Weekend Box Office

With fall legitimately almost a month in, the box office has been fairly blah so far, especially considering the strongest title to emerge from the last month was a 3-D release of a film 17 years old.  That being said while overall the picture looks bleak, a few notable holdovers (and a few of them are rather smart ones as well) have been earning their respective keeps for the past few weeks, despite nothing verging into blockbuster or sleeper success territory.

1. Real Steel- The rock 'em, sock 'em, robots fighting\father-son tale bested the rest for the second week in a row, earning $16.3 million over the weekend, for total of $51 million in two weeks.  The 40% dip is a fairly strong showcase, as was its impressive uptick from Friday to Saturday (it trailed Footloose on Friday), but this one (from Disney and DreamWorks) was a pricey, $100+ movie to make...
2. Footloose- A ho hum $16 million take for the remake of the 80s dance flick that made Kevin Bacon and Kenny Loggins popular; one has to assume that it really wasn't going to do much better than this, despite excessive marketing.
3. The Thing- The other remake debut of the weekend was even more of a non-starter, earning $8.7 million.
4. The Ides of March- The political yarn dropped a super-sweet 28% in weekend number two, earning $7.5 million for a total so far of $22 million; the film was cheap to make, so that's a good sign, and the low percentage drop is good will for future weeks.
5. Dolphin Tale- The family pic dropped 30% in it's fourth week, raising its cum to $58 million, on a production budget of $37 million; sea life + Morgan Freeman = success.
6. Moneyball- The baseball film not at all about baseball dropped a wonderful 26% in its fourth weekend; the Brad Pitt-starer (for which he will and should likely receive an Oscar nomination for) has earned $57 million so far.
7. 50/50- The Joseph Gordon Levitt cancer comedy got off to fairly slow start, but word of month seems to be genuinely positive, as the film had the slightest dip in top ten (off only 23% from last weekend) and has made $24 million so far in three weeks, on a production budget of only $8 million.  It's a good one, people!
8. Courageous- $3.4 million over the weekend \ $21 million to date.
9. The Big Year- The Steve Martin-Jack Black bird watching comedy bombed hard in its first weekend, earning just a little over $3 million; expect this one to be on DVD shortly.
10. The Lion King- Yes, it was only supposed to be in theaters for two weeks, and yes, the film is already available on Blue-Ray, but the lion is still kind of roaring, earning an extra $2.7 million this weekend.

Other notables:

*Contagion dropped out of the top ten in its sixth week of release, earning $1.8 million for a total so far of $72 million.
 
*The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodovar's latest starring Antonio Banderas opened on six screens to a per-screen average of $38,500 and total cum of $231,000.  Highly respectable, and the loyal Almodovar cult should keep this one alive for further expansion, but it is one of the lower debuts for an Almodovar outing in quite some time.
 
*Trespass, the latest from director Joel Schmacher starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman (inexplicably), crashed and fumbled on ten screens (obviously a nod to hid the film), earning a pathetic $18,000.  The real question is why this one came about anyway, and where (if anywhere) is this film actually playing.  I live in a major city and have yet to find a theater displaying this, advertising this...nothing.  The movie will however be on DVD in about three weeks for the curious.

The Lion Roars in 3-D

I feel like I'm ten years old again...only in the context that The Lion King topped the box office for the second week in the row.  Doing the actual math, and recounting my actual age kind of makes me a bit bitter, but that's besides the point.  The nostalgic factor of the one of the most beloved animated features (or features of any kind) topping the charts is fairly miraculous.  Converted to 3-D, Disney has achieved something quite special with its limited run, even more telling in an age as the 3-D craze is starting to underwhelm general audience tastes.  Aside from that, this was a fairly stellar weekend all around:

