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News

Weekend Box Office: April 23-25

#1 How to Train Your Dragon from Paramount/DreamWorks jumps from #2 to #1 with a weekend gross of $15.3 million (-21.8%) in 3665 theaters (-160). Total gross to date is $178.3 million. Budget was $165 million.

#2 The Back-Up Plan from CBS debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $12.2 million in 3280 theaters. Budget was $35 million.

#3 Date Night from Fox holds at #3 with a weekend gross of $10.4 million (-37.4%) in 3294 theaters (-86). Total gross to date is $63.3 million. Budget was $55 million.

#4 The Losers from Warner Brothers debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $9.4 million in 2936 theaters. Budget was $25 million.

#5 Kick-Ass from Lionsgate drops from #1 to #5 with a weekend gross of $9.3 million (-52.9%) in 3065 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $34.7 million. Budget was $30 million.

#6 Clash of the Titans (2010) from Warner Brothers drops from #5 to #6 with a weekend gross of $8.9 million (-42.0%) in 3271 theaters (-482). Total gross to date is $145.5 million. Budget was $125 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Death at a Funeral (2010) drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $8.0 million (-50.5%) in 2459 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $28.4 million. Budget was $21 million.

#8 Oceans debuts at #8 with an opening weekend gross of $6.0 million in 1206 theaters. Budget was $80 million.

#9 The Last Song drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.7 million (-36.9%) in 2794 theaters (+27). Total gross to date is $55.4 million. Budget was $20 million.

#10 Alice in Wonderland (2010) drops from #8 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.2 million (-38.1%) in 1385 theaters (-639) . Total gross to date is $327.5 million. Budget was $200 million.

#11 Hot Tub Time Machine drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.0 million (-42.5%) in 1787 theaters (-521). Total gross to date is $45.7 million. Budget was $36 million.

#12 Diary of a Wimpy Kid drops from #11 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.8 million (-32.4%) in 1605 theaters (-544). Total gross to date is $59.6 million. Budget was $15 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $89.6 million (-19.8%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: The Losers

An elite CIA Black Ops team is in Bolivia to kill a special target. Led by Colonel Clay, the team consists of Roque, a knife expert and Clay’s second-in-command, Jensen, a specialist in tech and communication, Cougar, an expert sniper and Pooch, their transportation expert. They’re in Bolivia to take out a drug lord and everything for them looks run of the mill until they see that children are involved. Clay tries to call off the mission, but it goes ahead anyway, under the orders of Max, who heads this entire operation. Clay and his team decide to buck the order and go in and rescue the children. They accomplish what they set out to do and their target is still killed. They lead the children to the helicopter that the team was to be extracted in, with Clay and his team staying behind due to weight limitations. The helicopter is destroyed right in mid-air, and now Clay and his team find themselves left behind and wanting revenge. They get that opportunity thanks to a mysterious women named Aisha, who has her own vendetta against Max. And then hijinks ensue.

That’s the premise to The Losers another new comic book-to-movie adaptation from Dark Castle Entertainment and director Sylvain White. The comic itself is from DC/Vertigo and is written and illustrated by Andy Diggle and Jock. I haven’t read the comic before, but if the movie is any indication, I know I want to lay my hands on some trade paperbacks as soon as I can. I thought this was one highly entertaining film.

I’m not familiar with any of Sylvain White’s other work. Previously, he’s directed Stomp the Yard and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, two films that I didn’t really have any interest in seeing. With The Losers though, he shows that he can really put together a tightly paced and stylish action movie. One of the things that I really like about this though is that it seems a sort of throwback to some of the B-movie action films of the 80s, but with a little modern spin on it. I also really like his action set pieces, they’re very nicely staged and just have a terrific look.

But the biggest thing that this has going for it is an excellent cast. Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Clay, has sheer credibility to his character and I’d certainly buy that these guys would be willing to follow him to hell and back. The rest of the team features Idris Elba as Roque, Chris Evans as Jensen, Oscar Jaenada as Cougar and Columbus Short as Pooch. All of these guys are great, but I have to give special props to Evans. Evans is the wise-ass of the group and he does it without being annoying and in fact is very entertaining. Zoe Saldana plays Aisha and she’s on a real roll lately having appeared in such films as Star Trek and Avatar. She continues to impress here with both her sexuality and her willingness to get in there and get dirty with the boys. Jason Patric plays Max and he’s really good in his bad guy turn. He chews scenery in an understated way and the fun that he looks like he’s having on-screen certainly shows.

