Lazy show notes.
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Month: March 2010
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Weekend Box Office: March 26-28
#1 How to Train Your Dragon from Paramount/DreamWorks debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $43.7 million in 4055 theaters. Budget was $165 million.
#2 Alice in Wonderland from Buena Vista drops from #1 to #2 with a weekend gross of $17.7 million (-48.2%) in 3384 theaters (-355) . Total gross to date is $293.5 million. Budget was $200 million.
#3 Hot Tub Time Machine from MGM debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $14.0 million in 2754 theaters. Budget was $36 million.
#4 The Bounty Hunter from Sony drops from #3 to #4 with a weekend gross of $12.0 million (-42.0%) in 3074 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $38.4 million. Budget was $40 million.
#5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid from Fox drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $10.1 million (-54.3%) in 3083 theaters (+6). Total gross to date is $35.8 million. Budget was $15 million.
#6 She’s Out of My League from Paramount holds at #6 with a weekend gross of $3.5 million (-39.5%) in 2432 theaters (-526) . Total gross to date is $25.5 million. Budget was $20 million.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 Green Zone drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $3.3 million (-44.6%) in 2564 theaters (-440) . Total gross to date is $30.4 million. Budget was $100 million.
#8 Shutter Island drops from #7 to #8 with a weekend gross of $3.1 million (-32.7%) in 2123 theaters (-581). Total gross to date is $120.6 million. Budget was $80 million.
#9 Repo Men drops from #4 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.0 million (-50.9%) in 2519 theaters (-2). Total gross to date is $11.3 million. Budget was $32 million.
#10 Our Family Wedding drops from #9 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.3 million (-37.1%) in 1132 theaters (-477). Total gross to date is $16.9 million. Budget is unknown.
#11 Avatar drops from #8 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.0 million (-49.2%) in 930 theaters (-306). Total gross to date is $740.4 million. Budget is unknown.
#12 Remember Me drops from #10 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.9 million (-40.5%) in 1935 theaters (-280). Total gross to date is $17.0 million. Budget was $16 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $117.0 million (+2.2%).
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo
In this special episode, Tony takes his gear to, Booster Seat Producers host, Holden’s Tiger Cub meeting. The boys learned about podcasting, audio recording and how to talk into a microphone (This is a lesson I wish I would have had when I started.)
This is a special episode and is outside of the regular format.
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So, yeah, we’re about 3 months late on our Christmas Special, but this is one of 13 episodes that we have recorded and are in the process of editing for release.
New episodes are recorded every Wednesday night and released when we get around to it.
More show-notes when someone on Wave provides the assist.
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Weekend Box Office: March 19-21
#1 Alice in Wonderland from Buena Vista holds at #1 for a third week with a weekend gross of $34.1 million (-45.5%) in 3739 theaters (+11) . Total gross to date is $265.4 million. Budget was $200 million.
#2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid from Fox debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $22.1 million in 3077 theaters. Budget was $15 million.
#3 The Bounty Hunter from Sony debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $20.6 million in 3074 theaters. Budget was $40 million.
#4 Repo Men from Universal debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $6.1 million in 2521 theaters. Budget was $32 million.
#5 Green Zone from Universal drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $6.1 million (-57.3%) in 3004 theaters (+1) . Total gross to date is $24.8 million. Budget was $100 million.
#6 She’s Out of My League from Paramount drops from #3 to #6 with a weekend gross of $5.8 million (-40.6%) in 2958 theaters (+2) . Total gross to date is $19.7. Budget was $20 million.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 Shutter Island drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $4.7 million (-41.8%) in 2704 theaters (-652). Total gross to date is $115.7 million. Budget was $80 million.
#8 Avatar drops from #7 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.0 million (-38.3%) in 1236 theaters (-482). Total gross to date is $736.9 million. Budget is unknown.
#9 Our Family Wedding drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.7 million (-51.0%) in 1609 theaters (+4). Total gross to date is $13.6 million. Budget is unknown.
#10 Remember Me drops from #5 to #10 with a weekend gross of $3.2 million (-59.8%) in 2215 theaters (+3). Total gross to date is $13.9 million. Budget was $16 million.
