The Expendables Eat, Pray and Love the Hell out of Julia Roberts!

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MovieSucktastic Episode #19 salutes the male movie-going audiences of America!


As anyone paying attention to the never ending battle between Box Office Testosterone and Cinematic Estrogen knows, this past weekend saw the ultimate battle of the sexes take place in the Box Office, with the winner being determined by the yardstick of success that all Americans can agree on: Cold Hard Cash. The results were a major blow to the "Hollywood doesn't need to blow things up to make money" crowd, as The Expendables blew the ever-loving hell out of everything in site to the tune of $12,000,000 more than Julia Roberts' gelato-loving, soul-searching, globe-trotting feelings-fest Eat Pray Love.  And that's without any 3D money padding the ticket sales. Eat that, Cameron!


Unfortunately, MovieSucktastic host Joey was not on hand to share in the chest-thumping celebrations. While his triumphant return to the recording of Episode #18 was a great step forward, Joey is still dealing with the long-term emotional and psychological side-effects of being kidnapped and partially brainwashed by obsessive Avatar fanatics. His progress was coming along nicely, but an unfortunate incident involving leftover Chinese food and a late-night screening of The Fifth Element left him in a confused and agitated state of Na'vi regression. So while Joey is finally back, his participation in the show's recording will continue to be sporadic for the near future. You can't rush these things after all.


Scott trudged bravely along, however, blazing new ground as he read some poorly-written listener hate-mail during the show's second half. It seems that an angry Twilight fan took him up on his challenge to the hordes of Twilight Tweens to sound of against him for his harsh review of Twilight: New Moon. Scott performs a dramatic reading of the letter then responds to it, although not as harshly as one might expect.

To round things up, Scott introduces a new expletive-laden feature to the show, and enters James Cameron as the first honorary subject. Cameron made some rather ill-advised comments about 3D films and Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker Oscar win in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, and Scott eagerly pounces on these telling Cameron Quotes, using them as yet another excuse to openly insult the man now worshiped by millions of misguided Avatar fans. His comments, while insightful, are not recommended for small children, clergy, or those with a weak and easily offended constitution. But then again, what's new?


Scott's celebration of Manliness and James Cameron hate-fest can be listened to or downloaded from iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podcast.com orMovieSucktastic.com. 

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MovieSucktastic #17 - Killers and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Image by Nayara - Oliveira via Flickr

This weekend's episode of the MovieSucktastic podcast is up and available for your Fourth of July listening pleasure. After all, why would you blast Creedence Clearwater Revival or Nickelback by the poolside when you could subject your pool party guests to the fevered rantings of a man forced to watch both Killers and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in one sitting?

Yes, episode #17 of MovieSucktastic features reviews by yours truly after a harrowing night spent huddled in the front seat of my car at Becky's Drive-In while the feature films Killers and Twilight: Eclipse unfolded before me like two great oceans of pain and indifference. After last episode's positive review of The A-Team, it was nice to hunker down in familiar territory and spew the usual spiteful yet informative venom about some movies that violently sucked several hours of my life into the Godless abyss in which all bad movies store the life energies of their victims.Needless to say, I wasn't as enthralled by Ashton Kutcher or Taylor Lautner as the gaggle of twittering teenage girls packed into the SUVs surrounding my car.

This little foray into my total despair at being asked by the ticket booth girl whether I belonged to Team Jacob or Team Edward can be listened to or downloaded from iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podcast.com orMovieSucktastic.com.

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How to Train Your Dragon and Avatar Abductions!

If you haven't tuned in to the MovieSucktastic podcast lately, you might want to check out the latest episode. There have been a lot of changes to the show format in the past few months, but the latest change was something that nobody could have predicted. It turns out that MovieSucktastic co-host Joey has been abducted by what appears to be a militant faction of Avatar fanatics. While no responsibility has been claimed and no demands or intentions have been made, the audio of Joey's last known phone message on his way to record the latest episode (he never arrived) is damning evidence in itself that these Avatar-obsessed hooligans have taken Joey hostage in retaliation for past anti-Avatar reviews posted by his fellow MovieSucktastic co-host, Scott Wilson.

With Joey's fate uncertain, Scott does his best to keep the show going, promising to keep the audience updated on the situation. In the meantime, Scott takes the time to go over the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street in the weekend box office results, shamelessly promotes his book (Monster Rally, available on Amazon.com), and channels the spiritual energy of Glenn Beck for a very special Right-Wing Review of the pro-terrorist anti-American animated feature How to Train Your Dragon.

