MY TOP MOVIES OF 2009

1. “500 Days of Summer” – available on DVD

2. “Up”  ( review coming soon ) – available on DVD

3. “The Hurt Locker” – out on DVD 1/12/10

4. “Precious” - playing in theaters

5. “District 9″  – available on DVD

6. “Up In The Air” - playing in theaters

7. “Star Trek” - available on DVD

8. “Moon” - out on DVD 1/12/10

9. “Avatar” - playing in theaters

10. “Paranormal Activity” - available on DVD (more…)

New this Week at Theaters: “Invictus”, “The Princess and the Frog”, “Bronson” (limited), “Paris” (limited)

A drama with Oscar buzz… a Disney animation that goes old school and looks good early… a darker drama… and another drama….

Limited Release in Grand Rapids market:
“Bronson” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“Paris” (UICA in Grand Rapids),
“A Serious Man” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon, Celebration North), 
“Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day” (Celebration RiverTown, Muskegon, Benton Harbor and Lansing),
“Precious” (Celebration South) (expands 12/18 to Celebration RiverTown, Benton Harbor)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): “Couples Retreat”, “The Men Who Stare At Goats”, “The Box”, “Law Abiding Citizen”

  Best Bets: I have not seen any screenings of any of the new movies this week either… but both “Invictus” (PG-13) and “The Princess and the Frog” (PG) are getting some good buzz from people who have seen them already.   “Invictus” could pull in some Oscar noms for Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, and director Clint Eastwood.   The movie is set in post-apartheid South Africa and new President Nelson Mandela attempts to reunite the country by trying to get the South African Rugby to win the World Rugby Cup.

“The Princess and the Frog” is getting good reviews from critics and movie fans for going back to hand-drawn animation for the first time in 5 years… 2004’s “Home on the Range” was the last non-computer animated Disney movie.  “The Princess and the Frog” is set in 1920s New Orleans and features Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess.   The movie was directed by the guys behind “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Hercules”.

Also worth considering for $4 at Woodland Mall: for a date movie – “Couples Retreat” and for an oddball/tongue-in-cheek comedy  “The Men Who Stare At Goats”… I know not everyone agrees with me on these two… but hey, now they’re only $4.00.

Movies not opening this week: LAST WEEKEND’S BOX OFFICE REPORT

Next Week at Theaters: “Avatar”, “Did You Hear About The Morgans?”, “Precious” (expands to Celebration RiverTown, Benton Harbor), “The Road” (Celebration RiverTown, Lansing), “Up In The Air” (Celebration! RiverTown)

12/23: “Alvin & The Chipmunks 2″
12/25: “Sherlock Holmes”, “It’s Complicated”, “Nine”, “Up In The Air”, ”An Education” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon), “The Young Victoria” (Celebration North)

1/8/10: “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Celebration North)

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New this Week on DVD: “The Cove”, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, “Julie & Julia”, “Public Enemies”, “World’s Greatest Dad”

Best Bets: This is informed, but blind intuition on this week’s offerings: “Julie & Julia” is expected to get an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep’s performance… “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is the latest for Potter fans… there’s also the well received documentary “The Cove”… Waterfront Film Festival alum “World’s Greatest Dad” and its “R” rating for adult themes…. and Johnny Depp’s “Public Enemies” with all of its mixed reviews.

Next Week on DVD: “G-Force”, “The Hangover”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “The Other Man”, “Taking Woodstock”

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY:  (more…)

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” wins box office, makes overall weekend sunny for studios and theater owners

The very good family 3D movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” soared above the box office this weekend, winning with nearly 3x the revenue of 2nd place’s “The Informant!”, but the Matt Damon movie’s box office gross was a good showing, considering it nearly returned half of its $22 million budget.

“I Can Do Bad All By Myself” lost nearly 60% of its audience and slipped to 3rd place.   Other newbies “Love Happens” and “Jennifer’s Body” at least made the top 5… perhaps a surprise to some: “Love Happens” had the 3rd highest per screen average of the weekend, so it was pretty strong, but played in fewer theaters (only “The Final Destination” played in fewer theaters of the top 10).

Overall, the weekend was up about 15% from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $30.10 million (1st week)

2. “The Informant!” – $10.55 million (1st week)

3. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $10.06 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of audience from last week)

4. “Love Happens” – $8.46 million (1st week)

5. “Jennifer’s Body” – $6.80 million (1st week)

(more…)

Fall season opens with two bangs and two blips at box office

“Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” continues the success of all movies with the Director/Actor’s name in the title, earning at least $10 million on opening weekend.   The highly promoted animated action movie “9″ gained $15 million… not a ton considering that includes its Wednesday opening and Thursday box office returns.

Last weekend’s top 3 (“The Final Destination”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “All About Steve”) changed spots but out grossed newcomers “Soroity Row” and “Whiteout”.   Overall, the first weekend of fall was down just 4% from the last weekend of the summer season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $24.03 million (1st week)

2. “9″ – $10.86 million (1st week)

3. “Inglourious Basterds” – $6.55 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

4. “All About Steve” - $5.80 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 48% from last week)

5. “The Final Destination” – $5.50 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 56% from last week)

(more…)

2009 Summer box office breaks records, ends with horror on top

“The Final Destination” held on to number one, “Inglourious Basterds” held on to second place while Sandra Bullock’s new movie “All About Steve” did the best of the three new movies.

