In Theaters (Friday): “Punisher: War Zone”, “Cadillac Records” (limited), “Nobel Son” (limited)

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS:

Frost/Nixon begins its run, but only in New York and Los Angeles, and while Cadillac Records and Nobel Son are in more theaters, they are still in just a few theaters this weekend.   That leaves us with a third attempt at comic book favorite The Punisher – and the third different actor (Ray Stevenson) to play the title character, the 1989 version starred Dolph Lundgren, but 2004’s starring of Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/The Punisher is the best and its hard to picture anyone else after Jane shined in the title role. 

- – -

On DVD (Tuesday): “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “Fly Me To The Moon”, “The Longshots”, “Lower Learning”, “Step Brothers”, “Wanted”, “The X Files: I Want To Believe”

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD:

Some of the summer’s better movies are out on DVD this week: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was a great sequel to the 2005 hit family adventure, although not as great as the first.  Step Brothers was my favorite comedy of the summer with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as grown-up step brothers trying to live in the same house.  Another movie that got good reviews this summer, but I haven’t seen yet hits DVD shelves: Wanted is a cutting-edge action-adventure about a secret society of assasins.

BOTTOM LINE: Either rent one of the movies above or see something already in theaters like “Twilight”, “Quantum of Solace”, “Australia”, “Role Models”, “Changeling”, or “Slumdog Millionaire” (if you can find it, it does not open in West Michigan until Christmas).

- – -

Next Week on DVD: “Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who!”, “Man on Wire”

Next Week at Theaters: “Nothing Like the Holidays”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Delgo”, “Doubt” (limited)

On DVD (Tuesday): “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “Fly Me To The Moon”, “The Longshots”, “Lower Learning”, “Step Brothers”, “Wanted”, “The X Files: I Want To Believe”

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: Some of the summer’s better movies are out on DVD this week: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was a great sequel to the 2005 hit family adventure, although not as great as the first.  Step Brothers was my favorite comedy of the summer with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as grown-up step brothers trying to live in the same house.  Another movie that got good reviews this summer, but I haven’t seen yet hits DVD shelves: Wanted is a cutting-edge action-adventure about a secret society of assasins.

- – -

In Theaters (Friday): “Punisher: War Zone”, “Cadillac Records” (limited), “Nobel Son” (limited)

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS:

Frost/Nixon begins its run, but only in New York and Los Angeles, and while Cadillac Records and Nobel Son are in more theaters, they are still in just a few theaters this weekend.   That leaves us with a third attempt at comic book favorite The Punisher – and the third different actor (Ray Stevenson) to play the title character, the 1989 version starred Dolph Lundgren, but 2004’s starring of Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/The Punisher is the best and its hard to picture anyone else after Jane shined in the title role. 

BOTTOM LINE: Either rent one of the movies above or see something already in theaters like “Twilight”, “Quantum of Solace”, “Australia”, “Role Models”, “Changeling”, or “Slumdog Millionaire” (if you can find it, it does not open in West Michigan until Christmas).

- – -

Next Week on DVD: “Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who!”, “Man on Wire”

Next Week at Theaters: “Nothing Like the Holidays”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Delgo”, “Doubt” (limited)

The previous weekend, 4 movies made more than $10 million, this past weekend, it was just “Tropic Thunder”… but as I mentioned last week… its only dominating the weak August offerings in the wake of “The Dark Knight”’s success…

“Tropic Thunder” was first for the 3rd weekend….  Vin Diesel’s “Babylon A.D.” was 2nd, but had the lowest per screen average of the top 5 movies, so its likely to fall next week… my pick for a possible acting nomination “Traitor” showed up in 5th place… “Disaster Movie” debuted in 7th…  and for the 2nd week in a row, a new movie - “College” – failed to make the top 10 (last week it was “The Rocker” in 13th place).

Top 10 Weekend Box Office list this week (actual results):

1. “Tropic Thunder” - $11.51 million
(3rd week at #1, lost 29% from last week)

2. “Babylon A.D.” - $9.56 million (1st week)

3. “The Dark Knight” – $8.61 million (total gross: $502.28 million)
(7th week, was #4 last week, lost 18% of its audience from last week)

4. “The House Bunny” - $8.30 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

5. “Traitor” - $7.80 million (1st week)

6. “Death Race” - $6.29 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

7. “Disaster Movie” - $5.76 million (1st week)

8. “Mamma Mia!” – $4.36 million
(7th week, was #8 last week, gained 1% from last week)

9. “Pineapple Express” - $3.50 million
(4th week, was #6 last week, lost 35% of its audience from last week)

10. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” - $2.81 million
(3rd week, was #11 last week, lost 6% of its audience from last week)

14. “The Longshots” - $2.31 million
(2nd week, was #10 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

15. “College” - $2.11 million (1st week)

17. “Hamlet 2″ - $1.69 million
(2nd week, was #22 last week, gained 286% of its audience from last week) (playing in 1,494 more theaters from last week)

Chasing History:

“The Dark Knight” continues to try to close the gap between itself ($502.28 million) and “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. !!

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Tropic Thunder” poster courtesy DreamWorks