They all have solid material to work with thanks to a nice script from Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt. It’s my understanding that Berg was originally slated to both write and direct this. After bowing out, his first draft script was given over to Vanderbilt for a re-write. I have no idea how much of the original script remains here, but if what’s on screen is any indication, I could easily have seen this being something by Berg (Hancock withstanding, he’s one of my favorite directors working today). Also, having not read the source, I don’t know how true to it the movie is. From what I’ve seen of the comic’s visuals though, it certainly looks on point.

I had a ball with this. Yeah, there are all sorts of cliches and stretches of real-world logic, but when it’s put together this well, it doesn’t matter. This is the first of our three big “men on a mission” movies of the year. The other two movies being The A-Team and The Expendables and I’m really looking forward to both. The Losers sets the bar for them to follow and it does it really well. If you like 80s style team action movies with a pulp flavor, you couldn’t do better than to go out and see The Losers. Highly recommended, one of my favorite movies of the year so far.

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News

Weekend Box Office: April 16 – 18

#1 Kick-Ass from Lionsgate debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $19.8 million in 3065 theaters. Budget was $30 million.

#2 How to Train Your Dragon from Paramount/DreamWorks jumps from #3 to #2 with a weekend gross of $19.6 million (-21.0%) in 3825 theaters (-182). Total gross to date is $158.2 million. Budget was $165 million.

#3 Date Night from Fox drops from #2 to #3 with a weekend gross of $16.7 million (-33.7%) in 3380 theaters (+6). Total gross to date is $48.6 million. Budget was $55 million.

#4 Death at a Funeral (2010) from Screen Gems debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $16.2 million in 2459 theaters. Budget was $21 million.

#5 Clash of the Titans (2010) from Warner Brothers drops from #1 to #5 with a weekend gross of $15.3 million (-42.2%) in 3753 theaters (-49). Total gross to date is $132.6 million. Budget was $125 million.

#6 The Last Song from Buena Vista drops from #5 to #6 with a weekend gross of $5.9 million (-39.4%) in 2767 theaters (+93). Total gross to date is $50.1 million. Budget was $20 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $4.0 million (-62.8%) in 1859 theaters (-296). Total gross to date is $54.8 million. Budget was $20 million.

#8 Alice in Wonderland (2010) drops from #7 to #8 with a weekend gross of $3.6 million (-31.0%) in 2024 theaters (-506) . Total gross to date is $324.1 million. Budget was $200 million.

#9 Hot Tub Time Machine drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.4 million (-35.7%) in 2308 theaters (-303). Total gross to date is $42.4 million. Budget was $36 million.

#10 The Bounty Hunter drops from #8 to #10 with a weekend gross of $3.0 million (-26.8%) in 2475 theaters (-426). Total gross to date is $60.2 million. Budget was $40 million.

#11 Diary of a Wimpy Kid drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.7 million (-29.9%) in 2149 theaters (-304). Total gross to date is $57.0 million. Budget was $15 million.

#12 Avatar holds at #12 with a weekend gross of $1.0 million (+18.7%) in 500 theaters (+46). Total gross to date is $745.0 million. Budget is unknown.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $111.8 million (-6.2%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Announcement

Get your Shwaag(.com) here!

Hey Guys.  Check out the video.  Read the comments below.  The first comment will have an invite code for Shwaag.com.

Their current featured Schwaag item is an iPad!!!
I was skeptical too, but it does work, people do win!

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Kick-Ass

High School student Dave Lizewski doesn’t want a normal life. He’s a geek, he reads comic books, spends too much time on his computer and girls don’t dig him. One day, Dave is sitting with a couple of his friends in his local comic shop and ponders the question of why no one has actually really become a super-hero. His friends give him the appropriate responses, but after getting pushed around by a couple of thugs, Dave decides he’s had enough and he’s tired of just standing around and letting this stuff happen. Dave decides to become a super-hero and on his first day out, he ends up in the hospital, having to have all sorts of replacement surgery. Six months pass. Dave has healed with all sorts of metal replacement in his body and some nerve ending damage that basically doesn’t allow him to feel some things, and so Dave gets back on his horse and tries again. This time he succeeds wildly, becoming an internet sensation and calling himself Kick-Ass. He also starts a chain of events that he just can’t get away from.

