Well, folks, I held off on posting the column this week not just out of laziness (although surely my hangover yesterday was reason enough to postpone) but also because, with New Years falling when it did, this was basically a long weekend and I wanted to look at the five-day numbers for the box office.
And they proved to be generally lucrative, with some box office juggernauts proving the importance of a good release date, and some Oscar hopefuls picking up steam heading into 2008.
Let's start with the box office juggernauts. National Treasure: Book of Secrets had a very good second weekend (percentages are pretty moot with the five day numbers, since figures are so much higher), bringing in $55 million and raising its impressive total to $143 million. This should get past the first Treasure's $173 million domestic to become Nicholas Cage's highest grossing film. As previously mentioned, here's hoping the success leads Cage to some better roles, now that his box office star has rebounded from the likes of Next and The Wicker Man (the latter being, truly, one of the worst films I've ever seen from a big studio and made all the more painful by the talent they had on hand).
Now I don't wish to alarm anyone, but Alvin and the Chipmunks leapt over I Am Legend to take the number two spot with $42 million over the five days and $154 million domestically. More than even National Treasure, this number goes to show you how important a good release date really is. I remain pleased for star Jason Lee, but that is quickly getting dwarfed by my fear of studio executives, dollar signs flashing across their eyes, greenlighting more big-budget films based on Saturday morning cartoons. I can only hope that one of them will hit on my own idea, a feature film of Saved by the Bell with a CGI Screech. Most of the rest of the cast, I assume, should be available.
Even with the Chipmunks surge, I Am Legend held its own against stiff competition, adding $38 million to its coffers and raising it's domestic total to $205 million. That puts it third on Will Smith's list of domestic blockbusters, behind only Independence Day and the first Men in Black. There's a trailer up for Hancock, Smith's next event film, that feels like they threw it together to get something out in the wake of Legend's success. I'm a fan of director Peter Berg, and I like the concept (hard-luck super hero who inadvertently messes things up when trying to save people hires a PR rep to improve his image... kind of a live action Incredibles), but the look of the trailer is dishearteningly reminiscent of My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Fortunately, after that, Smith is set to re-team with Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino for a drama called Seven Pounds that sounds little more promising.
Charlie Wilson's War is hanging on about as well as I expected it to, adding $20 million and brining it's total to $43 million. War should finish up with about $80 million, which isn't too bad, even with the $75 million budget, but it makes one think about how far we've come from the heyday of Tom Hanks and Julie Roberts, whose pairing even five years ago would have assured $200 million. Of course, those two have nothing to prove to anybody at the box office or at the Oscars, but it does feel a bit like the passing of an era.
Comments (3)
To preserve marital harmony I went to see The Great Debaters. I was expecting a simplistic feel-good film, but instead found a moving story that captured life in segregated America as I knew it, and showed the true courage required by African Americans to change the course of this country. If you are relatively young and missed living through this time period then you will find this fine film to be an eye opener.
1 of 3 | Posted by tombo | Posted on January 2, 2008 8:03 PM
Sutter,
Until this minute, I had no idea who wrote "Juno" or what he or she looked like. All I know is that is was one of the funniest, best written movies I have seen in quite a while. Get out and see it for yourself already so you can see why people are so enthusiastic about it, instead of theorizing it could be anything except that it's a really good movie!
2 of 3 | Posted by JasonR | Posted on January 3, 2008 7:05 AM
Glad to hear Great Debaters is worth checking out. It's harder to make a film interesting if the story is familiar, but not impossible (Miracle, a terrific film about the U.S. Olympic hockey team beating Russia in the seventies, springs to mind).
Jason,
I really wasn't trying to criticize Cody; hell, I'm happy for any writer that draws publicity. I'm critical of the media for not paying attention to the other very talented writers. Believe me, Juno's on my list and I'm excited to see it.
3 of 3 | Posted by sutterkane | Posted on January 3, 2008 11:26 AM