New at Theaters (Friday): “Next Day Air”, “Star Trek”, “The Chaos Experiment” (May 8-14 limited in Grand Rapids at Celebration! North and Celebration! RiverTown only)

Best Bet(s): There’s no confusion here, “Star Trek” (read my review) is the best bet this weekend, I would argue this is now second best movie in this long running franchise (after “Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn”), 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 Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, ”Last Chance Harvey”, “Wendy and Lucy”

Best Bet(s): If the 13 oscar nominations aren’t enough for you, read my review of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, this was one of the best movies of 2008, and if you haven’t seen it yet, now is the time!  Plus, there’s plenty of DVD extras like the makeup process and how they pulled off all those special effects.  For more, check out my interview with actress Taraji P. Henson about her role in the movie.

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Next Week at Theaters: “Angels & Demons”, ”The Chaos Experiment” (May 15-21 limited run at Celebration! Lansing only)

Next Week on DVD: “The Grudge 3″, “Passengers”, “Personal Effects”, “Taken”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

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

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What a Valentine’s gift for movie theaters: a huge $168.12 million weekend… the biggest so far this year… $27 million more than last year’s Valentine’s weekend… and a 28% increase from last weekend.

And it wasn’t even close… with the remake “Friday the 13th” taking in more ($42 million) than the second and third place movies combined, the slasher movie also becomes the biggest opening of the year, passing “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”’s $31 million opening in January. 

Last week’s number one “He’s Just Not That Into You” slipped to second and new movies “Confessions of A Shopaholic” and “The International” opened in fourth and seventh place.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Friday the 13th” (2009) – $42.25 million (1st week)

2. “He’s Just Not That Into You” – $19.61 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 29% from last week)

3. “Taken” – $19.25 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 6% from last week)

4. “Confessions of A Shopaholic” – $15.41 million (1st week)

5. “Coraline” – $15.32 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 9% from last week)

6. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $11.70 million
(5th week, was #5 last week, gained 7% more than last week)

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In a wise marketing release, the ensemble romantic comedy “He’s Just Not That Into You” grabs the number one spot one week before Valentine’s Day. 
The four new movies and holdovers “Taken” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” helped make it a strong $131.54 million weekend at the box office… the 3rd biggest of the year so far and it was up nearly 28% from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “He’s Just Not That Into You” – $27.47 million (1st week)

2. “Taken” – $24.63 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 18% from last week)

3. “Coraline” – $16.34 million (1st week)

4. “The Pink Panther 2″ - $12.00 million (1st week)

5. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $11.00 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 21% from last week)

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Liam Neeson’s thriller “Taken” grabs the top spot at the weekend box office after “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” spent two weeks at number one.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Taken” – $24.63 million (1st week)

2. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $14.00 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 35% from last week)

3. “The Uninvited” - $10.51 million (1st week)

4. “Hotel for Dogs” – $8.71 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 32% from last week)

5. “Gran Torino” – $8.60 million
(4th week of wide release, was #3 last week, lost 47% from last week) (more…)

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” beats the vampires of the latest “Underworld” movie to take the top spot at the weekend box office.

I’ve been telling people to see “Slumdog Millionaire” ever since it was released in West Michigan, now it seems that the Golden Globes wins, the Oscar nominations, and national advertising is working.  The movie saw an 83% increase in ticket sales from last weekend, which was already up 55%  than the weekend previous.

Also seeing a Golden Globes/Oscar bounce, the audience for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” grew 9% from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):
1. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $21.62 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 32% from last week)

2. “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” – $20.82 million (1st week)

3. “Gran Torino” – $16.24 million
(3rd week of wide release, was #2 last week, lost 26% from last week)

4. “Hotel for Dogs” – $12.86 million
(2nd week, was #5 last week, lost 24% from last week)

5. “Slumdog Millionaire” - $10.70 million
(11th week, was #10 last week, gained 83% more audience from last week) (more…)

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The nominees have been announced for The Academy Awards, and the movies nominated for best picture are: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Frost/Nixon”, “Milk”, “The Reader”, and “Slumdog Millionaire”.

The movies with the most overall nominations are “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (13), “Slumdog Millionaire” (10), “Milk” (8), and “The Dark Knight” (8).

I’ll update later with my picks in each category.

Here’s the complete list of nominees for the 81st Annual Academy Awards on February 22, 2009…. (more…)

I’m finally starting to catch up on my tasks…. here’s a look at the weekend box office:

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was number one… by more than $10 million dollars over second place “Gran Torino”.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):
1. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” - $31.83 million (1st week)

2. “Gran Torino” – $21.98 million
(2nd week of wide release, was #1 last week, lost 26% from last week)

3. “My Bloody Valentine” – $21.24 million (1st week)

4. “Notorious” – $20.50 million (1st week)

5. “Hotel for Dogs” – $17.01 million (1st week)

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“Gran Torino”, the movie shot in Detroit with actor/director Clint Eastwood and first time actress Ahney Her (Lansing native) grabbed the top spot at the box office this weekend.

“Bride Wars” and “The Unborn” also pushed “Marley & Me” out of its two weeks at number one.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):
1. “Gran Torino” – $29.48 million (1st week of wide release)

2. “Bride Wars” - $21.06 million (1st week)

3. “The Unborn” – $19.81 million (1st week)

4. “Marley & Me” – $11.39 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 53% of audience from last week)

5. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – $9.21 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 49% of audience from last week)

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“Marley & Me” holds on to number one, “Doubt” moves into 8th place, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” moves down one spot to 9th place, and one of my favorite movies of the year: “Slumdog Millionaire” moves into to the top 10 for the first time.  

“The Spirit” followed up its poor opening weekend by dropping to 13th (losing 49% of its audience) during a weekend with no wide releases (that’s a red flag movie go-ers !!!).

There were 27% fewer people ($130 million) at the movies over the New Year’s weekend compared to the big Christmas weekend ($179 million).

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated): 
1. “Marley & Me” – $24.05 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 34% of audience from last week)

2. “Bedtime Stories” – $20.32 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 26% of audience from last week)

3. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - $18.40 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Valkyrie” – $14.04 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 33% of audience from last week)

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4 new movies top the box office… but “The Spirit” was almost invisible in its opening weekend.

The life story of a dog “Marley & Me” and the life story of a man who ages backwards “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” take first and third place, while Adam Sandler’s family movie was second and Tom Cruise’s nazi-era drama was fourth.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 
1. “Marley & Me” – $37.00 million  (1st week)

2. “Bedtime Stories” – $28.07 million  (1st week)

3. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - $27.00 million  (1st week)

4. “Valkyrie” – $21.53 million  (1st week)

5. “Yes Man” – $16.45 million  
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 10% of audience from last week)

(more…)