Categories
News

Weekend Box Office: June 17 – 19

#1 Green Lantern from Warner Brothers debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $53.1 million in 3816 theaters. Budget was $200 million.

#2 Super 8 from Paramount drops from #1 to #2 with a weekend gross of $21.4 million (-39.4%) in 3408 theaters (+29). Total gross to date is $73.0 million. Budget was $50 million.

#3 Mr. Popper’s Penguins from Fox debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $18.4 million in 3339 theaters. Budget was $55 million.

#4 X-Men: First Class from Fox drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $11.9 million (-50.5%) in 3375 theaters (-317). Total gross to date is $120.3 million. Budget was $160 million.

#5 The Hangover Part II from Warner Brothers drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $10.0 million (-43.0%) in 3460 theaters (-215). Total gross to date is $233.1 million. Budget was $80 million.

#6 Kung Fu Panda 2 from Paramount/DreamWorks drops from #4 to #6 with a weekend gross of $9.0 million (-45.4%) in 3469 theaters (-460). Total gross to date is $143.6 million. Budget was $150 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Bridesmaids drops from #6 to #7 with a weekend gross of $7.0 million (-29.5%) in 2573 theaters (-349). Total gross to date is $136.4 million. Budget was $32.5 million.

#8 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides from Buena Vista drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $6.6 million (-39.3%) in 2742 theaters (-691). Total gross to date is $220.7 million. Budget was $250 million.

#9 Midnight in Paris drops from #8 to #9 with a weekend gross of $4.8 million (-16.2%) in 1038 theaters (+94). Total gross to date is $21.4 million. Budget was $30 million.

#10 Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.1 million (-65.4%) in 2524 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $11.0 million. Budget was $20 million.

#11 The Tree of Life holds at #11 with a weekend gross of $1.1 million (+40.7%) in 114 theaters (+67). Total gross to date is $3.9 million. Budget was $32 million.

#12 Thor drops from #9 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.1 million (-53.0%) in 875 theaters (-907). Total gross to date is $176.1 million. Budget was $150 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $147.1 million (+11.2%).

New movies debuting in wide release this weekend are Bad Teacher and Cars 2.

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

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 06 Shows

BSP Episode 186: Robocop

Your producers in this episode are:

  • Tony
  • Tony
  • Darrell
Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Green Lantern

So anyway, I’ve been a huge Green Lantern fan for over 40 years now, so when it was first announced that Warners and DC Comics were readying a movie based around the character, I was pretty excited about it.  The more I kept seeing about it along the way, the more enthusiastic for it I got.  This was a big leap for Warners and DC as far as their movies go, even bigger than making movies of such comic characters as John Constantine or Jonah Hex and chancier than the past movies made of Superman and Batman.  Green Lantern was going to fully embrace it’s comic book roots, and as a comic property that’s not as publicly well-known as Superman and Batman, that was a huge gamble.

These days, DC and Warners are really no strangers to taking a huge chance.  They’ve made recent news with the announcement of relaunching their entire line with 52 new first issues with the idea of bringing in newer readers.  The idea here being to give anyone who wants to try their books out a fresh jumping on point, and further with a day and date release of all of their books in the digital playground as well.  This news has been met with both anger and joy.  As a lifelong fan of DC Comics, and one who’s used to seeing these characters got through a lot of drastic changes over this time, I’m actually looking forward to what DC has planned and hope for the best, not only for them, but the comic book industry on the whole.  The Green Lantern movie looks to be the first concerted step in advancement of this plan.  It helps get the word out in it’s own way, even though from the early things I’ve read with fan reactions, it didn’t look like things were going to fare to well.

Green Lantern is the latest movie from director Martin Campbell.  Campbell’s no stranger to taking heroic properties and giving them a fresh movie sheen.  He’s done it previously with James Bond with both GoldenEye and Casino Royale and he’s also done it with Zorro with The Mask of Zorro. Armed with a high-powered cast and a huge budget, could he do the same with this untried comic book property?