You're going to regret it if you don't keep up with the latest happenings at MovieSucktastic, either at iTunes, Podcast Alley, Podcast.com or MovieSucktastic.com. Because this summer, things are going to Suck a whole lot more.

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Podcast Episode #8: Sequels! Sequels! Sequels!

The wait is over! After an agonizingly lengthy delay, the latest episode of MovieSucktastic is finally up and ready for your easy listening pleasure!

Seasonal constraints and other complications can throw a monkey wrench in some of the best laid plans, and your humble hosts Joey and Scott are no different. But now that we've finally gotten over our mutual hurdles, things are moving along quite swimmingly, thank you very much. We've cleaned the dust off of the MovieSucktastic Microphone and gotten down to business, bringing our own special blend of film theory and criticism to your sensitive little earbuds.

What do Joey and Scott have lined up for your amusement and mirth this episode? We start off with a recap of the recent top ten box office champs, followed by our additions to the Finger List, each of us choosing which film we would rather cut off our little finger rather than watch in a theater. Find out which one of us would rather horribly mutilate ourselves rather than watch Did You Hear About the Morgans?

After that, we launch right into our overview of the currently slated barrage of sequels heading to your local overpriced theaters in 2010. Hollywood has been slowly turning up the output knob on the Sequel Machine (Patent Pending) over the past decade, with 2010 topping all expectations. Its looking more and more likely that, between sequels and remakes, your odds of seeing anything even remotely original in the theaters this year have diminished greatly. And yes, that includes Avatar.

On top of all of this, we also announce the winner of our Facebook Page contest! Tune in and find out which one of our first 100 Facebook Fans won an autographed copy of co-host Scott's latest book on cult and horror cinema, Monster Rally. Better yet, join our Facebook Fan Page before it hits 200 and you might win our next drawing yourself!

So go to MovieSucktastic.com and either listen to and/or download episode #8 directly from the website, or follow our links to iTunes, Podcast Alley and Podcast.com. And don't forget to email us and let us know what you think of us, the show, or a bad movie you've recently seen. You've heard us, now let us hear you!

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Weekend Box Office Estimates 10/2 - 10/4

1 Zombieland Sony $25,000,000
2 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Sony $16,700,000
3 Toy Story / Toy Story 2 (3D) BV $12,500,000
4 The Invention of Lying WB $7,350,000
5 Surrogates BV $7,344,000
6 Capitalism: A Love Story Over. $4,850,000
7 Whip It FoxS $4,850,000
8 Fame (2009) MGM $4,754,000
9 The Informant! WB $3,800,000
10 Love Happens Uni. $2,777,000

A-List Stars Flailing at the Box Office? Try Again.

It's the bold new declaration being screamed across the Entertainment pages and segments of

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

the news media today: Highly respected movie stars, usually considered huge box-office draws, are suddenly failing to bring in the big bucks when their highly anticipated films hit the big screen. With films like Funny People, Land of the Lost, Angels and Demons, Public Enemies, and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 not performing as well as expected, the powers that be behind the scene are blaming their current understanding of who the top box-office performers are.

The only problem with this allegation? It is complete and utter crap.

Scapegoating might not be new or unusual in Hollywood, but this is the kind that insults everybody. Did these movies do poorly because of their stars? No, of course not. They did poorly because they were either uninspired remakes or sequels hoping to cash in on a previously existing successful franchise (brace yourself, because that is all you are going to see in theaters come the summer of 2010), or simply didn't inspire people with the subject matter at hand. But this would be admitting that Hollywood was wrong. No, it can't be the fault of the heavy hand of the studios

Image via Wikipedia

bankrolling these films. It must be because American audiences have soured on a particular actor or actress, and are now avoiding that star like a former boyfriend at a New Year's Eve party.

This same argument was used against Tom Cruise during the late part of his past slew of releases, and despite how much you don't like Mr. Scientology, it isn't a sound argument. Did audiences really hold back on investing their box-office dollars on Mr. Risky Business because of his unorthodox antics? Of course not! People didn't shun Mission Impossible 3 because the leading star flipped on Oprah Winfrey's couch and reads Dianetics religiously. They shunned it because they were already sick to death of the franchise and listened to the horrible critical response.

