe" with $7.7 million. At a total of $132 million, "G.I. Joe" has still not even come close to its $175 million dollar budget, so while those numbers don't usually add up to failure, in this case they do.

This week's big releases are "All About Steve," a Sandra Bullock-Bradley Cooper romantic comedy, "Gamer," a Gerard Butler action movie and "Extract," the latest workplace comedy from Mike Judge starring Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. With none of those generating a lot of buzz it's really anybody's guess at what will be next week's number one.

I'm thinking Bullock will win the weekend with wives and girlfriends making their men pay for three straight weeks of "District 9," "Inglorious Basterds" and "The Final Destination."

Box office Tuesday

Killing Nazis was profitable this weekend as "Inglourious Basterds" took the No. 1 spot at the box office with around $38 million. It has a budget of around $70 million, so the next week drop off will be a good indicator of if it will make its money back.

I did see the film over the weekend and will have a review, of sorts, on Friday's "Viewpoints On..."

The other new films of the week "Shorts," "Post Grad" and "X Games 3D the Movie" didn't even break the top five with earnings of $6 million, $2.6 million and $800 thousand dollars.

Last week's No. 1 "District 9" had a 51 percent drop off from last week, pulling in $18 million bringing it's total to $72 million. Remember it already made its money back from its $30 million dollar budget, so this is all good money from here on in.

In other box office news "Transformers 2" is within striking distance of earning $400 million. As of today it has earned $398 million. It should be able to push past the 400 mark in a week or two.

Box office Monday

As expected "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" won the box office with $54 million dollars. I was going to lead off with a clever, funny war or fighting comparison, but since the filmmakers didn't really bother with the film, I won't bother with the lead.

Its only real competition was "Julie and Julia" which cooked up (see!) around $20 million dollars.

"G.I. Joe" needs to be a little afraid. With a 40 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a little bit of bad buzz (see Stephanie's post a few ones down) and a budget that was reported at $175 million dollars (a few Web sites are also reporting the marketing budget was $150 million, making it have a budget of $325 million!) it is going to have to have a great second weekend to even think of making money.

And with "District 9" coming out on Friday that is going to be tough. "District 9" has a LOT of good buzz going for it right now. It also has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100 percent, but that percent is based off of 20 reviews. Compared with "G.I. Joe" with 120 reviews. Expect more reviews in the next day or so.

Other things that might hamper "Julie and Julia" and "G.I. Joe" this Friday:

"The Time Traveler's Wife" - A big time romance that is based off a very popular book. Should have a good sized female audience, plus any men that get dragged along.

"Bandslam" - My first reaction to this movie, a musical about a rock band, was that no one is really going to see this. Then I heard the new "Twilight" trailer is going to play in front of it. Remember when the new "Star Wars" trailer came out and people paid full price to see the movie it was playing with... then promptly left. This is going to happen again.

Other movies opening include "The Goods" and "Ponyo" both with different audiences. This is a jam packed week. Check out the next episode of "Viewpoints On..." for more in depth analysis of what the box office might be next week.

Box office Monday

In the last episode of "Viewpoints On..." Stephanie and I both predicted that "Funny People" would be the No. 1 film when the box office returns came in today.

What we didn't predict was that it didn't make a lot of money.

When the official returns came in this afternoon the tally for "Funny People" was $22.6 million. It's budget is $75 million. Now compare this to "Knocked Up" which had a $30 million dollar opening.

Not really a big hit right out of the gate, but if the good word of mouth keeps up it could have legs. Especially considering that "G.I. Joe" is the next big release.

In other breaking box office news, the list of the top grossing films of the year got shaken up with two films, "Harry Potter" and "The Hangover" overtaking "Star Trek" pushing it to No. 5. "The Hangover" has grossed $255 million!

A huge deal.

The No. 1 and two positions seem locked in for the rest of the year with "Transformers 2" and "Up" with comfortable leads over all the other films. "Harry Potter" may have a small, small chance to sneak in, but will not go near "Transformers 2."

Box office Monday

As predicted "Bruno" took the No. 1 spot at the box office earning around $30 million dollars. "Ice Age 3" was close behind with $27 million.

