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#1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules from Fox debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $23.7 million in 3167 theaters. Budget was $21 million.
#2 Sucker Punch from Warner Brothers debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $19.0 million in 3033 theaters. Budget was $82 million.
#3 Limitless from Relativity drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $15.0 million (-20.4%) in 2805 theaters (+49). Total gross to date is $41.1 million. Budget was $27 million.
#4 The Lincoln Lawyer from Lionsgate holds at #4 with a weekend gross of $10.7 million (-18.6%) in 2707 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $28.7 million. Budget was $40 million.
#5 Rango from Paramount drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $9.7 million (-35.2%) in 3645 theaters (-198). Total gross to date is $106.3 million. Budget was $135 million.
#6 Paul from Universal drops from #5 to #6 with a weekend gross of $7.8 million (-39.8%) in 2806 theaters (+4). Total gross to date is $24.9 million. Budget was $40 million.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 Battle: Los Angeles drops from #3 to #7 with a weekend gross of $7.5 million (-47.8%) in 3118 theaters (-299). Total gross to date is $72.5 million. Budget was $70 million.
#8 Red Riding Hood drops from #6 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.3 million (-40.0%) in 2715 theaters (-315). Total gross to date is $32.4 million. Budget was $42 million.
#9 The Adjustment Bureau drops from #7 to #9 with a weekend gross of $4.2 million (-25.7%) in 2282 theaters (-378). Total gross to date is $54.9 million. Budget was $50.2 million.
#10 Mars Needs Moms drops from #8 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.2 million (-57.5%) in 2170 theaters (-947). Total gross to date is $19.2 million. Budget was $150 million.
#11 Beastly drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.1 million (-32.2%) in 1585 theaters (-225). Total gross to date is $25.2 million. Budget was $17 million.
#12 Hall Pass drops from #10 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.7 million (-33.6%) in 1204 theaters (-701). Total gross to date is $42.3 million. Budget was $36 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $108.5 million (+5.0%).
New movies debuting in wide release this weekend include Hop, Insidious, and Source Code.
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo
About the film:
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Based on
“The Minority Report” by
Philip K. Dick
Screenplay by
Scott Frank
Jon Cohen
Starring
Tom Cruise
Colin Farrell
Samantha Morton
Max von Sydow
Release date
June 21, 2002
Running time
145 minutes
Budget
$102 million
Gross revenue
$358,372,926
Your producers for this episode are:
This episode was recorded: 3/9/11
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As this movie begins, we see the 20-year old girl who becomes known as Baby Doll on a theatrical stage, which immediately shifts over to her “real” life in presentation. She’s frightened because her mother is at death’s door and she and her little sister are looking at spending their lives with their wicked stepfather. Baby Doll’s fears are realized and her stepfather is livid over the idea that the girls stand to take everything from their mother’s inheritance. He lashes out and intends to inflict sexual harm on the girls, but Baby Doll fights back, inadvertently killing her little sister in the process. With the police on his side, the stepfather has Baby Doll committed to an asylum where he has signed papers to have her lobotomized. With five days remaining to her before the procedure, Baby Doll attempts to escape using the power of her imagination.
That’s a pretty simplistic overview of the set-up for Sucker Punch the latest movie from visionary director Zack Snyder. Now I’m a big fan of Snyder’s, I’ve loved all of his previous films which include the re-make of Dawn of the Dead, and adaptations of Frank Miller’s 300, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole adapted as Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. They’ve all been very entertaining rides extremely true to their sources and so for me, Snyder has been batting a thousand…
… and stee-rike one! Well, to be fair, it isn’t a total loss, there’s a lot to recommend about Sucker Punch and good portions of it that I did find extremely entertaining and I expect for a certain audience range, they’ll think this is pretty special. To some extent, they’re right to do so, though I expect that all depends on how much you want this to weigh with it’s narrative as opposed to it’s flash and style.
A popular thing to do with music these days is the mash-up, merging together two songs for something that will be effective. Sucker Punch is the ultimate mash-up movie. From the start, to me, it looks like Snyder is mashing together filmmaking styles like those of Jean Jeunet and Dario Argento. This shifts over to a mash-up of genres from samurai movies, to fantasy movies to war movies to science fiction movies to anime to psychological drama. In the big picture sense, it could be seen as a mash-up of a high-powered action movie with a musical thanks to it’s effective use of songs. To a comic book fan, I’d describe this as Danger Girl creator J.Scott Campbell’s version of Shutter Island.
On this level, Sucker Punch succeeds wildly as sensory overload. The action sequences occurring in Baby Doll’s mind are absolutely spectacular and one of them in particular involving Baby Doll and friends assaulting a train filled with killer robots is about as good as an action sequence gets.