You want an example of how much American movie-goers don't actually care about tabloid scandals? Mel Gibson. The Passion of the Christ makes more money than God, but just as Mel's the new favorite golden boy, he gets caught up in a huge antisemitic drunk-driving scandal. In fact, I think it was the first ever combination DUI/Antisemitism

Cover via Amazon

incident ever. That's Mel, always ahead of the curve.

So, Mel not only cruises around under the influence, but he hates the Jews as well. This would be the perfect excuse for audiences to avoid paying to see his upcoming Apocalypto, beyond the fact that it is all subtitles and brown people. But the movie did extremely well, with no apparent boycott of the personality behind the film. Why? Because it was a good movie.

This is the blame game that constantly kills our chances of getting decent films made and delivered by the Hollywood Dream Machine. The latest star-studded blockbuster release had a more than lackluster opening weekend? It couldn't be because the script was drab, boring, or intellectually insulting to a five-year-old with ADD, or that the direction and set design was either over-the-top or uninspired. No, it must be because the lead actress is losing her "Box Office Appeal."

I just caught the trailer for Sandra Bullock's new upcoming romantic comedy, All About Steve:

I would like to make a prediction on this one. This movie will not do well, and when the "lackluster" opening weekend numbers are release, studio heads and those in control of green lighting this kind of crap will not admit that it didn't do well because it is obviously an unsuccessful attempt at some kind of half-ass American stab at a Bridget Jones romantic comedy with a weak premise, recycled jokes (one in the trailer is actually lifted straight from Bridget Jones' Diary), and no real narrative hook.

No they'll blame Sandra Bullock. And they won't even take partially responsibility for attempting to continually shove the aging actress (who seems to have chosen Plastic Surgery over the Aging Gracefully route) into younger and younger roles instead of trying out some fresh new talent.

So fear not, movie-goers. You might get the same recycled crap shoved down your throat at the theater next year, but you can rest assured that there will be new shiny happy faces in those lead roles to make the bitter pill a tad easier to swallow.

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Weekend Box Office Estimates 7/3 - 7/5

1 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Fox $42,500,000
2 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen P/DW $42,500,000
3 Public Enemies Uni. $26,172,000
4 The Proposal BV $12,779,000
5 The Hangover WB $10,415,000
6 Up BV $6,579,000
7 My Sister's Keeper WB $5,255,000
8 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Sony $2,500,000
10 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Fox $2,100,000

Weekend Box Office Estimates 6/26 - 6/28

1 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen P/DW $112,000,000
2 The Proposal BV $18,466,000
3 The Hangover WB $17,215,000
4 Up BV $13,046,000
5 My Sister's Keeper WB $12,030,000
6 Year One Sony $5,800,000
7 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Sony $5,400,000
8 Star Trek Par. $3,606,000
9 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Fox $3,500,000
10 Away We Go Focus $1,678,000
11 Land of the Lost Uni. $1,143,000
12 Terminator Salvation WB $1,085,000

Let it also be known that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made $201 million in its 5 day tally. This is only second to The Dark Knight, which made $204 million in the same 5 day span.

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Weekend Box Office Estimates 6/19 - 6/21

1 The Proposal BV $34,114,000
2 The Hangover WB $26,855,000
3 Up BV $21,336,000
4 Year One Sony $20,200,000
5 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Sony $11,300,000
6 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Fox $7,300,000
7 Star Trek Par. $4,700,000
8 Land of the Lost Uni. $3,976,000
9 Imagine That Par. $3,100,000
10 Terminator Salvation WB $3,070,000

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Weekend Box Office Estimates 6/12 - 6/14

1 The Hangover WB $33,415,000
2 Up BV $30,515,000
3 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Sony $25,000,000
4 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Fox $9,600,000
5 Land of the Lost Uni. $9,153,000
6 Imagine That Par. $5,700,000
7 Star Trek Par. $5,600,000
8 Terminator Salvation WB $4,695,000
9 Angels & Demons Sony $4,200,000
10 Drag Me to Hell Uni. $3,864,000

Weekend Box Office Estimates 3/6 - 3/8

1 Watchmen WB $55,655,000
2 Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail LGF $8,800,000
3 Taken Fox $7,450,000
4 Slumdog Millionaire FoxS $6,925,000
5 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Sony $4,200,000
6 He's Just Not That Into You WB (NL) $4,020,000
7 Coraline Focus $3,313,000
8 Confessions of a Shopaholic BV $3,121,000
9 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience BV $2,785,000
10 Fired Up SGem $2,600,000

Who watches The Watchmen? Enough people to garner up a very healthy $55.6 million at the box office, that's who.

