ABC Family grabs 5 Disney Films for the future

Variety reports that the ABC Family network has made a deal for two of this year’s Disney movies: Jerry Bruckheimer’s guinea pig action movie “G-Force” and Robert Zemeckis’ animated version of “A Christmas Carol” starring Jim Carrey.

The five-film deal also includes “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “Bedtime Stories” and “Race to Witch Mountain”.

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” is expected to air on ABC Family next year, “G-Force” will air in 2011, while “A Christmas Carol”, “Bedtime Stories”, and “Race to Witch Mountain” will be on the cable network in 2012.   

Carrey’s “A Christmas Carol” is expected to be part of ABC Family’s increasingly popular “25 Days of Christmas” December programming block, like Zemeckis’ “The Polar Express” has the past few holiday seasons.

New on DVD (Tuesday): “Australia”, ”Beverly Hills Chihuahua”, “I’ve Loved You So Long”, “Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic” 

BEST BET: See the epic drama/romance “Australia” that I liked or the drama with early oscar buzz “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Kristin Scott Thomas).

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New at Theaters (Friday): “Watchmen” (midnight showings, also in IMAX), “Fanboys” (in Grand Rapids at Celebration! Rivertown)

 Watch the trailer for “Watchmen”

 Watch the trailer for “Fanboys”

 CLICK HERE TO FIND A MOVIE SHOWTIME

BEST BET: You’ll have to wait until Friday for my complete review, but if you’re a “Watchmen” fan or really looking forward to this movie see it… if you’re a Star Wars fans, you might like the long awaited comedy “Fanboys”… or you might want to get caught up on any movies you may have missed in theaters or coming out on DVD.

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT: 

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(UPDATED WITH final numbers)
Well, if I was picking winners of the weekend football games, I would be 5 out of 10 in MY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE PREDICTION: – with 1st, 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th place right….

The #1 movie – “Madagascar 2″ wasn’t just #1, it was a smash hit with $63 million – that’s a bigger opening than these other family movies: “High School Musical 3″ ($42 million)… more than “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” ($29 million)… “Horton Hears a Who!” ($45 million)… …only “WALL-E” ($63 million) and “Kung Fu Panda” ($60 million) had opening weekends as big !!!!   Its actually the 5th biggest opening of the year!

The weekend’s #2 movie “Role Models” cruised in with a solid showing of nearly $20 million… as the alternative choice to “Madagascar 2″.

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (ACTUAL results):

1. “Madagascar 2: Ecsape to Africa” – $63.11 million (1st week)

2. “Role Models” – $19.17 million (1st week)

3. “High School Musical 3” - $9.16 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

4. “Changeling” - $7.25 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 22% of its audience from last week)

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(RE-POSTING FROM 11/3)

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “High School Musical 3” - $15.31 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 64% of its audience from last week)

2. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” - $10.07 million (1st week)

3. “Saw V” - $9.74 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 68% of its audience from last week)

4. “Changeling” - $9.35 million (1st week of wide release)
(2nd week, was #20 last week, gained 1800% of its audience from last week)

5. “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” - $5.42 million (1st week) (more…)

No surprise to me: “High School Musical 3″ was #1, “Saw V” was #2, all other movies fighting for #3 at the weekend box office

New movies last Friday: “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”, “Saw V”, ”Pride and Glory”

This was a REALLY GOOD WEEKEND for theaters and studios, the total grosses were up 40% from last weekend…. the top 12 grossed more than $100 million ($119.84 million) for the first time since the weekend of August 15-17 (opening weekend for “Tropic Thunder”/5th week for “Dark Knight”)… its also about 40% higher than this time last year !!!

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“Max Payne” tops weekend box office… knocking off “Chihuahua”, but overall box office still down again

New movies last Friday: “Max Payne”, “W.”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Sex Drive”

The total box office of $84.76 million is down 2% from last weekend… marking two weeks of decline, but it is $6 million more than this time last year ($78.48 million) !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Max Payne” - $17.64 million (1st week)

2. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $11.42 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 35% of its audience from last week)

3. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $10.53 million (1st week)

4. “W.” - $10.51 million (1st week) (more…)

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” number one again at weekend box office

New movies last Friday: “Body of Lies”, “City of Ember”, “Quarantine”, “The Duchess” (wider release)

“Quarantine” was 2nd – more than making up its entire $12 million budget in one weekend… which is good because it was disappointing to a lot of viewers, so its numbers ARE GOING TO DROP NEXT WEEKEND… 
“Body of Lies” (15 to see this Fall/Holiday Season) should have opened stronger given the cast of Crowe and DiCaprio, but the subject matter may have kept some away…
“The Express” was 6th – perhaps because the general public didn’t realize it was about more than just college football… 
“City of Ember” made about what I thought it would when I first saw the trailer, but I thought last week’s success of another family movie (“Chihuahua”) would have helped it to higher than 11th place…. 
“The Duchess” move into wide release moved it up from #20 to #9.

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $17.50 million
(2nd week, 2nd week at #1, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

2. “Quarantine” - $14.21 million (1st week)

3. “Body of Lies” - $12.88 million (1st week)

4. “Eagle Eye” - $10.91 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 38% of its audience from last week) (more…)

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” number one at weekend box office

New movies last Friday: “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, “Appaloosa” (limited), “An American Carol” (limited), ”Flash of Genius” (limited), “Blindness” (limited)

I didn’t make a prediction going into last weekend, but if I did, I can honestly say that I didn’t think “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” would be your number one movie this week… c’mon people… I know its a fun family movie from the folks over at Disney… and the other good looking movies were in limited release…. but it was #1 by more than $11 million dollars… yikes… at least I know it will get bumped by “Body of Lies” or “City of Ember” this coming weekend.

So make that back to back weeks with a surprise, last week’s surprise #4 – the Christian themed “Fireproof” starring Kirk Cameron was #8 this week… I was hoping for better numbers for 2 of my 15 to see this Fall/Holiday Season:“Appaloosa” and “Blindness” BUT THEY are not in wide release *yet*.

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $29.30 million (1st week)

2. “Eagle Eye” - $29.20 million

(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 39% of its audience from last week)

3. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $11.31 million (1st week)

4. “Nights in Rodanthe” - $7.37 million

(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 45% of its audience from last week)

5. “Appaloosa” - $5.05 million (1st week - wider, but limited release) (more…)