It's kind of hard to compare Sacha Baron Cohen's first film "Borat" to "Bruno" because when the first film opened in 2006, it was only screened on 837 screens, compared to "Bruno" on 2,756.

A $30 million dollar opening weekend is still a good chunk of change no matter what. I'm sure somewhere Cohen is laughing and plotting his next move into the big screen.

Also, as predicted, "I Love You Beth Cooper" couldn't crack the top five and had to settle for No. 7 with a little less than $5 million dollars.

One interesting thing that is developing is that "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock is still making good money and is on track to become her highest grossing film (with her in the lead role). Her No. 1 film right now is "Speed" at $121 million. "The Proposal" has about $8 million to go and should have no problem doing that in less than two weeks (My guess-timation).

Box office Tuesday

A day late, yes, but the Michael Jackson story bumps everything it seems. Plus, Stephanie makes a real important point that everyone should read and understand.

Now, onto the box office!

"Transformers 2" took the weekend again, barely, defeating "Ice Age 3" by a little more than $600 thousand. Yes, that sounds familiar to a few weeks ago when "The Hangover" just narrowed out "Up." Another thing the two movies have in common is they are the only films of the summer, so far, to hold onto the No. 1 spot for two consecutive weeks. It should also cross the $300 million mark soon, making it the first film of the year to do so.

"Public Enemies," the other new release of the week scored third with $25 million for the weekend and a total of $40 million (It came out on Wednesday.) It's budget is $100 million, so it has a lot of work to get there. It has an OK rating at Rotten Tomatoes, 65 percent and early Oscar buzz. Should help a bit, maybe.

As predicted on Friday, "The Hangover" crossed the $200 million mark making it one of the most successful movies of the year. Domestically it has made $205 million with a $35 million dollar budget.

"The Proposal" almost made it to $100 million, making a total of $94 to date. It should cross the mark by either the start of the weekend or Sunday for sure.

Another film about to cross another milestone is "Star Trek" which is within striking distance of $250 million. Another week should throw it over.

Check out the next episode of "Viewpoints On..." for more indepth coverage and a look at what's being released this week.

New episode up... and some box office predicitions

OK, before we get to the episode I wanted to post some predicitions of what the box office might look like by Monday afternoon.

1. "Transformers" will overtake "Up" as the No. 1 movie of the year. Poor "Up" only had about a week at No. 1.

2. "The Hangover" will cross the $200 million mark. Most likely making it the most successful movie of the year (In terms of budget to gross ratio).

3. "The Proposal" will either cross $100 million or make it REALLY close. Hey Sandra Bullock, you're baaaaack.

Now, onto the show:

Box office Monday

Welcome to a new feature here at Inscape'd. Each Monday we'll look at the box office numbers and do some analysis.

The big news of this past weekend was the release of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Everyone was expecting this to do huge numbers, even with some seriously lousy reviews. It has a 20 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 159 negative reviews and only 40 positive reviews (Armond White, please stand up!).

Including its Tuesday night showings the grand total of box office receipts for "Transformers" came out to a little more than $200 million domestically with another $200 million overseas. Huge, huge numbers.

But, not a record. For just the weekend, "Transformers" came in seventh for all time best weekend numbers. "The Dark Knight" holds that record.

For five day grosses, "Transformers" clocked in at No. 2, behind "The Dark Knight."

And for Midnight screenings? "Transformers" made $16 million, falling behind "Revenge of the Sith" in second and... guess what in No. 1? "The Dark Knight."

Another big thing happened over the weekend, we have a new No. 1 film of the year. If you remember "Paul Blart Mall Cop" held that title for many weeks before being knocked off by "Monsters vs. Aliens." Then "Star Trek" came along and blew everything out of the water by becoming the first film of the year to pass $200 million. Well, this weekend, "UP" dethroned "Star Trek." But, I suspect the reign will be shortlived as "Transformers" will undoubtably take the title in a few short weeks, maybe days.

The only way it won't would be a catostrophic drop in second week viewings, I'm talking like a 85-90 percent drop. Right now the biggest drop in recorded history is 86.4 for the movie "Undiscovered." Thanks to Box Office Mojo for that little bit of history.

Stay tuned for more analysis in the next "Wanna See It?"