Drew Barrymore’s directoral debut coming-of-age movie shot in the Ann Arbor area, Michigan documentary filmmaker Michael Moore’s latest, an animation favorite returns in 3D, a romantic comedy, and a horror/comedy throwback to B-movies past…

New at Theaters (Friday): “Capitalism: A Love Story”, “The Invention of Lying”, “Toy Story/Toy Story 2″ (3D), “Whip It”, “Zombieland”

Limited Release in Grand Rapids market: 
“Cold Souls” (UICA in Grand Rapids and The Harbor Theater in Muskegon 10/2),
“Lorna’s Silence” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon 10/2)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): “500 Days of Summer”, “The Hangover”, “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra”, ”Anvil: The Story of Anvil”

Best Bet(s):  (more…)

“Up” floats high above the weekend box office competition

“Up” beat other newcomer “Drag Me To Hell” easily, but its estimated $68.20 million also beat last week’s number one “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” ($16.63 million) by more than 2-to-1.  “Star Trek” is still slowing its descent, losing the least of its audience and falling slower than the rest of the top 10 movies… a trend not as strong, but reminiscent of “Iron Man” last summer.  We’ll have to see if “Star Trek” can hold on another 16 weeks and/or earn another $118 million to match “Iron Man”… or if this summer’s blockbusters are just too much to keep it around long enough.

Overall, the weekend pulled in an estimated $162.99 million, that would make it the 3rd best weekend so far, but down 4% from the memorial day weekend that stands as the biggest weekend of 2009 (actual $169.81 million).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Up” – $68.20 million (1st week)

2. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $25.50 million  ($105.29 million total)
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 53% of audience from last week)

3. “Drag Me To Hell” – $16.63 million (1st week)

4. “Terminator Salvation” – $16.14 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 62% from last week)

5. “Star Trek” – $12.80 million  ($209.50 million total)
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 44% from last week)

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“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” has a longer title and made more money than “Terminator Salvation” at Memorial weekend box office

“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” clobbered “Terminator Salvation”… by more than $10 million during the 4-day holiday weekend (Friday-Monday), “Night at the Museum 2″ pulled in a estimated $70.0 million while “Terminator 4″ made an estimated $53.8 million.

Last week’s number one “Angels & Demons” dropped to 4th with $27.7 million… while “Star Trek” shows its staying power, actually moving up one spot to 3rd at $29.4 million.  The worst movie of the year, “Dance Flick” opened in 5th with $13 million.

Friday-Sunday of Memorial weekend was the biggest weekend of 2009 so far, with the top 12 movies pulling in $169.44 million… a 29% increase over last weekend and nearly $5 million more than the previous best of $164.76 million during the 3rd weekend of January (that included “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (4-day estimated results):
1. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $70.00 million (1st week)

2. “Terminator Salvation” – $53.83 million (1st week)

3. “Star Trek” – $29.40 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Angels & Demons” - $27.70 million
(2nd week, was #1 last wek, lost 40% from last week)

5. “Dance Flick” - $13.10 million (1st week)

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“Angels & Demons” barely beats “Star Trek” to top the weekend box office

“Angels & Demons” was number one with $48.00 million, but the second Dan Brown novel-turned-movie made almost $30 million less than “The DaVinci Code” (2006), which opened with $77.07 million.

It didn’t take long for “Star Trek” to crack the $100 million mark… with $147.61 million, its now the biggest earner ever for the franchise… passing the $109.71 million mark held by “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986).

“Monsters vs. Aliens” is still holding strong in its 8th week of release, actually moving up one spot from 8th to 7th as the rest of the field mostly moved down one spot.    Overall, the weekend earnings ($132 million) were down for a second straight weekend… 7% lower… but next weekends’ big openings of action franchiser ”Terminator Salvation” and the family friendly ”Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” should turn that trend around.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Angels & Demons” - $48.00 million (1st week)

2. “Star Trek” – $43.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 43%of audience from last week)

3. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $14.80 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

4. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $6.86 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 33% of audience from last week)

5. “Obsessed”  – $4.55 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% of audience from last week)

(more…)

“Star Trek” becomes the biggest opening for a Star Trek movie and is on its way to being the 2nd to crack $100 million

(Updated 5/12/09) With $72.50 million “Star Trek” becomes the biggest opening weekend ever for the franchise and if you add in the $4 million on Thursday, its already the 5th highest grossing movie in the franchise, and easily on track to be just the 2nd to crack the $100 million mark. (See more on the Star Trek franchise at the box office below)

The comedy “Next Day Air” opened in 6th with just $4 million at the box office.

Returns for “The Chaos Experiment”, were limited at just two Grand Rapids area theaters over the weekend with just 225 tickets sold for the R-rated thriller.