Well, I think he has, but more as we go along the way…

As our story starts, we’re told of the Guardians of the Universe and how they’ve managed to harness the emerald energy of the emotional power of Will.  They’ve used this energy to create a galactic peacekeeping force called the Green Lantern Corps made up of alien beings of all sorts.  The Corps does this with energy contained within mystical rings.  The Guardians tried to further their power by harnessing the yellow energy of Fear but with disastrous results.  A being known as Parallax came into possession of the power and caused chaos, but was ultimately brought to justice and imprisoned by the Green Lantern known as Abin Sur.

Parallax has been planning his escape, and when the opportunity presents itself he strikes back at Abin Sur causing mortal damage.  Abin Sur desperately escapes and finds himself dying on a young planet within his space sector, the planet Earth.

From there, Abin Sur uses his power ring to seek out a successor with the biggest qualifier being that the being chosen must have no fear.  The ring finds that successor in a brash test pilot named Hal Jordan.  And from there, the inevitable hijinks ensue…

As I said above, I’m a huge Green Lantern fan and I just had a ball with this movie and I only hope it does well enough in the end for more to come.

Some of the early complaints that I’ve read of involves there just being too much told in this and that it was hard to follow because of that.  Sure, there’s a lot crammed into this first film, but the only way it’s hard to follow is if you’re just not paying attention and either texting or Twittering while you’re watching it.  I had absolutely no problems at all following this.  The only faults that I thought it had were a couple of plot holes here and there (minor in my estimation) and a little bit of a pacing issue with some scenes.  But the sheer enthusiasm of the rest of the film, at least for me, overcomes that.

I’d also read in a few places about a cartoon-ish and cheesy quality to it’s visual effects.  Well, I absolutely loved the look of the movie.  I like how it embraces it’s bright color palette and made for something that looks quite lively. I love the theatricality of it’s visual effects, it doesn’t necessarily look “real” (though what the frame of reference for what is “real” with aliens who use power rings to fight injustice is, I’ll never know) but it does look like a comic book brought to life.  To me, the look of this movie has a real sense of wonder which is what a good comic book should have.

And what a joy to see these characters brought to life.  Ryan Reynolds has the plum role of playing Hal Jordan.  Right off the bat, he looks just like how Hal Jordan looked when he was first drawn by artist Gil Kane and some shots of him in his full Green Lantern regalia bring to mind the work of artist Neal Adams, who made his own historic mark in the comics.  Reynolds’ enthusiasm and drive are evident in every scene he’s in- he looks like he’s having fun with this and for this Green Lantern fan, that was just infectious.

Reynolds is backed up with an extremely strong cast.  Blake Lively plays Carol Ferris, who’s both Jordan’s boss and love interest.  Now Hal and Carol have never had what has been a traditional relationship by any means and I think that’s evident here as well.  Lively looks terrific, has her own drive and certainly has chemistry with Ryan Reynolds.

Mark Strong plays Sinestro, who as this movie starts is considered the greatest of the Green Lantern Corps.  Strong is solid as a rock and I just loved his look.  Green Lantern fans know that more is coming when it comes to Sinestro, and Strong has the right qualities to make that a reality.  Peter Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond, a brilliant scientist who’s brought in by a mysterious government organization to examine the dead body of Abin Sur and along the way gets infected by Parallax.  Like the rest of the cast, Sarsgaard looks like he’s having a great time here and I thought he was quite effective as one of our two villains.

I made the choice to go ahead and see this one in 3D even knowing that it really wasn’t made with that in mind (and even finding out later that Martin Campbell wasn’t for it at all) and fortunately had the opportunity to see this in a room that was using 4K projection.  The 3D is hit and miss, but still I was glad I saw it that way.  I peeked into a room that was showing it in 2D and even with wearing 3D glasses, the projection in the 3D room was much brighter and sharper than how it looked in 2D.  I don’t think you really need to see it in 3D to enjoy it and if you have reservations and do want to see it, the certainly take the 2D route.