That’s the basic premise to the latest comic book to movie adaptation, called after it’s title character Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is an adaptation of the comic book series by writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr. It’s also the latest film from director Matthew Vaughn, who’s certainly delivered the goods in the past with movies like Layer Cake and Stardust. and it’s also a pretty darn good movie, though I do have a problem or two with it.

First though, on the plus side, it absolutely looks terrific. Vaughn’s shooting this with all sorts of bright colors and his screen compositions literally bring Romita Jr.’s art to life on the screen. Some changes have been made that make this differ slightly from the comic. The most notable of these being in the origins of another character inspired by Dave, Big Daddy, which in turn leads to some changes in the ending, but I think the intent of the book is still there on the big screen. That is, I wasn’t crying foul over it at all.

There’s some real moments of pure brilliance up there as well- those moments being Kick-Ass’ first big night where he becomes a sensation, Big Daddy’s inspired comic-book telling of his origin (absolutely beautifully done), a video-taped fight scene which shows Big Daddy in action, the introduction of Big Daddy’s protege, Hit Girl and Hit Girl’s assault on the gang members who capture both Kick-Ass and Big Daddy late in the film. These scenes are really well made set pieces and when they come up, they kick the movie into overdrive.

One of my problems though, and it’s not necessarily with the movie itself, it’s more mine, is that when I initially read the book, I didn’t read it with a laughtrack going on in my head. Now this film, through a lot of it’s absurdity, certainly elicits a lot of big laughs from it’s audience. But as a comic book reader, I pretty much read this with a straight face when it came out, and so it was a little disconcerting for me seeing it this way. This is a black comedy for sure, and a lot of these scenes where the laughs come in the theatre are pretty much straight out of the book. As far as I know, it was by design to get laughs in Millar’s originally script, I just didn’t read it that way. For someone coming into this without having read the comic, this won’t mean anything at all. And for those who have read the book, well your mileage may vary, though I suspect I’m probably a minority on this.

The cast, for the most part is pretty darn good. Aaron Johnson plays Kick-Ass/Dave and this kid is someone to watch in the future and he exhibits a lot of character growth on the screen. Nicolas Cage plays Big Daddy and you can tell that Cage had a lot of fun here, in particular as he’s playing Big Daddy in costume where he’s channeling Adam West as Batman. Mark Strong is certainly effective as Frank D’Amico, our bad guy of the piece. This one’s a little different for Strong, being a more out of control character than what he’s been in the past, but he’s still really good here. The standout of the cast though is Chloe Moretz. Moretz plays Hit Girl and literally whenever she’s on-screen, there’s real magic happening. Hit Girl is an 11-year old who’s been training her whole life for what happens in the movie, and Moretz’s performance is star-making. But the other downside for me here is also in the main cast, and that’s with Christopher Mintz-Plasse who plays D’Amico’s son and also assumes a costumed identity as the Red Mist. Mintz-Plasse screams “stunt-casting” to me (which is certainly played with in the marketing of the movie) just begging for people to say, “Hey, there’s McLovin!” I didn’t think he had any real presence in the film and most of his lines and delivery are pretty flat. Compared to everyone else in the movie and how their work kicks up the adrenaline, MIntz-Plasse puts on the brakes.

So yeah, I have a couple of problems here, but still I thought Kick-Ass delivered and did so with great style. It’s irreverent and extremely violent, so if you’re put off by the violence, then this one isn’t for you. I’m a long-time comic book fan (going on 43 years now) and really appreciate the lengths that Matthew Vaughn went to fairly accurately bring this to the screen. While I enjoyed the film a great deal, I think it’ll have an even bigger appeal to today’s younger fans. They, at least to me, want everything to be a little more in your face and self-referential and they’ll certainly get that with Kick-Ass.

Categories
News

Weekend Box Office: April 9 – 11

#1 Clash of the Titans (2010) from Warner Brothers holds for a second week at #1 with a weekend gross of $26.6 million (-56.5%) in 3802 theaters (+25). Total gross to date is $110.2 million. Budget was $125 million.

#2 Date Night from Fox debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $25.2 million in 3374 theaters. Budget was $55 million.

#3 How to Train Your Dragon from Paramount/DreamWorks holds at #3 with a weekend gross of $24.8 million (-14.3%) in 4007 theaters (-53). Total gross to date is $133.4 million. Budget was $165 million.

#4 Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? from Lions Gate drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $11.0 million (-62.4%) in 2155 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $48.5 million. Budget was $20 million.