Where this falls apart though is in it’s narrative, but again, that’s only if that’s going to be that big a deal to you. it was for me simply because with a few more scenes, this could’ve been filled out to actually have that make sense in it’s own way. Baby Doll, obviously a female, tries to find her escape through her imagination. Only her imagination is that of a twenty-something male who plays a lot of video games and reads a lot of comics and fantasy fiction. Now I know that may sound entirely sexist, but without any sort of set-up, that’s just how it comes off. Some sort of scene showing Baby Doll embracing these male fantasies near the start could’ve gone a long way to making this make sense, but as it is, it doesn’t. At the same time, I don’t necessarily think that’s a major concern of Snyder’s either.
The end of the film, literally the sucker punch the title refers to basically comes at you from left field. it’s really hard to go into this without spoiling it, and I don’t want to spoil it. But again, a little more set-up into that could’ve gone a long way to making that a lot more effective.
Finally there’s Baby Doll and the other girls. While in the asylum, Baby Doll builds a friendship with four other girls, Sweet Pea, Rocket, Blondie and Amber. The actresses involved, Emily Browning as Baby Doll, Abbie Cornish as Sweet Pea, Jena Malone as Rocket, Vanessa Hudgens as Blondie and Jamie Chung as Amber all come off as very plastic. They’re pretty good together in the action scenes, but scenes with them “bonding” just tended to make me snicker a bit. On the other hand though, this characterization and their look are true to some anime I’ve seen and so on that level, I guess it does work.
What works better for me are the brief appearances by Carla Gugino as Dr. Gorski, the doctor in charge of the girls and Jon Hamm as the doctor who’s scheduled to give Baby Doll her lobotomy. Oscar Isaac plays the orderly who’s essentially the villain of the piece, and really he just wasn’t that threatening. Scott Glenn plays an advisor of sorts in Baby Doll’s fantasies and he certainly lends some credibility to them.
In the end, as a sight and sound experience, Sucker Punch is indeed spectacular and is about as well technically made as it gets. I’d actually like to see this again, but on a second viewing, I’d like to see it with a Zack Snyder commentary just to get into his mind about what he was wanting to accomplish with this. As a story, it’s all pretty shallow though it tries to give the impression that there’s a lot more depth to it. With a few more scenes, that could’ve been resolved to some extent, but as it is, I really didn’t find a lot to give a damn about when it comes to the actual characters of the piece. This isn’t for everybody by any means, it’s a love letter of sorts to all of the stuff that Snyder is a fan of which just happens to be a lot of the same stuff that fans of genre fiction, comics and video games share. I’ve heard some refer to it as a love it or hate it movie. Well, for me, I was in the middle, and so this gets a marginal recommendation.
Jonathan comes in first this week with 15 points (0% old system), Tony is in second with 13 points (0% old system), and Andrew is in third with 12 points (0% old system). Average scores for the first eleven weeks of 2011 still have Tony in first place with 20.42 points while Andrew and Jonathan are tied for second with 19.33 points.
Looking for an explanation of our scoring system? Check out our scoreboard here to find the answers you need. Play along at home, email or call your picks in before Friday night and get on the board.
New movies debuting in wide release this weekend include Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, and Sucker Punch.
Picks for the week:
Jeff
Jonathan
Tony
William
Andrew
Father Beast
Got something to say? Head over the the Back Seat Producers forum and let us know what you think.
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Your producers for this episode are:
This episode was recorded: 3/2/11
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#1 Limitless from Relativity debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $18.9 million in 2756 theaters. Budget was $27 million.
#2 Rango from Paramount holds at #2 with a weekend gross of $15.0 million (-33.3%) in 3843 theaters (-80). Total gross to date is $92.3 million. Budget was $135 million.
#3 Battle: Los Angeles from Sony drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $14.5 million (-59.1%) in 3417 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $60.5 million. Budget was $70 million.
#4 The Lincoln Lawyer from Lionsgate debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $13.2 million in 2707 theaters. Budget was $40 million.
#5 Paul from Universal debuts at #5 with an opening weekend gross of $13.0 million in 2802 theaters. Budget was $40 million.
#6 Red Riding Hood from Warner Brothers drops from #3 to #6 with a weekend gross of $7.1 million (-48.7%) in 3030 theaters (no change) . Total gross to date is $25.8 million. Budget was $42 million.
Rounding out the top 12 are:
#7 The Adjustment Bureau drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $5.7 million (-50.2%) in 2660 theaters (-187). Total gross to date is $48.6 million. Budget was $62 million.
#8 Mars Needs Moms drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $5.3 million (-23.1%) in 3117 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $15.4 million. Budget was $150 million.
#9 Beastly drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.1 million (-36.3%) in 1810 theaters (-149). Total gross to date is $22.1 million. Budget was $17 million.
#10 Hall Pass drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.5 million (-48.7%) in 1905 theaters (-650). Total gross to date is $39.5 million. Budget was $36 million.
#11 Gnomeo and Juliet drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.2 million (-36.4%) in 1748 theaters (-837). Total gross to date is $93.5 million. Budget is unknown.
#12 Just Go With It drops from #8 to #12 with a weekend gross of $2.2 million (-44.1%) in 1708 theaters (-690). Total gross to date is $97.9 million. Budget was $80 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $103.3 million (-12.1%).