#11 The Ghost Writer jumps from #15 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.0 million (+68.4%) in 819 theaters (+595). Total gross to date is $6.7 million. Budget was $45 million.
#12 Brooklyn’s Finest drops from #8 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.6 million (-63.3%) in 1311 theaters (-628). Total gross to date is $24.8 million. Budget was $17 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $114.5 million (-15.6%).
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo
In the near future (the time-frame isn’t really specified here), those in failing health and need new organs seek out the services of The Union. The Union offers artificial organs (called Artiforgs) at exorbitant prices with hard sell tactics. There’s just one catch: failure of payment means the company has the full right to take back their product, often with the result being the recipient’s life. The people that do this are the Union’s own Repo Men, and this is the story of one of their own, Remy. Remy, while doing his duties, finds himself the victim of faulty equipment and then in need of the Union’s services himself, needing an artificial heart. Unfortunately for Remy, he can’t make the payment…
That’s the high-concept premise to Repo Men, a movie that I was looking forward to thanks to a pretty good trailer. It’s a shame that it’s end result is a mess.
Let’s start with it’s premise- OK, I can buy the idea of these artificial organs and people paying exorbitant prices for them, but nothing is offered on just how we got to that situation in the first place. Sure inferences with the current times can be made, but they don’t make them and they don’t go into the legalities. Now this wouldn’t have taken much to do, just a few minutes at the start of the movie to put this in perspective would’ve been fine. But that’s not this movie’s concern, it just wants to get moving.
So it does get moving, but then it runs into other problems. These problems are tonal shifts that just don’t gel. From it’s opening, in which we see Remy doing his thing in bloody violent fashion, you get the idea that this is going to be a pretty black comedy, but once things turn differently it starts to take itself way too seriously.
Then, there’s two twists that the movie takes that cheapens everything else that came before it. In most movies, we get one twist like this, and it either works or it doesn’t, but here we have two. One is subtle and one isn’t and both had me thinking they weren’t ever needed.
I’ve heard people looking at the similarities of this and Darren Lynn Bousman’s movie, Repo! The Genetic Opera. I haven’t seen Repo! (though I want to) so I can’t really comment on those similarities. But I saw plenty of similarities to other movies, things like Children of Men, Total Recall, Brazil and an ending fight sequence that’s taken straight from Oldboy. Now I don’t mind movies showing their influences, but it really only works when it’s in the hands of a skilled director who can make it work. I don’t think Miguel Sapochnik has the chops for this.
This really needed to be in the hands of someone like either Paul Verhoeven or David Cronenberg. Verhoeven would’ve ran with the black comedy aspects. Cronenberg would’ve really played with the serious aspects. Either would’ve set their tone and ran with it all the way through. I expect that both would’ve given you enough back story to justify the situations and not raising questions about aspects of the practices.
Jude Law plays Remy, Forest Whitaker plays his partner, Jake and Liev Schreiber plays their boss, Frank. They really do their best to rise above the material, but it just never really comes together. Remy’s not really that sympathetic a character, so it’s hard to give a damn about what happens to him in the end. Both Jake and Frank seem more like they’d be at home in Paul Verhoeven’s version of this movie and so when this moves in to being overly serious, they’re just cartoons. Alice Braga plays Beth, a woman Remy falls for after his troubles begin and she shows another side to the central ideas here. That idea being that people aren’t just getting the artiforgs for their health. That’s about all that this character brings to this. Well, I take that back, she also serves to further make Remy unsympathetic. Remy, at the start of this is a married man with a son. His wife is pretty responsible and is horrified at what Remy does for a living. But Remy’s really good at what he does, and actually enjoys it, until the tables turn and he finds himself on the other end. But then it’s too late for his current relationship, and he falls for Beth, though there’s little given as to why he should, other than he just heard her singing at a nightclub one night.
There’s a decent idea here, but it just isn’t given enough background to make you really believe it. It’s tonal shifts just don’t gel together and you could really care less for it’s main character. In the hands of a more skilled director, this could’ve been a pretty good sci-fi experience but as it stands, Repo Men is a big mess.
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Weekend Box Office: March 12-14
#1 Alice in Wonderland from Buena Vista holds at #1 for a second week with a weekend gross of $62.7 million (-46.0%) in 3728 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $209.3 million. Budget was $200 million.