#5 The Last Song from Buena Vista drops from #4 to #5 with a weekend gross of $9.8 million (-38.6%) in 2674 theaters (+1). Total gross to date is $42.2 million. Budget was $20 million.

#6 Hot Tub Time Machine from MGM holds at #6 with a weekend gross of $5.4 million (-32.7%) in 2611 theaters (-160). Total gross to date is $36.9 million. Budget was $36 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Alice in Wonderland (2010) drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $5.3 million (-35.4%) in 2530 theaters (-450) . Total gross to date is $319.0 million. Budget was $200 million.

#8 The Bounty Hunter drops from #7 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.2 million (-30.8%) in 2901 theaters (-217). Total gross to date is $55.9 million. Budget was $40 million.

#9 Diary of a Wimpy Kid drops from #8 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.9 million (-24.9%) in 2453 theaters (-389). Total gross to date is $53.6 million. Budget was $15 million.

#10 Letters to God debuts at #10 with an opening weekend gross of $1.1 million in 897 theaters. Budget was $3 million.

#11 Shutter Island drops from #10 to #11 with a weekend gross of $0.8 million (-40.5%) in 869 theaters (-487). Total gross to date is $125.0 million. Budget was $80 million.

#12 Avatar jumps from #13 to #12 with a weekend gross of $0.8 million (-13.8%) in 454 theaters (-57). Total gross to date is $743.6 million. Budget is unknown.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $119.3 million (-29.2%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 130: The Mummy

Welcome to The Mummy.

Feel free to tell us just how wrong we are.  We have email, we have a comments section, we have a voicemail line.  Use them, please! 🙂

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Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 129: Gran Torino

Clint.

Seriously, there is nothing more to say.

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Preview Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Tron Legacy: And You Thought The New Duke Nuke ‘em Was Taking Forever To Release

A few weeks ago, Tee Morris, friend and reserve producer for the Back Seat Producers asked me if I would like to host his thoughts on TRON shortly after the release of the trailer for TRON: LEGACY.  Having a man-crush for Tee and everything he does, plus his awesomeness in regards to getting my picture on the cover of his Twitter guide, ALL A TWITTER, you just know I said, ‘Hell, yes!’ What follows is the essay that Tee submitted.  He asked if he should read it or just leave it as text, but I think you’ll agree with me that, if you’ve heard Tee on BSP before that in reading this you can HEAR him.

Enjoy!

-Tony

On March 9, one of Twitter’s trending topic took me for a wild ride in the Wayback Machine to what, I believe, history books will regard as the Golden Age of Gaming. I talk, of course, about the 1980’s. Yes, much like the Hot Tub Time Machine, I was thrown back to the days before iPhones and BlackBerrys, before World of Warcraft and Dragon Age, and before Playstations and Xboxes. I talk of days when I’d hop on my ten speed and pedal like the wind through the sweltering heat of a Virginia summer afternoon to cool off in the dark, dim lighting of Funway Freeway; or when my parents would drop me off at Putt-Putt Golf & Games where I would feed-feed-feed machines that went by bold, imaginative monikers like Zaxxon, Defender, Battlezone, and Joust.

Welcome to my days as a Gamer in the Coin-Operated Video Game Arena.

Hollywood, as it might not surprise you, tried to keep up with the 80’s (and with the amount of cocaine available that should have been easy…) and started producing movies centered around video games and computers. There was the Twilight Zone-eque horror film Nightmares (1983) where a young Emilio Estevez combats a video game from Hell. The “wacky sex comedy” Joysticks (1983) attempted to be the Porky’s for geeks. And the tale of King Arthur was retold in The Last Starfighter (1984) where a video game chooses a run-of-the-mill geek to save the galaxy from the Ko-Dan Armada.

And before you ask, yes, I’ve seen all of these films. Even Joysticks. Perhaps not the finest moment in Joe Don Baker’s career.

All these films followed what could be called the Avatar of the 80’s: Tron (1982) from Walt Disney Studios.

We had never seen anything so immersive or revolutionary as Tron. As one of the O.G.’s (original gamers), I can still recall this movie speaking volumes to me as the scriptwriters really captured the culture (and the thrill) of video games. It wasn’t that far of a stretch to think that there was some sort of digital alter-ego inside your favorite game’s or mysterious home PC doing all these things you were telling it to do in the Real World. There had been some real though put into this world, such as making its people (a/k/a “programs”) pay homage to a “user” and security routines into gladiators within this binary universe. There were also parts of Tron that were eluded to but never fully explained or realized such as the origins of characters like “Bit” and those grid spiders that were apparently doing something important for the MCP (Master Control Program).