1. The Lion King 3-D- $22 million\ -26% \ cum gross: $61 million-- The Lion King as a whole as made a whopping $390 million, making it the highest grossing traditionally animated feature ever, and the second highest animated feature ever (just after Toy Story 3.)
2. Moneyball- $20 million-- The wonderfully reviewed Brad Pitt, baseball\math drama scored well for a drama and should hold up, considering it's awards potential and the fact that most seem to really, really like it-- I see it tomorrow!  Go smart people!
3. Dolphin Tale- $20 million-- The sad animal family fable did pretty well too, bolstered by surprisingly good notices, and 3-D inflation.
4. Abduction- $11 million-- Taylor Lautner's bid to outgrow Team Jacob was greeted with a shrug, and terrible reviews...He'll be fine, Breaking Dawn opens in November.
5. Killer Elite- $9 million-- The randomly casted (Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen) action whatever will be on DVD soon, so no need to catch in theaters...remember when Clive Owen did good movies...sigh!
6. Contagion-- Steven Soderbergh's scary viral\movie star killing opus is still holding strong in its third week.  Down an ok 41%, the film made just over $8 million for a total of $57 million so far.  It's one of the best major studio offerings so far this year, and great for non-fans of Gwyneth Paltrow!
7. Drive-- The majorly awesome Ryan Gosling neo-noir dropped a sad 49% in week number two, but this was always going to a polarizing film, I assume, and thankfully was made for a scant $15 million; it's already made $21 million, and I'm hopeful it may stabilize in the next few weeks.
8. The Help-- In week number seven, the sensation has broken the $150 million barrier, and dropped a nice 32% from last week-- I feel really ballsy saying this, but I'm thinking Best Picture is almost a sure thing.
9. Straw Dogs-- Down 59% in its second week, the poorly reviewed remake has earned just over $8 million.
10. I Don't Know How She Does It-- Down 53% in its second week, the Sarah Jessica Parker dramedy has earned $8 million.

Other box office notes:

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes has finally escaped the top ten after a nice roll, earning $173 million in eight weeks...Hail Caesar!
• Warrior, despite good reviews, and a small, but fervent loyalty has still failed at the box office-- in its third weekend, the pugilist drama has earned a paltry $12 million.  I was a bit unkind to the movie, but still think it deserves better...the acting is stellar, and the finale is emotionally stirring.  I expect a huge fan resurgence when the film hits DVD.
• Pearl Jam Twenty, Cameron Crowe's documentary performed fairly well in limited engagements, earning $369,00 on 7 screens, for a per-screen average of $12,700.
• Machine Gun Preacher, the poorly reviewed Marc Forster (The Kite Runner, Monster's Ball) drama starring Gerard Butler, earned $44,000 on 4 screens, for an alright per-screen average of $11,000.
• Weekend, the wonderfully reviewed new gay romantic drama earned $25,000 on 1 screen (it selfishly on played in New York), and received the highest per-screen average of any film this weekend.  YAY!

Opening This Week

The big draw this coming weekend is Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  It was directed by Bennett Miller, his second feature as his Oscar-nominated Capote (2005), and written by screenwriting demigods Steven Zailian and Aaron Sorkin.  The film, based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, tells the true tale of how the underdog Oakland "A"s reinvigorated the sport of baseball.  The film received nice notices upon it's debut at the Toronto Film Festival, and looks primed as a possible Oscar contender-- much of the praise has been pointed at Pitt, who is having quite the great, auteur-driven year (Terrance Malick's The Tree of Life might still have some awards fate left in it), but also and more surprisingly Jonah Hill has been signaled out, which is jarring-- I personally, may not be quite ready for Oscar-nominated Jonah Hill; and I pride myself on being progressive.  The film has a checked history, for Steven Soderbergh tried valiantly for year to get the movie made and it never happened for a number of the old Hollywood reasons-- I'm thinking dollar signs.  But so far, things point out this one might be a good one.  A baseball movie that's about all about math; sounds spectacular!

Also opening:

• Abduction- Trying to position itself as a tweener Bourne Identity, Taylor Lautner breaks out of Team Jacob (perhaps not expressively-- the 0% current rating on Rotten Tomatoes is telling) for John Singleton's teen thriller that inexplicably co-stars Maria Bello and Sigourney Weaver.
• Dolphin Tale- Family tale involving an injured dolphin-- I'm not going anywhere near this.  I'm totally okay with cinematic mayhem taken out on people, but not animals...sad face.
• Killer Elite- Action thriller headlined by Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen...
• Machine Gun Preacher- Gerard Butler stars in this true story of badass who helps Sudanese children in Marc Forster's latest drama (in limited release.)
• Puncture- Captain America stars as a troubled lawyer (in limited release.)
• Weekend- Festival favorite from Britain about a short term relationship between two gay men that's earning terrific reviews (in limited release.)

Moneyball