#2 Green Zone from Universal debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $14.3 million in 3003 theaters. Budget was $100 million.
#3 She’s Out of My League from Paramount debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $9.7 million in 2956 theaters. Budget was $20 million.
#4 Shutter Island from Paramount drops from #3 to #4 with a weekend gross of $8.1 million (-38.4%) in 3356 theaters (+178). Total gross to date is $108.0 million. Budget was $80 million.
#5 Remember Me from Summit debuts at #5 with an opening weekend gross of $8.0 million in 2212 theaters. Budget was $16 million.
#6 Our Family Wedding from Fox Searchlight debuts at #6 with an opening weekend gross of $7.6 million in 1605 theaters. Budget is unknown.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 Avatar drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $6.5 million (-19.6%) in 1718 theaters (-445). Total gross to date is $730.2 million. Budget is unknown.
#8 Brooklyn’s Finest drops from #2 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.4 million (-66.5%) in 1939 theaters (+3). Total gross to date is $21.5 million. Budget was $17 million.
#9 Cop Out drops from #4 to #9 with a weekend gross of $4.2 million (-54.1%) in 2882 theaters (-268). Total gross to date is $39.4 million. Budget was $30 million.
#10 The Crazies drops from #6 to #10 with a weekend gross of $3.6 million (-48.0%) in 2359 theaters (-120) . Total gross to date is $33.3 million. Budget was $20 million.
#11 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief drops from #7 to #11 with a weekend gross of $3.0 million (-39.9%) in 2175 theaters (-819) . Total gross to date is $82.2 million. Budget was $95 million.
#12 Crazy Heart drops from #9 to #12 with a weekend gross of $3.0 million (-9.3%) in 1361 theaters (+87). Total gross to date is $34.0 million. Budget was $7 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $135.6 million (-27.0%).
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo
A very young Alice Kingsley relates her classic adventure in Wonderland to her father, chalking it all up to a dream, though a mad and wonderful dream. thirteen years later, Alice, who tells us that this is the only dream she’s had, is about ready to make some important life decisions, when she’s beckoned by a white rabbit again to make another trip down a rabbit hole…
This should probably be titled Alice’s Return to Wonderland, rather than Alice In Wonderland as this newest movie from director Tim Burton is more a sequel than anything else. It’s also the sixth time that Burton has collaborated with actor Johnny Depp for a movie and his first foray into the realm of digital 3D.
But is it a good movie? Well, yes and no. On the plus side, it really looks terrific, the visual effects are very nice, though there is an air of artificiality around them (and I expect that’s by design). I like it’s use of 3D, though it’s not essential in seeing this movie (the better effect with some movies in 3D now seems to be a more focused audience more than anything else, and not necessarily inclined to making their own show in a theatre). And I certainly found some amusement in some of the things that they do here, in particular turning Alice into an action hero by it’s end complete with her own Schwarzenegger-esque line when defeating the Jabberwocky.
But where it fails is in it’s ultimate resolution for Alice, which can be seen coming, but then there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not handled here with much of an impact that really feels satisfying. I found myself saying, “Really? That’s it?” at it’s end And though it’s not a long movie, it’s pacing is meandered at best, though I suppose it can be argued that it, seeming to being a dream to Alice, doesn’t necessarily have to follow the rules of a to-the-point narrative.
The performances are mixed. I tend to think Johnny Depp is here as the Mad Hatter more to mark another chance to work with Burton more than anything else. He’s not bad here, but it doesn’t really stand out as well. Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, and she’s more there to move this along than bringing any real depth to this (of course that can be blamed more with it’s script too). What’s more fun though is Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. Carter’s really into what she’s doing, even if it is one note, but still she revels in that note. Hathaway is just fun to watch here as she goes through her wispy, princess-y cartoon moves- like Carter, it’s one-note, but also like Carter, you can tell she’s having fun with the one note.
So it both works and it doesn’t. I still had a decent time with this, but I don’t think anyone should have to run out to see it, unless they really want to. It’s sort’ve like those old beer commercials, which you could paraphrase here as “looks great, but less filling” though your own mileage might vary.
