05/13/10

Tops at the Box: It comes as no surprise that what will likely be the year’s biggest film, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, took the No. 1 spot at the box office this past weekend, bringing in over $133 million over it’s first three days in the U.S. Worldwide the $200 million film - starring Robert Downey, Jr., Sam Rockwell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and others - has already boxed about $328 million. Industry analysts predict that this new Clang classic will easily box over $1 billion worldwide and likely bring in another billion or so via rental and DVD sales. We can’t hate on this one. As far as big, loud, all-out summer blockbusters go, Iron Man 2 left us very entertained. Unlike, say, Avatar, you can really see where the money went with this film. The script isn’t the greatest, but everything else is pretty great (especially Rockwell and Downey), even if the pizza is a little too cheesy. 

More From the Box: The A Nightmare on Elms Street reboot, despite coming in at No. 2 this week, took a pretty big nosedive, dollar wise, going from over $30 million last weekend to only $9 million this weekend. The reviews and word-of-mouth haven’t been so great and, well, with competition like Iron Man 2 going strong, look for Elm Street to keep fizzling. Coming in at No. 3 last weekend was How To Train Your Dragon, topping the $200 million mark in the U.S. with just under $7 million last weekend. We can’t wait until this film - which is now one of the 100 biggest money makers of all-time - leaves theaters. Date Night kept thumping along at the No. 4 spot with another $5.3 million while the weekend’s No. 5 film, The Back-Up Plan, brought in $4.4 million, pushing its so-far total up to about $30 million.

Opening this Weekend: Two widely released PG films hit screens everywhere this weekend: Just Wright, a romantic comedy about a basketball player (Common, in his first leading role); and Letters to Juliet, starring Amanda Seyfriend and tailor made for the Nicolas Sparks crowd. The week’s big release, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, looks promising. Starring Russell Crowe and clocking in at about 150 minutes, this new epic might struggle in the shadow of Iron Man 2, though I suspect it’ll do just fine, especially come home video time. Four indie films will begin to test: Daddy Longlegs; Here and There (looks promising); Looking for Eric (could be great); and Princess Kaiulani. Mostly, we suspect, the box will be split between Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood, with Downey, Jr. & Co. having another huge weekend. Some interesting competition hits next weekend with Shrek Forever After and MacGruber. So … nothing too interesting. But, from now through August we can expect at least one big money movie each week - most of them garbage.

New to Home Video: Highlights from last Tuesday include “Daria: The Complete Series” (joy!!), Legion, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 reissues, Karate Kid and Karate Kid II reissues, M and High Anxiety on Blu-ray and, well, not a whole lot else worth mentioning. Definitely a lame week for shelves. This coming Tuesday, May 18, looks better, with quite a few notable flicks hitting shelves, including Invictus, Valentine’s Day, The Messenger, Extraordinary Measures, The Spy Next Door, a Criterion release of Walkabout, and the complete collection of Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days.” We recommend The Messenger and “Daria.”

ScreenTime Geeks Out!: We at ScreenTime are clearly much bigger fans of film than television, but HBO, Showtime and AMC have put up some pretty excellent efforts over the last decade, some of their programs even being produced at film-quality (unheard for television before, oh, 1999 or so). Here’s a ranked list of our favorite shows from those three networks: 10. Showtime’s “Weeds”; 9. HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords”; 8. AMC’s “Breaking Bad”; 7. AMC’s “Mad Men”; 6. HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”; 5. Showtime’s “Dexter”; 4. HBO’s “Sex and the City”; 3. HBO’s “Six Feet Under”; 2. HBO’s “The Wire”; 1. HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

Written by G. William Locke