Although my expectations were for a much higher weekend total, one thing I forgot to take into consideration was the film's lengthy run time. Coming in at a whopping 2hrs 43min, it is no surprise that the movie made what it did opening weekend. Most theaters were only able to squeeze in three showings a day per screen, where your average ninety minute feature can manage almost double that.

Despite the length, Watchmen still sold out to theaters across the country, and even made $5.5 million at IMAX's over the weekend. This puts it second only to The Dark Knight, which garnered $6.8 million in the same venues. This and the fact that it was rated R (although we did have children in the theater when we saw it) had an impact on ticket sales. More important is the fact that it was as long as it was and that it was rated R, meant one thing: They got it right.

I've been doing a lot of homework to see if there is going to be any kind of director's cut. Not only is there going to be a director's cut, but an Ultimate Watchmen cut is also being planned. What does this mean?

Theatrical cut: 2hrs 43min, to be released on Blu-ray and DVD July 2009

Director's cut: 3hrs 10min, to be released on Blu-ray and DVD July 2009

Ultimate Watchmen: 3hrs 25min, (it could actually be longer) to be released on Blu-ray and DVD Fall 2009.

The 'Ultimate Cut' is special in that it will include the Black Freighter animated film, to be weaved back into the film and paced the same way as it was in the original the graphic novel. As quoted from Snyder himself, this cut will feature just about EVERYTHING he has for the movie. The downside is that a Fall release means that the release date could be as late as Dec 20th! Considering the fact that FOX is screwing them royally, it is understandable why they would pull a Lucas by releasing different versions of the film over a period of time in order to scartch up some more DVD sales. I'm letting you slide Warner, just this once.

Watchmen: The Midnight Take

The numbers are in! The Watchmen is estimated to have made $4.6 million at the midnight shows for it's March 6th release.

The film played in 1595 screens across the country at midnight and today will open to 3,611 screens which is the highest ever for an R rated film.

This also puts it ahead of Zack Snyder's 300, which made $2.5 million during its midnight tally back in March of 2007. It then went on to gross $70.9 million in it's opening weekend which is the largest ever for March... until weekend, of course.

Box Office Blight - 2/20 - 2/22 Weekend

1 N Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail LGF $41,030,947
2 5 Coraline Focus $11,432,124
3 3 Taken Fox $11,281,262
4 2 He's Just Not That Into You WB (NL) $8,558,225
5 9 Slumdog Millionaire FoxS $8,384,680
6 1 Friday the 13th (2009) WB (NL) $7,942,472
7 6 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Sony $6,821,377
8 4 Confessions of a Shopaholic BV $6,742,778
9 N Fired Up SGem $5,483,778
10 7 The International Sony $4,463,916


I must say, there's nothing like a mid-February weekend theatrical opening lineup to make you feel like gargling broken glass with a peroxide chaser. Dismal doesn't even begin to capture the prospects for people foolish enough to venture out to the local Octoplex for a two-hour reality break.

Of course, that never stops at least one film from being number one, and this week the winner was Madea Goes to Jail. The losers, sadly, are too numerous to name individually. Tyler Perry has been doing his best to cash in on a cross between Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor and Flip Wilson's Geraldine, and there were apparently enough enablers with pocket change around to give him a $41 million dollar opening weekend.

I guess the film's success makes sense, based on humor and originality. It seems like ages since audiences have been treated to the sight of a black male comedian playing a woman in a fat suit. And what could be funnier than an elderly black woman being sentenced to prison? Well, I guess every generation needs it's own Geraldine. Actually, I take that back. They don't. Please stop.

The only other major release, Fired Up, ended up at the other end of the charts, earning a measly $6 million and ninth place. A complete surprise, as you would think the plot device of two high school football players going to Cheerleader Camp as an excuse to meet hot girls would be instant box office gold. After all, everybody knows that attractive and popular jocks have to jump through all sorts of wacky hoops in order to meet girls.

Sadly, even a clever movie poster gleefully pointing out that the film's initials were also an abbreviation for naughty words wasn't able to drag a large crowd to witness this comedic genius. Those who actually bought tickets probably did so based on the title alone, only to be disappointed when they realized the film had nothing to do with either Potheads or Arsonists. Now there's a movie I'd drop ten bucks to see.

The rest of the returning lineup is too depressing to go into. A Nightmare Before Christmas The Corpse Bride Coraline jumped up to third place just to be annoying, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop continues to rub lemon juice in America's wounded pride by hanging in the top ten for another week and upping it's total to $120 million.