I had a ton of fun with Green Lantern. As a big fan, I appreciated all of the nods to the comics and the incredible look of the movie, which really does bring a comic book to life.  I think it’s cast is terrific and the set-up is there for more films.  For a Green Lantern fan, this is a lot of fun.  Will that fun transfer to someone who has no idea at all of what they’re getting into?  I have absolutely no idea, but I certainly hope that it would.  Regardless, I had a fantastic time with this and as a word of warning, there is one additional scene that runs after the end credits get rolling, so don’t quite walk out right away.

Categories
Back Seat Box Office Shows

Back Seat Box Office #39

(Insert Excuse Here)

It’s been a long week for all of us, but we’ll have the show notes up for the episode shortly.

Thanks for playing along!

Jonathan

  1. Green Lantern
  2. Super 8
  3. X-men: First Class
  4. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  5. Kung Fu Panda 2

Tony

  1. Green Lantern
  2. Super 8
  3. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  4. X-Men: First Class
  5. Kung Fu Panda 2

Andrew

  1. Green Lantern
  2. Super 8
  3. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  4. X-Men: First Class
  5. Kung Fu Panda 2
Categories
Back Seat Reality Shows

Back Seat Reality #3

Welcome to episode three… yeah, there were two before. A LONG TIME AGO!

In this episode, we discuss THE BACHELORETTE and THE VOICE.

Categories
Back Seat Box Office BSBO Results Shows

Back Seat Box Office #38 Results and Voice Mail

Congrats to the 25s of the week:

  • Art
  • Cougron
  • Jeff
  • Jonathan
  • Tim
  • Tom
  • Sergio

Also, thanks to everyone who sent in a Voicemail or audio file this week:

  • Art
  • Father Beast (and Adam)
  • Tad
  • William
Categories
Back Seat Quickies Shows

Back Seat Quickies 0: Thor

Welcome to a new spin-off of Back Seat Producers: Back Seat Quickies.

As the name implies, these reviews are short and, hopefully, spoiler-free(not that the name implies that last part.)

For this go in the Back Seat, listen as BSQ regulars (as regular as you can be for a Zero episode) Scott and Bhavna discuss the recent release of Thor.  They recorded the episode shortly after leaving the theater.

As Scott mentions, BSQ is going to be opening its doors to let YOU give us your quickies.  Info on how to participate will be forthcoming.

Take a listen and make sure to drop us a comment here on the site to let us know what you think.

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 06 Shows

BSP Episode 185: Ronin

Your Producers for this episode are:

  • Tony
  • Tony
  • David
  • Darrell

This episode was recorded: 6/8/11.

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Super 8

Our setting is a small Ohio town of Lillian in the late 70s.  Young Joe Lamb has just suffered through the death of his mother and has difficulties dealing with his father, who’s one of the deputies on the town’s police force.  Joe has a group of friends who he makes short movies with shot with a Super 8mm camera.  He and his friends are currently making their own zombie movie, somewhat inspired by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. One night, Joe and his friends are out by an old train station shooting a scene.  As they’re getting ready to shoot this key scene, a train passes by.  Joe looks out in the distance and sees a truck driving towards the tracks.  The driver of the truck takes his vehicle right on the tracks on a direct collision course with the train.  A devastating impact occurs that in turn unleashes some unknown entity upon this unsuspecting community.

That’s the basic premise to Super 8, the newest movie from director J.J. Abrams, the creator of the TV show Alias, one of the creators behind TV’s Lost and the director of such movies as Mission: Impossible III and the wildly successful Star Trek reboot.  This is the first time, as far as I know, that Abrams has teamed with producer Steven Spielberg.  With a pedigree like that, you certainly hope for the best with this movie, the promise is certainly there.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t quite all come together in a satisfying way.

