In Contention

Tag: Earth

  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Terminator’ frustration

    Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianHollywood tried something it rarely does this Memorial Day weekend: it opened two huge sequels at the same time. The last time anything remotely similar happened was the same holiday weekend in 2005 with “The Longest Yard” and “Madagascar.” They were really just fighting for second place, though, as the second weekend of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” was a safe bet for number one.

    This year’s Memorial Day champ is Ben Stiller with “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” The family comedy earned $53.5 million for the weekend and will have another solid day of business during the holiday tomorrow. That’s better than the $33.4 million debut of the original but that film opened during Christmas and had outstanding legs through early 2007. Its total gross of $266 million is completely out of the question for the sequel now.

    The debut is pretty much exactly the same as the second place debut of “Madagascar” from the aforementioned 2005 time frame and that film wasn’t even a sequel. With no other family films in the market, this has to be considered a little soft for Fox.

    Second place goes to “Terminator Salvation” with $43 million for the weekend and $56.4 million since opening on Thursday. Again, Warner Bros. has to see this as a little soft as after four days in 2003, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” was already at $70.4 million. Terrible reviews, as well as competition from “Star Trek,” helped seal McG’s fate and I can’t see word of mouth getting this anywhere higher than $135 million. International grosses will decide whether his planned trilogy comes to fruition or not.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Obsessed’ impressed

    ObsessedAmerica liked it and they put a ring on it.

    Beyonce’s new thriller “Obsessed” topped the domestic box office this weekend with $28.5 million, adding another impressive performance to the budding actress’s career. Impressive box office performance that is.

    Whether or not Beyonce truly and gracefully inhabits the character of a woman forced to kick ass when some other crazy bitch starts stalking her man, I can’t be certain. This should easily make $70 million+ from a $20 million budget so all involved have just gotten a nice bonus.

    Despite gunning for the same target audience, Universal’s “Fighting” also performed admirably and earned $11.4 million for third place. You can’t accuse them of not being straight to the point and enough males or teens must have thought that a movie called “Fighting” had to be bad ass and worth their $10. Channing Tatum’s career lives to fight another day.

    Actual star power enters the fray at number four with “The Soloist.” Joe Wright’s once-Oscar hopeful earned $9.7 million, which is okay but not enough to justify moving out of the 2008 season. Even though audience reaction is bound to be positive, I just don’t see the legs being great here and a sub-$30 million finish won’t have anybody remembering these folks when ballots are due next year.

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  • ‘Baraka’ time

    The occasion of Disneynature’s “Earth” release today should be met with screenings of Rob Fricke’s “Baraka” across the globe, for those uneducated and educated on the film alike.  Go out, buy/rent a Blu-ray, find the best 46″-plus screen you can and bask in its warm rays.  I think this exercise preferable to re-watching, say, Luc Jacquet’s “March of the Penguins” or even the BBC’s landmark “Planet Earth” documentary, to which “Earth” has been compared in recent weeks.  Of course, “Baraka” takes a different route than those largely Mother Nature-centered projects, but I think it does the best job of depicting a humanity in tune with its environment, and at this stage in the game, I think that’s the most applicable course of study.

    Here are the first nine minutes or so, just to whet the appetite.  I saw this thing projected on 70mm once.  Gorgeous.

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Zac attack

    17 AgainFor the second weekend in a row, a product of the Disney Channel has headlined the top film at the box office. This week it’s Zac Efron in the Warner Bros. comedy “17 Again.” Sure, this plot has been done before multiple times (three in 1988 alone), but not with that distinct new millennium flavor. What’s that? “13 Going on 30?” Okay, so no movie this millennium has done it with a boy as the lead.

    And that’s why this film needed to be made. Conceptual gripes aside, I actually like Zac Efron and if the trailers are any indication, his timing and charm are the only things this film have going for it. A $24.1 million opening weekend is virtually identical to the aforementioned Jennifer Garner vehicle, which helped her establish an identity outside of “Alias.” Her next film was “Electra” so hopefully Efron is paying attention.

    “State of Play” investigates second place with $14.1 million and a handful of decent reviews. In previous years this kind of film would have done better (Affleck’s 2002 April thriller “Changing Lanes” debuted with $21.2 million), but in 2009, Universal will take that result. Direct competition comes from “The Soloist” next week but the word of mouth among adults should be strong enough that this sticks around until Memorial Day.

    After the demanding “Master and Commander” shoot, Russell Crowe said he wasn’t interested in doing movies where he was in every shot any more and that explains his last four films pitting him against an equally famous co-star. With the exception of “American Gangster,” all of them have debuted with $13-$14 million.

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