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 !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “High School Musical 3” - $42.03 million (1st week)

2. “Saw V” - $30.05 million (1st week)

3. “Max Payne” - $7.60 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of its audience from last week)

4. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $6.88 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

5. “Pride and Glory” - $6.26 million (1st week)

6. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $6.05 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

7. “W.” - $5.09 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 52% of its audience from last week)

8. “Eagle Eye” - $5.05 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

9. “Body of Lies” - $4.06 million
(3rd week, was #6 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

10. “Quarantine” - $2.58 million
(3rd week, was #7 last week, lost 58% of its audience from last week)

My Box Office Predicitions were 7 out of 10, mostly because I thought ”Pride and Glory” would do better than 5th place… I was also close on the $$ amounts for all but ”Pride and Glory”.

NOT “KING OF THE WORLD”… YET:

20. “The Dark Knight” – $0.30 million (total gross: $527.82 million)
(15th week, was #20 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

“The Dark Knight” isn’t going to catch “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. right now, but it might after the planned re-release in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

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Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“High School Musical 3″ poster courtesy Disney

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

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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)

5. “Eagle Eye” - $7.03 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 36% of its audience from last week)

6. “Body of Lies” - $6.82 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 47% of its audience from last week)

7. “Quarantine” - $6.08 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 57% of its audience from last week)

8. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $3.69 million
(3rd week, was #5 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

9. “Sex Drive” - $3.61 million (1st week)

10. “Nights in Rodanthe” - $2.66 million
(4th week, was #7 last week, lost 42% of its audience from last week)

CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT (10/14/08) 

20. “The Dark Knight” – $0.41 million (total gross: $527.36 million)
(14th week, was #19 last week, lost 22% of its audience from last week)

CHASING HISTORY:

“The Dark Knight” still has a long way to go to close the gap between itself ($527.36 million) and “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. !!

Although, there are plans to re-release it in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

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Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Max Payne” poster courtesy 20th Century Fox

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

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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…. ruined by what I knew from the trailer.   This is one of those bad cases where the trailer either has the best stuff (“Baby Mama”) or gives away too much (“Quarantine”) without spoiling too much, the major thrills and chills in the trailer are major plot points… but by watching the trailer on tv or online, you know who is going to die!!!

The best part of the movie is not the frights, but the unknown… the story throught the lens of the news camera puts you right in the middle of it all.. straining to see around the corner or through the dark… and trying to figure out with the characters what is causing this “infection”.  I guess I would have been more interested if this had been more about figuring out what the cause was or who is responsible… but that was really only touched on in one scene.

The movie also did one of those “no-no’s” – focusing on a character or object, then totally forgetting about it… it also asked a lot of the audience – to believe everything that was being thrown at you, and also expect you not to think about survival options the characters would not have thought of.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  Although there were still points where I jumped in my seat or felt uneasy from the gruesomeness, the overall plot just became following the inevitable… who would die next.. and how?    Its probably no surprise, but I give it 5.5 out of 10…. with some redeeming value for the concept and ideas.. but ultimately, the movie falls apart with its flaws… and if you’ve seen the trailer even just once or twice… you know who lives and who doesn’t.  WAIT TO RENT, BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE REALLY INTO THIS GENRE OF MOVIES!!!

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

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“Quarantine” poster courtesy Screen Gems

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)

5. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $6.42 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

6. “The Express” - $4.56 million (1st week)

7. “Nights in Rodanthe” - $4.54 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 38% of its audience from last week)

5. “Appaloosa” - $3.32 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 34% of its audience from last week)

9. “The Duchess” - $3.30 million (1st week in wide release)

10. “Fireproof” - $3.14 million
(3rd week, was #8 last week, lost 21% of its audience from last week)

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11. “City of Ember” - $3.13 million (1st week)

CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT – 10/6/08

19. “The Dark Knight” – $0.53 million (total gross: $526.69 million)
(13th week, was #21 last week, lost 36% of its audience from last week)

CHASING HISTORY:

“The Dark Knight” has a long way to go to close the gap between itself ($526.69 million) and “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. !!

Although, there are plans to re-release it in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

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Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” poster courtesy Walt Disney

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

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.”