Honestly, I shouldn't have to be talked down off the roof every time the weekend totals come out. You can't blame the audiences too much, I suppose. There's probably only so many times you can go see Taken before you decide to gamble on another film. Let's just hope next weekend is a little better.

Weekend Box Office Estimates 2/06-2/08

Much as everyone expected, He's Just Not That Into You came in on top this past weekend, proving that the best kind of date movie is a movie about dating. Don't ask me why, but films that exploit social confusion, poor communication within relationships, and the natural human tendency towards self-doubt and paranoia seem to always draw the biggest crowds.

Of course, considering that the film is based on a book co-written by one of the writers of Sex & the City, the movie was bound to draw at least a portion of that hit show and film's faithful audience. I will admit, however, that I'm just happy to see Ben Affleck in a hit film again, even though he was overshadowed in almost all of the promotional materials by Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Then again, it's a long, painful road from Jersey Girl and Gigli.

Liam Neeson is kicking major ass in more than just the Luc Besson scripted Taken. Coming in second in its second week with only a 17% drop at the box office, it is obvious that strong word of mouth is drawing more people to watch Liam beat the snot out of bad guys.

Coraline, while not doing to shabby at third place, didn't really get the opening weekend you would want for a 35$ Million dollar kid's film. It looks like there are enough people out there like me who are tired of seeing Tim Burton rehash The Nightmare Before Christmas over and over again.

I could take comfort in that idea if Paul Blart: Mall Cop wasn't a breath away from taking in 100$ Million at the box office. Let's see how long it takes Kevin James to become the next Rob Schneider.

1 He's Just Not That Into You WB (NL) $27,785,487
2 Taken Fox $20,547,346
3 Coraline Focus $16,849,640
4 The Pink Panther 2 Sony $11,588,150
5 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Sony $10,884,825
6 Push Sum. $10,079,109
7 Slumdog Millionaire FoxS $7,177,270
8 Gran Torino WB $7,155,339
9 The Uninvited P/DW $6,262,651
10 Hotel for Dogs P/DW $5,711,229

Weekend Box Office Estimates 1/30-2/1

1 Taken Fox $24,625,000
2 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Sony $14,000,000
3 The Uninvited P/DW $10,512,000
4 Hotel for Dogs P/DW $8,706,000
5 Gran Torino WB $8,600,000
6 Slumdog Millionaire FoxS $7,680,000
7 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans SGem $7,200,000
8 New in Town LGF $6,750,000
9 My Bloody Valentine 3-D LGF $4,260,000
10 Inkheart WB (NL) $3,700,000

Weekend Box Office Estimates 1/23-1/25

1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop Sony $21,500,000
2 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans SGem $20,700,000
3 Gran Torino WB $16,000,000
4 Hotel for Dogs P/DW $12,360,000
5 Slumdog Millionaire FoxS $10,550,000
6 My Bloody Valentine 3-D LGF $10,050,000
7 Inkheart WB (NL) $7,725,000
8 Bride Wars Fox $7,000,000
9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Par. $6,000,000
10 Notorious (2009) FoxS $5,700,000

Weekend Box Office Estimates 8/8-8/10

(Statistics Courtesy of http://www.boxofficemojo.com/)

1 1 The Dark Knight WB $26,030,000
2 N Pineapple Express Sony $22,400,000
3 2 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Uni. $16,113,000
4 N The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 WB $10,770,000
5 3 Step Brothers Sony $8,900,000
6 4 Mamma Mia! Uni. $8,081,000
7 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB (NL) $4,855,000
8 7 Hancock Sony $3,300,000
9 6 Swing Vote BV $3,106,000
10 8 Wall-E BV $3,045,000

The Dark Knight for the fourth straight weekend is the number one film at the box office with an estimated $26,000,000 take. The film is currently holding the number 3 spot for all time grosses ever. Only Star Wars with $460,000,000 (which it will surely top) and Titanic with $600,000,000 stand before it. There's been a lot of debate on whether or not this film can top Titanic's all time gross. It's still too soon to tell but to think this film can't crawl it's way to just a mere $159,000,000 more to top the $600,000,000 mark almost seems crazy. it's only been out 24 days. I think it'll come damn close at the very least.

Pineapple Express opened with a very respectable $22,000,000 it's first weekend. The film only costing $27,000,000 helps very much with that as it's already turning a profit regardless of what else it does for it's entire run.