In my quest to find a fight film to unseat Raging Bull as the greatest movie of all time (everybody take a drink—podcast joke people, come on!) I stumbled upon the 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
Originally titled “Master Killer” when it was released in the USA on VHS at some point after its Asian theatrical release in 1978, the film follows the story of San Te, a young student who is naïve about human nature and man’s domination of man; his insulated upbringing gives him no understanding as to why the Manchus wish to dominate the Han Chinese.
However, eventually he has no choice but to understand—his teacher is a revolutionary, and challenges them to understand what it means to be dominated and why one should fight to be free. Later, when San Te publicly remarks that Han Chinese rebel crucified in the town square was a hero, he—under the threat of being imprisoned himself, has to apologize to the Manchus for his transgression.
This event strikes him to his core, and he begins to ask questions. He involves himself in the revolution as an errand boy. During this short period, his teacher remarks that if only the Shaolin would teach kung fu to the people, they could fight the Manchus.
Soon, San Te’s teacher becomes the target of the Manchus—fellow students are killed, and even San Te’s own father becomes the victim of his associations with Han rebels.
On the run, San Te is determined to get to Shaolin temple to learn kung fu, and seek refuge from the Manchus hunting him.
What has been summarized thus far is roughly a half-hour of exposition mostly to serve the purpose of the rest of the film—to show the world of martial arts training, self-discipline, and self-discovery.
While the story is relatively straightforward and uncomplicated, it achieves a remarkable technical realism. This is thanks to Lau Kar Leung, the director more famous for Jackie Chan’s “Legend of Drunken Master,” who keeps his comic sensibilities to a minimum here to weave a no-nonsense tale for the very purpose of introducing people to authentic Hung Gar training, discipline, and values.
Fans of extremely realistic films will enjoy this picture—even in spite of its 70’s Hong Kong set-piece feel. The realistic aspects of the film have everything to do with the execution of martial arts and what training is involved. It is said that Lau Kar Leung wanted to make a film that actually showed martial arts training in its entirety–not the five minute sequences training occupied next to sequences of kung fu fantasy in films by earlier Hong Kong directors like Chang Cheh.
The film is uncompromising in achieving this vision, which may make non-martial arts enthusiasts yawn, but is deeply rewarding for viewers seeking films about martial arts, films about fighters in general, or even the psychology of fighting.
Fight films are few and far between. Good fight films are even fewer. “36th Chamber of Shaolin” is in that small pantheon of fighter-flicks that deliver.
Categories
Weekend Box Office: March 5 – 7
#1 Alice in Wonderland from Buena Vista debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $116.1 million in 3728 theaters. Budget was $200 million.
#2 Brooklyn’s Finest from Overture debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $13.3 million in 1936 theaters. Budget was $17 million.
#3 Shutter Island from Paramount drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $13.2 million (-41.6%) in 3178 theaters (+175). Total gross to date is $95.7 million. Budget was $80 million.
#4 Cop Out from Warner Brothers drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $9.2 million (-49.0%) in 3150 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $32.5 million. Budget was $30 million.
#5 Avatar from Fox drops from #4 to #5 with a weekend gross of $8.1 million (-40.5%) in 2163 theaters (-293). Total gross to date is $720.6 million. Budget is unknown.
#6 The Crazies from Overture drops from #3 to #6 with a weekend gross of $7.0 million (-55.9%) in 2479 theaters (+3) . Total gross to date is $27.4 million. Budget was $20 million.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $5.1 million (-46.5%) in 2994 theaters (-308) . Total gross to date is $78.0 million. Budget was $95 million.
#8 Valentine’s Day drops from #6 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.1 million (-54.2%) in 3040 theaters (-538). Total gross to date is $106.3 million. Budget was $52 million.
#9 Crazy Heart jumps from #10 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.3 million (+34.5%) in 1274 theaters (+126). Total gross to date is $29.5 million. Budget was $7 million.
#10 Dear John drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.7 million (-42.1%) in 2496 theaters (-510). Total gross to date is $76.6 million. Budget was $25 million.
#11 The Tooth Fairy drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $1.6 million (-50.8%) in 1734 theaters (-515). Total gross to date is $56.2 million. Budget was $48 million.
#12 The Wolfman drops from #8 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.6 million (-61.6%) in 1829 theaters (-1214). Total gross to date is $60.4 million. Budget was $150 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $185.8 million (+74.4%).
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo