Weekend Box Office

Why doncha take the numbers out for a little spin?

Let me take a moment to whine about how difficult it is to write about summer box office. It's predictable. Clever doesn't make any difference to this stuff, and therefore it's no fun. For example, you know what was number one? A CGI 3D sequel to a movie that was a huge hit a few years back. Cars 2, if you're still reading, and it pulled down $66 million. What about that last sentence was interesting? NOTHING. See what I'm sayin'?

Of nominal interest is the #2 entry, Bad Teacher, which managed $32 million. I had written off Cameron Diaz, frankly. Turns out I was wrong! That's a great number for a movie that doesn't have animals or machines as stars.

Speaking of machines as stars, here's the headline under the Hollywood Reporter's review of Transformers: Dark Of the Moon which opens today.

Michael Bay delivers a techno spectacle that is spectacularly empty.

For this news I pay $200 a year?

Weekend Box Office

All I can say is, I need another Jim Carey movie like I need a movie about penguins.

Oh, look at them numbers, there at #3 is Mr. Popper's Penguins, garnering only $18 million. Might not be bad for the studio, depending on what they paid Carey. The penguins, of course, work for virtual herring.

At #1, the similarly disappointing Green Lantern. It only made $53 million, which is not enough for a Marvel Superhero movie. So that's one thing that damn ring can't do.

Weekend Box Office

Number one movie has a number in it, as you learn when you look at the numbers.

Understand that Super 8 is not a sequel to Paul Anderson's Hard Eight. No, it's a JJ Abrams-directed homage to Spielberg, produced by the homagee, and it came in at #1 with $35 million. Only other new movie is Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, a title clearly meant to appeal to the underage set. If only they'd gone 3D CGI they'd have pulled down more than 7th place and $6 million! Some executive is going to have a very bummer summer indeed.

Weekend Box Office

Sometimes in algebra, they use an X as a substitute for numbers.

Number one movie last week, X-Men: First Class. $55 million.

A record-breaking May, I hear! Money, not attendance. Kudos to the people who raised ticket prices at the right time!

Weekend Box Office

Memorial Day - remember our fallen numbers.

Stupid intro aside, the numbers are anything but fallen. The holiday weekend was good to Warner Brothers, Paramount/Dreamworks and Buena Vista. At #1 was The Hangover Part II, which some are calling Bridesmaids for men! Anyway, it made $86 million. Then at #2 another sequel, Kung Fu Panda II. The 3D CGI extravaganza kicked up $48 million.

That Pirates of the Caribbean movie brought in $40 million for it's 2nd weekend, which tallies up to $153 million. Way to generate easy money boys!

Weekend Box Office

There be numbers here!

You might think that all interest in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise had been drained away during the lackluster final chapter.  Somewhere in those 5 hours of Part 3, you had probably said "enough already with the pirates" and vowed to never come back. You broke that vow this weekend.

On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the trilogy, came in at #1 with $90 million dollars.

Also notable under an onslaught like that, Bridesmaids had a pretty good second week, dropping only 20% to $20 million. Doesn't seem like much in comparison, but remember that Kristin Wiig doesn't cost as much as Johnny Depp. Everything else in the top ten sank like a frigate in the thrall of a Kraken.

American Politics Isn't So Bad

"Vice speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Adam Martynyuk, on the right, throttles deputy Oleg Lyashko during a session in the chamber of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on Wednesday, May 18, 2011. According to reports, Lyashko had just asked Martynyuk to let him make a speech, which Martinyuk refused to do on procedural grounds. Lyashko then apparently called his interlocutor a Pharisee, at which point it was on."


- h/t bOING bOING