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…)

“Quarantine” is loaded with problems and either a marketing scheme that shoots itself in the foot or attracted as many people as possible on opening weekend before word gets around that this movie doesn’t live up to the hype of the trailer

Let me start by saying “Quarantine” IS NOT “Cloverfield”, yes the story is all told through the lens of one camera, yes its a thriller and you don’t know what will really happen or who the “enemy” is…. but that’s where the similarities end.   And while I’m not a big fan of the Horror Genre, my wife is, and she didn’t really rate this movie much higher than me.

“Quarantine”

(2008) (rated R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language) (1 hr, 29 min)

Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short, Andrew Fiscella, Rade Serbedzija, Greg Germann, Bernard White, Dania Ramirez

Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller

The Plot: Television reporter Angela and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown.

MY TAKE (minor spoilers):  

Horror movies are supposed to be scary and full of tension, suspense, and uneasiness… with the audience focused on which characters will survive the ordeal…. and this would have worked if I didn’t see the trailer about 30 times on tv.

That trailer may have got us into see the movie, but as I mentioned above, some of the suspense and tension are lost at critical points in the movie (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…)

Wow… its Thursday.. this week is flying… so I’ll have to make this quick…

In Theaters (Friday): “Body of Lies”, “City of Ember”, “Quarantine”, “The Duchess” (wider release)

MY TAKE: Look for “Body of Lies” to take over the #1 spot at the box office and “City of Ember” to grab the family $$$… “The Duchess” will now been seen by more audiences as it opens in more theaters nationwide… and “Quarantine” might not do well, it probably would have played better closer to Halloween.

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On DVD (Tuesday): “The Happening”, “Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead”, “Paranoid Park”, “Sleeping Beauty” (Platinum Edition DVD/Blue Ray Platinum), “The Visitor”, “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”

MY TAKE: I know I’m one of a few people who liked “The Happening” but if you stayed away from it because of the reviews or the bad box office… now’s your chance to agree with me (I think its M. Night Shyamalan’s 4th best movie)… or tell me I’m wrong.

“The Visitor” got good reviews for its acting…. and although its now a rental, I’m still waiting a bit to see Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”… or you could go with an underated Disney Classic “Sleeping Beauty” out in new re-released formats.

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Next Week at Theaters: “W.”, “Sex Drive”, ”Max Payne”, “The Secret Life of Bees”

Next Week on DVD: “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “Mongol”, ”War, Inc.”