However there were your obligatory “Let’s play with the new filmmaking toys” scenes that did little to further the plot, a plot that was not as well thought-out as the world itself.

Not that I really cared. This was a completely geektastic ride, and those light cycles were completely and utterly badass!

All these memories came back to me on March 9, 2009, because of Twitter and the online release of Tron: Legacy, the unexpected and now highly anticipated sequel to Tron.

So let’s just side-step for a moment the frustration that Hollywood has “run out” of ideas and are going back to wells that will insure them ticket sales…

Okay, let’s dwell on it for a moment…

Tron came out in 1982. 19. 82. Twenty-eight years ago. What. The. Hell?! I remember when it felt like forever between Star Wars and James Bond films, but twenty-eight years? Part of me shakes my head ruefully and asks Hollywood if this is what filmmaking has stooped to? Recycling old characters and concept from nearly three decades ago. What about a film adaptation of Scott Sigler’s Ancestor, P.C. Haring’s Cybrosis, or J.C. Hutchins’ 7th Son? Or, closer to home, how about a film version of MOREVI? (I wouldn’t say “no”.) Between films based on toy lines and remakes of films within a five-year window (*cough-cough* Hulk *cough*), the idea of a film that picks up twenty-eight years later after the original is just sad.

Right then. That’s the cinema purist in me. Now, switching to geekboi mode…

Sweet crapslinging monkeys on a jungle gym, it’s about goddamn time!

Yes, it has been three decades since the original Tron graced the screen, and when you watch the film now it may look a little dated in its concepts and (of course) the graphics. Back in 1982, though, this was how we perceived computers and video games. Things were very two-dimensional, cold, calculated, and stayed within the confines of a set grid. We look at ENCOM’s “state-of-the-art” facility and our jaws drop at how huge the company’s servers are. When you consider and compare their processing speed and power to your home computer, you’re on the floor, gripping your sides, laughing until you hyperventilate. But computers evolved. Networks gave way to the Internet. Hackers were now targeting one another as opposed to the evil empires of commerce. (They still do, of course, but there is more money to be made off the unsuspecting everyman.) Email went from a novelty to a necessity. Hard drives that took up an entire, climate-controlled room now fit in the palm of our hands. And now we live in an age where networks instantly go global, and we communicate to this international audience via status updates, podcasts, and tweets.

Computers evolved. So should filmmaking.

Tron: Legacy has the potential to be placed in the same class of sequel as Star Trek II:  The Wrath of Khan. Considering how technology has completely reinvented our waking world, it is mind-boggling on a 2001-StarChild scale what the digital world has become under, what the trailer seems to insinuate, the guidance of Kevin Flynn. There is also the technology in filmmaking and how far it has come since 1982. Avatar, from a visual perspective, has removed all physical barriers. If a filmmaker can dream it up, the right effects team can make it happen; and from the briefest of glimpses that we have seen in the trailer they have. So if all these advancements and possibilities have made Tron: Legacy seem “easy” to put together, what will set it apart from the original and not reduce it to a Michael Bay-esque eye-candy fest?

This to me is the most exciting bit: The filmmakers, in order to meet the potential of Tron: Legacy, must focus on the story.

Yeah, I know, I know…I may be asking a lot here, but Walt Disney Studios can spin a good yarn when they put their minds to it. What has been revealed to us so far in the trailer insinuates that not only have the filmmakers ramped up the visuals, but the plot itself sounds intriguing. For over twenty years, Kevin Flynn has been missing, leaving, ENCOM’s heir apparent and Flynn’s estranged son, Sam, and his college and friend Alan Bradley wondering what happened. Then comes a page — not a phone call, but a page — from a phone number disconnected decades earlier. And as we see in the preview, Sam follows in his father’s footsteps into a very different take on Second Life.

From the trailer Tron: Legacy’s story will be far stronger than the original, setting it apart as the rare sequel that tops the original. As much as I love Tron, I always wanted a stronger story at its core with slightly better characters at its core. As we all have been stung by trailers being better than the feature film, I believe Tron: Legacy is a different case. There is something compelling in the mystery of exactly what Flynn has been doing and if he ever intends on leaving the digital plane. More to the point, what drove him to return to this world, and did it become the Utopia that we receive a brief glimpse of following the downfall of MCP, or have things — like technology — changed. Perhaps waiting twenty-eight years for a sequel, in this case, may be a good thing.