The Mummy : Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor dropped from it's second spot last week down to third this week. It lost more than 60% of its opening weekend tally with only $16,000,000 this time around. With those kind of numbers one might be a betting man and say it will not make back it $145,000,000 budget domestically.

To round out the top ten, everything slid down the rabbit hole except for The Dark Knight. Even though both are out of the top ten, who would have thought that Space Chimps would be having a better run than the new X-Files: I Want To Believe movie? I guess it truly is the sequel that no one asked for.

Weekend Box Office Estimates 8/1-8/3

Links and Statistics proved by http://www.boxofficemojo.com/

1 1 The Dark Knight WB $42,664,219
2 N The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor $40,457,770
3 2 Step Brothers Sony $16,506,526
4 3 Mamma Mia! Uni. $12,615,515
5 5 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB $6,662,406
6 N Swing Vote BV $6,230,669
7 6 Hancock Sony $5,087,756
8 7 Wall-E BV $4,603,179
9 4 The X-Files: I Want to Believe Fox $3,385,878
10 9 Space Chimps Fox $2,720,177

While i was watching TV Sunday there was a ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen that said "The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor beats The Dark Knight with a $15 million take". Now i said to myself this has to be a mistake on two accounts. One, that there is NO WAY these films made only $15 million for the weekend take and two there was no way that The Mummy 3 was going to make more money than The Dark Night its opening weekend. They blatantly tried to make you believe something that wasn't. How's that for original?

Step Brothers is still holding strong with a $16 million take. The "shake and Bake" duo seem to have some chemistry that audiences genuinely like. I'm sure they'll pump out a few more of these before their time is up.

I won't get into Mama Mia! or the fact that it's still in the top 5. Please God make it stop. Why, WHY?!?

To round out the top ten X-Files: I want to Believe is just about ready to exit the top ten. It's only been out 10 days and is a huge flop. Critics and fans alike are fairly disappointed at this film and it shows for everyones lack of caring to see it.

Space Chimps...Only a couple of more seconds.

Weekend Box Office Estimates 07/18-07/20

(Stats and Links courtesy of http://www.boxofficemojo.com/)

1 N The Dark Knight WB $158,411,000
2 N Mamma Mia! Uni. $27,605,000
3 2 Hancock Sony $14,000,000
4 3 Journey to the Center of the Earth NL $11,910,000
5 1 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Uni. $10,038,000
6 4 Wall-E BV $9,813,000
7 N Space Chimps Fox $7,350,000
8 5 Wanted Uni. $5,097,000
9 6 Get Smart WB $4,085,000
10 8 Kung Fu Panda P/DW $1,750,000

There was no doubt that The Dark Knight would break all sorts of records, let alone the all time opening weekend record, formerly held by Spider-Man 3. When your first single day take (midnight showing included) is a whopping $67 million, you know that greatness is on the horizon. Will Dark Knight make $400 million, $500 million or possibly even $600 million and top Titanic as the all time top grossing film of all time? Quite possibly. How or why Titanic made so much is still being pondered by statisticians and philosophers alike. Realistically, Dark Knight's second weekend should not be nearly as large (probably about half). Although with it going up against the premieres of X-Files: I Want To Believe and Step Brothers, I can't imagine that it isn't going to be the first choice for many yet gain. I'm seeing it a second time and I've only done that once in my lifetime. The DVD cannot come out soon enough.

A major shock and a "how did that happen?!?" moment, Mama Mia! actually made money this weekend. It brought in an estimated $27 million. How did this film do so well with The Dark Knight taking in so much money and selling so many tickets? Are there really that many ABBA fans? One would be that many film goers intending on seeing The Dark Knight were forced to shed a tear and resort to seeing Mama Mia! when they came upon that 'Sold Out' sign. Needless to say, the team studying Titanic's success will be mulling this one over during lunch breaks.


Hancock did quite well in it's third week with a take of $14 million, for a grand total of $191 million so far. This is Will Smith's fourth film to open on the July 4th weekend, and they have all been blockbusters. This film is no different, even though not being so well received by movie goers and reviewers alike. Which only goes to show that even a halfway decent Will Smith film will pack them in like sardines.

Lastly, Space Chimps grabbed the 7th spot with $7 million. Studio Execs will be hoping for DVD sales to help bring some profit to this film, as it should disappear completely in the next 2-3 weeks. Expect the DVD to be out in record time, as well as a speedy journey to cable stations and premium movie channels in fire sale fashion.