03/11/10

Tops at the Box: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland took the No. 1 spot again last weekend, bringing in another $62 million, bringing its nine day total to about $209 million in the US and about $430 million worldwide. Wow! When I read last year that Buena Vista gave the film a $200 million production budget, I thought for sure they’d regret it. Looks like ScreenTime was wrong. In a major way. Burton’s Alice has already achieved blockbuster numbers in less than two weeks, with industry analysts predicting that the film will net well over the $1 billion dollar mark when all is said and done (also considering foreign tickets and future rentals and DVD sales). Way to go, Burton and Co. 

More from the Box: Hahaha!!! Looks like there aren’t as many “Robsessed” gals out there as Summit Entertainment thought. Remember Me (last weekend’s No. 4 film), the ridiculous-looking new drama staring Twilight vampstud Robert “King of Cryface” Pattinson only brought in $8.3 million over its first weekend. In most cases that would be a decent opening for a film with a $16 million shooting budget, but the rumor is that the studio put over $30 million into promoting the film. Director Paul Greengrass’ new $100 million souped-up action blast, Green Zone (last weekend’s No. 2 film), also failed to meet studio expectations, bringing in $18 million on its opening weekend. Greengrass’ films are impressively constructed, but also about as soulless as they come, so, no, ScreenTime isn’t too upset. Last weekend’s No. 3 film, rom-com She’s Out of My League, did about what it was expected to do, pulling just under $10 million over its first three days. Look for League to do well on DVD with the Apatow crowd.

Out this Week: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Repo Men and The Bounty Hunter will all hit screens everywhere this coming week. Cinema’s lamest season continues. Bounty is a romantic action/comedy hybrid starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston as exes running from something and probably falling in love again. Repo Men, a possibly interesting pseudo-sci-fi film about men who repossess artificial human organs, might be worthwhile while Diary of a Wimpy Kid might struggle in the long shadow of Alice. The Runaways, surely one of the lamest rock flicks ever made, will begin testing, as will one of ScreenTime’s most anticipated films of 2010, writer/director Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg. More on Greenberg soon; we highly suggest checking out the very funny trailer now online.

Don’t Hate Me: I went to the dollar theater last week. You know the one – the theater where they don’t know how to frame the picture but only charge you $3. That one. Coventry 13. I went to see a movie I wouldn’t normally see – The Blind Side – because all the nicest people I know told me to give it a chance. For starters, the film stars actor Quinton Aaron, who, at 6’8”, takes up most of the frame when he’s on screen. This is not a good thing when you’re at a theater where they don’t even attempt to frame the picture properly. Needless to say, we only saw Aaron’s head about 50 percent of the time and almost no one else had a forehead. Pretty lame. (Plea to Coventry 13 manager: please consider giving more attention to the framing of your pictures, you have a great thing going otherwise.) As for the film … well … I’ve nothing good to say about it. Fact: it stars Tim McGraw and Sandra Bullock. All rumors I’d heard of it being “shameless poverty tourism for suburbanites” were true. And I could go on about the deep-seeded evils of this sort of "feel good" film (not to mention the beyond-awful production), but I don’t consider it a serious work, so why bother? I suppose the Best Picture nomination and hurtful Best Actor award for Bullock demands a rant or eight from an opinionated guy like me, but anything I could say almost feels too obvious. My one word review? Bullocks (def: American version of “bollocks”). Sorry, nicest friends I know, this is my job. I will say this: it’s maybe the least deserving Best Picture nominee I’ve seen since Babe was nominated in 1995. The next day I woke up and wrote the words “Nevermind the Bullock, here’s …” on a post-it note, then sticking it to a stack of anti-suburbanite DVDs (Mike Leigh’s Naked, Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road and Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop). I did this as a hopeful apology to my girlfriend, who I made to go The Blind Side with me. (And damn, she was quite angry with me.)

New to Home Video: A huge week for DVD shelves, so, rather than carrying on, we’re just going to list what came out on March 16. Twilight: New Moon, The Princess and the Frog, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, season eight of “Monk,” season 13 of “South Park,” Ninja Assasin, season two of “Breaking Bad,” Astro Boy, Armored, The Fourth Kind, Paris, Under Great White Northern Lights, season one of “Wish Me Luck” and, most importantly, Almodovar’s latest masterpiece, Broken Embraces. Who can keep up?!

Written by G. William Locke