Cynics will scoff and say “Tee, you’re pinning a lot on Hollywood and Disney to deliver…” and I would agree; but I will argue that this is not a Summer but a Christmas release. Already, that is a point in my playbook. Another point is scored as this is a Disney release. They were able to make Tron work back in the eighties and while often copied, their success was never replicated. Finally, there is the presence of Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner reprising their roles. I think that is a very good sign. Actors usually need a good reasons (aside from a paycheck) to return to a property nearly thirty years old. This speaks volumes to me. So bring on the light cycles, the flying discs of death, and the Space Paranoids. This going to be one hell of an upgrade.

Granted, if I’m wrong, this means the Back Seat Producers have new “rant material” the next time I’m on pod. And in the same vein as Kingdom of the Crystal Suck, I will probably call it Tron: Vista.

Good God, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.


Tee Morris has been an active member of the Twitter community since 2007 and part of the Social Media movement even longer. He established himself as a pioneer of podcasting by being the first to podcast a novel in its entirety. His fantasy epic, MOREVI, went on to be a finalist for the 2006 Parsec Award for Best Podcast Novel. That production also led to the founding of Podiobooks.com, the writing of Podcasting for Dummies (with Chuck Tomasi and Evo Terra), and the writing of Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies (with Evo Terra and Ryan Williams). Tee continues to explore the application of blogging, podcasting, and Twitter at Imagine That! Studios (online at imaginethatstudios.com), and has spoken across the country and around the world on Social Media for Book Expo America, NOAA, Te Papa Tongarewa: The Museum of New Zealand, and LIANZA.

Along with being a Social Media specialist, Tee is a columnist and critic for AppAdvice.com and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy found in print at Dragon Moon Press and in audio at TeeMorris.com. His fantasydetective novel, The Case of The Singing Sword: A Billibub Baddings Mystery, received an Honorable Mention forForeWord Magazine’s 2004 Book of the Year award, Finalist for the 2005 Independent Publisher’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Best Audio Drama: Long Form at the 2008 Parsec Awards. Find out more about Tee Morris at imaginethatstudios.com and teemorris. com on the Internet.

Categories
News

Weekend Box Office: April 2-4

#1 Clash of the Titans (2010) from Warner Brothers debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $61.2 million in 3777 theaters. Budget was $125 million.

#2 Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? from Lions Gate debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $29.2 million in 2155 theaters. Budget was $20 million.

#3 How to Train Your Dragon from Paramount/DreamWorks drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $29.0 million (-33.7%) in 4060 theaters (+5). Total gross to date is $92.1 million. Budget was $165 million.

#4 The Last Song from Buena Vista debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $16.0 million in 2673 theaters. Budget was $20 million.

#5 Alice in Wonderland (2010) from Buena Vista drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $8.2 million (-53.6%) in 2980 theaters (-404) . Total gross to date is $309.7 million. Budget was $200 million.

#6 Hot Tub Time Machine from MGM drops from #3 to #6 with a weekend gross of $8.0 million (-42.4%) in 2771 theaters (+17). Total gross to date is $27.9 million. Budget was $36 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 The Bounty Hunter drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $6.0 million (-49.3%) in 3118 theaters (+44). Total gross to date is $48.8 million. Budget was $40 million.

#8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $5.3 million (-47.6%) in 2842 theaters (-241). Total gross to date is $46.0 million. Budget was $15 million.

#9 She’s Out of My League drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $1.5 million (-56.8%) in 1390 theaters (-1042). Total gross to date is $28.7 million. Budget was $20 million.

#10 Shutter Island drops from #8 to #10 with a weekend gross of $1.4 million (-53.3%) in 1356 theaters (-767). Total gross to date is $123.4 million. Budget was $80 million.

#11 Green Zone drops from #7 to #11 with a weekend gross of $1.2 million (-63.1%) in 1242 theaters (-1322) . Total gross to date is $33.1 million. Budget was $100 million.

#12 The Ghost Writer jumps from #13 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.1 million (-33.5%) in 656 theaters (-163). Total gross to date is $11.0 million. Budget was $45 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $168.5 million (+44.1%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo