New at Theaters (Friday): “Angels & Demons”, “Is Anybody There?” (limited release), “The Chaos Experiment” (May 15-21 limited run at Celebration! Lansing only)

Best Bet(s): If you’re really looking forward to seeing “Angels & Demons” (read my review), then you shouldn’t be disappointed, but if you haven’t seen “Star Trek” (read my review) yet, its the movie to see even if you aren’t a fan of the franchise, it has wide ranging appeal and it may turn out to be the “Iron Man” of this summer with its wide-ranging appeal and positive reviews.

New on DVD (Tuesday): “The Grudge 3″, “Passengers”, “Personal Effects”, “Taken”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

Best Bet(s): One of the early surprises for many at the box office this year was the staying power of the action thriller “Taken”, for more, check out my interview with actress Maggie Grace about her role in the movie.

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Next Week at Theaters: “Terminator Salvation” (Thursday)

Next Week on DVD: “Fanboys”, “My Bloody Valentine”, “Outlander”, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Valkyrie”

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

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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)

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“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)

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“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)

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Its the biggest opening weekend so far this year…. the animated sci-fi/action movie “Monsters vs. Aliens” hauls in $58 million in a weekend with very little family film competition.   The horror movie “The Haunting in Connecticut” was a distant 2nd and the action thriller “12 Rounds” was an even more distant 7th.

Last week’s number one “Knowing”, number two “I Love You, Man”, and number three “Duplicity” dropped two spots, holding their order from last week, but “I Love You, Man” lost the least from last week, just 29% of its audience while “Knowing” lost 40% of its audience and “Duplicity” lost 46% from last week.

“Sunshine Cleaning”, which opens in Grand Rapids market this Friday, nearly cracked the Top 10 in its 3rd week of limited release, despite playing in just 167 theaters nationwide. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $58.20 million (1st week)

2. “The Haunting in Connecticut” – $23.01 million (1st week)

3. “Knowing” – $14.71 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

4. “I Love You, Man” – $12.60 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 29% from last week)

5. “Duplicity” – $7.56 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 46% from last week)

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The futuristic thriller “Knowing” leads the pack of three new movies released on Friday, the buddy bromance “I Love You, Man” was second and the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen espionage romance “Duplicity” was third.

“Taken” continues to hold on, now in its 8th week of release, it is losing less than the movies that have been in theaters for fewer weeks, losing 38% of its audience from last week while “Watchmen” lost 62%, “Last House on the Left” lost 58%, and “Race to Witch Mountain” lost 47% of the audience from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Knowing” – $24.81 million (1st week)

2. “I Love You, Man” – $18.00 (1st week)

3. “Duplicity” – $14.40 million (1st week)

4. ”Race to Witch Mountain” – $13.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 47% from last week)

5. “Watchmen” - $6.73 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 62% from last week)

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I’m not surprised this week either, the Disney Family/Adventure/Remake ”Race to Witch Mountain” pulled in the top bucks at the box office… leaving the “Watchmen” struggling in their battle for justice, I mean, 2nd place.

Also new over the weekend were “The Last House on the Left” (2009) and “Miss March”.   The horror remake gave “Watchmen” a run for its money, while the buddy comedy “Miss March” barely made the top 10.

Word of mouth or bad reviews, or both??   “Watchmen” saw one of the biggest declines in recent memory (67%) for a number one movie after its opening weekend (last week’s $55 million was the biggest opening of the year so far).

“Taken” is holding its own, now in its 7th week of release, it continues to hover around 4th place, losing just 9% of its audience from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. ”Race to Witch Mountain” – $25.00 million (1st week)

2. “Watchmen” - $18.07 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 67% from last week)

3. “The Last House on the Left” (2009) – $14.66 million (1st week)

4. “Taken” – $6.65 million
(7th week, was #4 last week, lost 9% from last week)

5. “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” – $5.13 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 40% from last week)

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No surprise here, as “Watchmen” dominate the box office with more than $55 million in its opening weekend… the biggest opening of the year so far, and while its likely to be number one again next weekend, but will the mixed reviews reduce its box office returns over the following weeks?

“Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” dropped to second after two weeks at the top of the box office, but lost less of its audience than the previous week.  “Slumdog Millionaire” is still seeing returns on its Oscar win for Best Picture, but the box office momentum may be slowing down, as it lost 40% of its audience and slipped down to 4th place.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Watchmen” - $55.66 million (1st week)

2. “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” – $8.80 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 46% from last week)

3. “Taken” – $7.45 million
(6th week, was #4 last week, lost 25% from last week)

4. “Slumdog Millionaire” - $6.93 million
(17th week, was #3 last week, lost 42% from last week)

5. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $4.20 million
(8th week, was #6 last week, lost 25% from last week)

6. “He’s Just Not That Into You” – $4.02 million
(5th week, was #5 last week, lost 33% from last week)

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“Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” tops the box office for second week, despite losing 60% of its audience.

The Oscar winning bump saw a 45% increase in audience for “Slumdog Millionaire” moving up from 5th to 3rd place.

Another trend of weak post-Oscar offerings is the week’s other new movie “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”… opening in 8th place.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” – $16.50 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 60% from last week)

2. “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” – $12.70 million (1st week)

3. “Slumdog Millionaire” - $12.15 million
(16th week, was #5 last week, gained 45% more from last week)

4. “Taken” – $9.95 million
(5th week, was #3 last week, lost 12% from last week)

5. “He’s Just Not That Into You” – $5.88 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% from last week)

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Liam Neeson kicks some serious butt in this one… its a high octane action thriller, and once it gets going, its along the lines of a toned down “Bourne Identity”.

Neeson embodies everything a father would want to do for his daughter if she was in danger, but he has the skills to carry it out… as a former spy… he knows how to track down and take out the bad guys… all by himself.
It might be a little violent with adult themes for the younger viewers (rated PG-13), but it has the edge that makes it a strong action thriller with Neeson trying to find out who kidnapped his daughter and what has happened to her.

Its a dirty job, and until he’s going to save her, Bryan (Neeson) is a father on the outside looking in with his ex-wife and daughter living with the new rich husband.

Neeson is solid in this intense role, and while he carries the film, he does get some good support from Famke Janssen, who plays his ex-wife Lenore… Maggie Grace does a pretty good turn trying to play the young teen daughter who grows up too fast, and Xander Berkeley does wll in the small role of rich new husband/step dad Stuart.

But the strength of this movie is the action injected storyline, quick pace, editing and cinematography that keeps you watching.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

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