Normally last weekend would have been the final weekend of summer, but due to late Labor Day, the summer is now over, but summer 2009 had already broken records before Labor Day weekend.  Yesterday, Variety reported “Summer revenues topped out at an estimated $4.31 billion through Monday, up 4% over summer 2007, the previous recordholder at $4.16 billion. Admissions were essentially even with summer 2008.”

Summer 2009’s top movie revenues:
1. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”  - $400.65 million
2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $297.59 million
3. “Up” – $290.92 million
4. “The Hangover” - $272.17 million
5. “Star Trek” - $257.18 million

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $12.32 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 55% of audience from last week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $11.67 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

3. “All About Steve” - $11.23 million (1st week)

4. “Gamer” – $9.12 million (1st week)

5. “District 9″ - $7.10 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% from last week)

(more…)

 Horror storms the box office

“The Final Destination” beat out Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II”, but last week’s number one “Inglourious Basterds” split the two finishing in second place.   Three movies held their ground the best losing less than the average: “Julie & Julia” (lost 16% of audience from last week)  “(500) Days of Summer” (lost just 9% from last week), and “The Hangover” (lost just 2%).
Overall, the final weekend of summer movie season was up, turning around a two week slide, but it was only a 3% improvement… still clocking in as one of the lowest earning weeks of summer.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $28.33 million (1st week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $20.04 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 47% of audience from last week)

3. “Halloween II” - $17.40 million (1st week)

4. “District 9″ - $10.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 41% from last week)

5. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $8.00 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 35% from last week)

(more…)

“Inglourious Basterds” beat back “District 9″ at weekend box office, other three new movies barely show up at box office

“Inglourious Basterds” was strong, racking up more than $37 million, about the same amount as last week’s number one “District 9″ in its debut weekend.   The summer movie season is quickly coming to an end as… again… only 4 movies made more than $10 million and … again… the other new movies struggled to make the top ten.  New movie “Shorts” barely beat another family friendly movie “G-Force” (in its 5th week of release).

Overall, the box office was down again… nearly 10%… and it ranks as the lowest total of this summer movie season (one weekend remaining).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Inglourious Basterds” – $37.60 million (1st week)

2. “District 9″ - $18.90 million
(2nd week, was #1 lst week, lost 49% from last week)

3. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $12.50 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 44% from last week)

4. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” – $10.03 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 46% from last week)

5. “Julie & Julia” – $9.00 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 25% from last week)

(more…)

“District 9″ pushes “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” out of the top spot at the box office, four other new movies try to compete

“District 9″ was number one, but only 4 movies made more than $10 million and one new movie didn’t even make the top ten.  “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” lost nearly 60% of its audience, but the other 4 new movies of the weekend couldn’t beat it.   “The Time Traveler’s Wife” had a decent 3rd place debut, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” was 6th, “Ponyo” was 9th, and “Bandslam” was a distant 13th, barely ahead of the “The Hangover” in its 11th week.

The diluted weekend led to the 2nd lowest total at the box office this summer with the top 12 movies pulling in $125.37 million (down 5% from last weekend).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “District 9″ - $37.00 million (1st week)

2. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $22.50 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 59% from last week)

3. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” – $19.21 million (1st week)

4. “Julie & Julia” – $12.40 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 38% from last week)

5. ”G-Force” – $6.91 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 30% from last week)

(more…)

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” wins the weekend, but its only half the battle … will it be able to sustain success?

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” dominates the weekend, but has about $120 million to go to match its $175 million budget… “Julie & Julia” cooks up a strong opening weekend in 2nd pace… the weekend’s other new movie “A Perfect Getaway” opened in a disappointing 7th place.   Last week’s #1: “Funny People” fell to 5th place, losing 65% of its audience.

Overall the weekend box office did recover from last weekend’s low, but still ranks as the summer’s 4th lowest weekend… with the top 12 movies pulling in $133.47 million.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $56.20 million (1st week)

2. “Julie & Julia” – $20.10 million (1st week)

3. “G-Force” – $9.80 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 44% from last week)

4. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $8.88 million ($273.8 million total)
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 50% from last week) 

5. “Funny People” – $7.87 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 65% from last week)

(more…)

As I mentioned earlier this week, disappointment and the possibility of disappointment headline this week’s movie offerings, I call it my “Phantom Menace” complex of being let down after the hype…. there’s also the legitimate disappointment that can be felt in my review of the shot-in-Grand Rapids movie out on DVD this week…

New at Theaters (Friday): “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”, “Julie & Julia”, “A Perfect Getaway”

Limited Released in Grand Rapids market: ”500 Days of Summer” (Celebration North, Rivertown), “The Stoning Of Soraya M” (Celebration North)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): “Star Trek”  (more…)