I was really looking forward to this movie.  In a summer filled with sequels and comic book movies (not that there’s anything wrong with that), Super 8 looked like it was going to be something a little bit different than what was coming down the road.  Abrams has basically stated that this was somewhat autobiographical for him and working with Spielberg, it gave him the chance to homage some aspects of Spielberg’s 70s films.  The early trailers for the film were very promising being mostly pure teaser and not really giving a whole lot away.

Super 8 references other movies that Steven Spielberg made both as a director and a producer.  Those movies include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E. T., The Goonies and Poltergeist. On the surface, there’s really nothing wrong with doing that but the way it’s mixed together here just never quite comes together for me.  As the events unfold, there’s a pretty hard terror aspect involved which actually is quite nice, but it’s resolution tries to put a heartwarming spin to the whole thing that just feels forced. A very clunky explanation is given to the true nature of this entity that terrorizes the area.  That story in itself is a little too big to be satisfyingly told in the space of this film and still have a proper emotional resonance.  This would’ve worked better had Abrams decided to go either all the way with either pure terror or with heartwarming sense of wonder.  As it is, he’s trying to mix the two and both get short-changed.

The kids themselves are fairly engaging when they’re all together.  It’s when we’re seeing a couple of them deal with their own personal issues is where things start to fall apart.  Joe (played by Joel Courtney) and a young girl who he’s attracted to, Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), both have issues with their fathers (Kyle Chandler as Joe’s father and Ron Eldard as Alice’s) as a result of what caused the death of Joe’s mother.  Neither relationship has a whole lot of perspective attached to it in regards to what things were like before Joe’s mother was killed.  Things are somewhat resolved between both parents and their kids by the film’s end, but that resolution feels entirely forced without having any sort of idea of what it used to be.

Noah Emmerich plays Colonel Nelec, the leader of a military force that’s been sent to Lillian to contain what’s happened.  Now there’s really nothing wrong with anything that Emmerich does, but it’s the general portrayal of the military that gives me some issue here.  They’re pretty much presented as nearly the same sort of malevolent force that they’re trying to quell and it’s all just on one simplistic note.  Again, I think that’s a result of trying to mash-up two distinct tones for the overall movie and not having enough time to get them all to adequately pay off.

To it’s credit though, I think the movie does have a good look to it, even though sometimes I think Abrams takes things a little too far in trying to reference the look of a Spielberg movie from the 70s.  Michael Giacchino produces another terrific score for the film and the visual effects are pretty well done.  The initial devastation with the train is particularly well done.

But still, I cannot give this Super 8 a recommendation.  The premise is certainly decent, but it goes to the extremes for the two tones that it’s trying to mix without the proper filler to make it all seem really cohesive.  I’m sorry to say that as I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams.  Here’s hoping things fare better when he returns to the future with the ext Star Trek movie.

Categories
Back Seat Box Office Shows

Back Seat Box Office #38

The Holmberg is back in East Texas this week but Tim, of Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie fame, ably steps in to pick up the slack.

This week the hosts unlocked the Golden Trifecta acheivement with three perfect scores (along with 12 other competitors – The Golden Quindecfecta!). Average scores for the first twenty-three weeks of 2011 have Tim in first place with 21.11 points, Tony in second with 20.91 points, Jonathan in third with 20.65 points and Andrew in fourth with 20.22 points.

Visit our scoreboard for a comprehensive list of results as well as an explanation of our scoring system. 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 are Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer and Super 8 while Midnight in Paris is expanding.

Picks for the week:
Tony

  1. Super 8
  2. X-Men: First Class
  3. Kung Fu Panda 2
  4. The Hangover Part II
  5. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer

Andrew

  1. Super 8
  2. X-Men: First Class
  3. The Hangover Part II
  4. Kung Fu Panda 2
  5. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer

Jonathan

  1. Super 8
  2. X-Men: First Class
  3. The Hangover Part II
  4. Kung Fu Panda 2
  5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Tim

  1. Super 8
  2. X-Men: First Class
  3. The Hangover Part II
  4. Kung Fu Panda 2
  5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Got something to say? Head over the the Back Seat Producers forum and let us know what you think.