Overall, the weekend offerings were actually down 6% at the box office from last weekend’s huge $150 million weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Star Trek” – $76.50 million (includes $4.0 million Thursday) (1st week)

2. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $27.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 68% of audience from last week)

3. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $10.45 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Obsessed”  – $6.60 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 45% of audience from last week)

5. “17 Again” – $4.41 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 30% from last week)

(more…)

“X-Men” give the box office a heroic boost of 46%

“X-Men Origins Wolverine” was easily number one at the weekend box office with $87 million, but didn’t make as much as expected ($95 million).  The romantic-comedy “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” debuted at 2nd with $15.33 million.  The animated action/adventure “Battle for Terra” was a distant 12th with just $1.06 million.

The weekend offerings gave the box office a 46% increase from last weekend, a big jumpstart to the summer movie season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $87.00 million (1st week)

2. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $15.33 million (1st week)

3. “Obsessed”  – $12.20 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of audience from last week)

4. “17 Again” – $6.36 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 45% from last week)

5. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $5.80  million
(6th week, was #5 last week, lost 32% from last week)

(more…)

The thriller “Obsessed” topped last week’s number one “17 Again” by more than $17 million in the last weekend before the summer movie season begins.  The long delayed drama “The Soloist” (originally scheduled to release in November) opened in 4th, while “Fighting” was just behind “17 Again” in 3rd and the DisneyNature documentary “earth” was a close 5th.

The four new movies helped turn around a two week decline at the box office: the top 12 combined for nearly $104 million at the box office, a 3.6% increase from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Obsessed”  – $28.5 million (1st week)

2. “17 Again” – $11.67 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 51% of audience from last week)

3. “Fighting” – $11.44 million (1st week)

4. “The Soloist” – $9.72 million (1st week)

5. “Earth” – $8.55 million (1st week)

(more…)

Tweens, teens, and even older groups of moviegoers made Zac Efron and “17 Again” the number one movie by nearly $10 million.     The Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Rachael McAdams, Jeff Daniels, Jason Bateman, and Robin Wright Penn political thriller “State of Play” was 2nd with $14 million.   “Hannah Montana: The Movie”’s audience went to “17 Again”, pushing last week’s number one movie down to 4th place.  “Crank: High Voltage” debuted in 6th place with just $6 million.

But the bigger story here is that the box office was down 20% from last weekend, the 4th lowest weekend of the year’s 17 weekends so far.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “17 Again” – $24.06 million (1st week)

2. “State of Play” - $14.10 million (1st week)

3. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $12.90  million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 41% from last week)

4. “Hannah Montana The Movie” – $12.67 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 61% from last week)

5. “Fast and Furious” – $12.29 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 55% of audience from last week)

(more…)

“Hannah Montana: The Movie” rolled over “Fast and Furious” for number one at the Easter weekend box office with $34 million (the 2nd biggest Easter weekend opening).   In West Michigan, Celebration Cinema reports selling 7,000 tickets in the first four hours of business.

Last week’s number one “Fast and Furious” lost a staggering 59% of its audience from its record-breaking opening weekend.  “Monsters vs. Aliens” held on to third place, staying ahead of new movies “Observe and Report” that earned just $11 million and “Dragonball Evolution” that barely cracked the top 10 with $4.65 million in 8th place.

“Sunshine Cleaning” lost the least of the top 15 movies, down less than 1% from the previous weekend… “Knowing” and “I Love You, Man” are also holding onto their audience, losing just 18% and 17% from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Hannah Montana The Movie” – $34.00 million (1st week)

2. “Fast and Furious” – $28.78 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 59% of audience from last week)

3. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $22.62  million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 31% from last week)

4. “Observe and Report” – $11.14 million (1st week)

5. “Knowing” – $6.67 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 18% from last week)

(more…)

“Fast and Furious” smashes this year’s record for biggest opening weekend, pulling in $72 million, that’s the biggest April opening ever and $14 million more than last weekend’s number one movie “Monsters vs. Aliens”.   Its a 9% increase from last weekend.

In addition to breaking the April record, “Fast and Furious”’s $72.51 million was nearly as much as all of the Top 12 movies combined for the same weekend in 2008 ($80.22 million April 4-6, 2008).

“Adventureland” opened in 6th place, while “Sunshine Cleaning” cracked the top 10 as it opened in West Michigan for the first time.

So much for staying power, “Watchmen” drops out of Top 10 in just its 5th week (from 8th to 13th)… meanwhile “Taken” holds on in its 11th week, losing 41% of its audience from last week, moving just 2 spots (2 new movies) from 9th to 11th.   But “I Love You, Man” lost the least of the top 15 movies, down just 38% from the previous weekend. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Fast and Furious” – $72.51 million (1st week)

2. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $33.51 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

3. “The Haunting in Connecticut” – $9.55 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 59% from last week)

4. “Knowing” – $8.13 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 45% from last week)

5. “I Love You, Man” – $7.85 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 38% from last week)

(more…)