New movies debuting in wide release this weekend include Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, and Sucker Punch.
A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Sources:
Box Office Mojo
Your producers for this episode are:
This episode was recorded: 2/23/11
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Eddie Morra is a divorced writer who’s having some trouble getting motivated. He has a book contract to write a science fiction novel, but he can’t even put the first word down. His current girlfriend is at the end of her rope with him and leaves him. The world is pretty much weighing down on Eddie, and then a twist of fate occurs. He has a chance encounter with his former brother-in-law, Vernon, on the street. Eddie’s brother-in-law had a shady reputation as a drug dealer, but now he swears he’s legit. Vernon has a new drug that he swears is FDA-approved called NZT. Taking NZT allows it’s user to use 100% of their brain. Eddie, with nothing left to use, takes the drug… and hijinks ensue.
Limitless is the newest movie from director Neil Burger, who’s best known for making the movie The Illusionist with Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel. With Limitless director Burger and star (and executive producer) Bradley Cooper, deliver a pretty wild ride with something that on it’s surface might seem little more than an extended episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, and much like those TV shows, it has quite a bit to chew on, though it’s not entirely successful.
Where it’s not successful is in the fact that there are a lot of plot holes in this as the story unfolds. The thing is, I don’t necessarily want to go into all of those because I actually do think Limitless is a ride worth taking, and some of those holes do spoil a few things. At the same time, by the nature of a person taking NZT, a lot of those holes can be explained away, but that’s up to the individual viewer to determine if he or she wants to make that leap. The one that isn’t easily explained away though is a section of the movie that has Eddie encountering a Russian mobster to borrow money and then have to pay it back. There are parts here that if one looked at this logically just should not have happened, and yet they do. To me, the only explanation for why they do is just to move the action forward and add a definite physical action element to the movie. I think both could’ve been accomplished a little more logically, though they probably would’ve added quite a bit more to the film’s running time.
Another thing that I found just a little troubling was the movie’s ending. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in that it definitely does cause you to talk about what you’ve just seen. The ending isn’t atypical of this type of movie, which at it’s core is a take on drug abuse. It didn’t quite set well with me, but at the same time, I have to give Burger points on daring to go into this direction.
The final thing that doesn’t quite work with me is in the casting, but I’ll get more into that later. Still the pluses here are huge. Burger’s shooting style and camera tricks are absolutely amazing. The look of this movie is really nicely done. In particular, this really stands out when Eddie takes the NZT for the first time. While there are holes in the story, the dialogue is first rate. That dialogue also contributes to how a viewer can fill in some of the holes on their own, though again that all hinges on whether you want to do that yourself. And finally, there’s Bradley Cooper…
Cooper delivers one hell of a performance here. His transformation is highly believable and he has enough charisma to drive this movie forward despite it’s plot holes. Cooper supplies narration throughout, and his delivery is smooth and convicted. It’s probably the best I’ve seen him on screen yet. Cooper’s backed up by some good supporting work, in particular from Abbie Cornish who plays his girlfriend, Lindy, Anna Friel who plays his former wife Melissa is stellar in a brief scene, and Johnny Whitworth as Vernon convincingly sets the whole thing forward.
Where it doesn’t quite work as well for me is with Robert DeNiro. DeNiro plays Carl Van Loon, a business tycoon who Eddie Morra gets involved with. DeNiro’s Van Loon is a pretty rumpled character who doesn’t, at least to me, appear as slick as he should. To his credit though, there’s no mugging to the camera and the line delivery is pretty good. Still, I would’ve rather had seen someone like a Michael Douglas or a Dustin Hoffman in this part. DeNiro’s not a dealbreaker by any means and this is purely a personal view of him in the film, your own mileage might vary wildly.
Even with my problems with the movie, I found Limitless to be quite an engaging ride. Smart dialogue, Neil Burger’s stunning visuals and a fantastic performance from Bradley Cooper carry the day. The way it’s all carried through makes it’s initial premise compelling and by the end of the movie, you should be asking yourself that if offered the chance to take NZT yourself, would you do it? I myself probably would…
Andrew finally grabs the brass ring with 25 points (100% old system), Tony is in second with 23 points (60% old system), Jonathan is in third with 22 points (60% old system), William & Rich are tied for fourth with 19 points (20% William / 20% Rich). Average scores for the first 11 weeks of 2011 still have Tony in first place with 21.09 points, Andrew is in second (yes!) with 20 points while Jonathan is in third with 19.72 points.
Looking for an explanation of our scoring system? Check out our scoreboard here to find the answers you need. Play along at home, email or call your picks in before Friday night and get on the board.
New movies debuting in wide release this weekend include Limitless, The Lincoln Lawyer and Paul.
Picks for the week:
Andrew
Tony
Jonathan
William
Jeff
Got something to say? Head over the the Back Seat Producers forum and let us know what you think.
And don’t forget to check out Lightsabersaurus.com.
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