Category Archives: box office
Recap: 16 November 2008
So, during NaNoWriMo, I’ll often get to a point in my writing where I’m struggling a bit but I’m still slogging onward, writing mostly crap, but at least still writing. And then, on occasion, it’s as if one of my characters finds a way to say something to another character when in reality they’re talking to me. Such a thing happened today.
I was writing a scene between one of the main characters, Emmaline, and her best friend, Vanessa. Vanessa’s trying to figure out what the hell’s going on, and Emmaline is hedging. After going back and forth for several minutes, Emmaline says to Vanessa, “You don’t understand.” To which Vanessa responds: “Then enlighten me! For fuck’s sake, Emmaline. You’re talking in circles.” To which I responded, “Oh. Right. Sorry about that.”
And then I decided perhaps I should step away from the computer and let my brain rest for a while. Which I did. It’s a little disheartening when your characters start ribbing you about your writing, but since I’ve written more than 43,000 words in the past 15 days, I suppose I should cut myself a little slack. As soon as I finish this blog post, I’m going to get to the writing again, and hopefully my crap:salvageable ratio will improve slightly.
In the meantime, here’s What I Watched:
- Manhattan (2½ stars): I have trouble enjoying movies when there are no likable characters and/or there are no true character arcs. When every character starts and ends in the same place, I feel as if I’ve wasted two hours. Such was the case with this movie. The acting was fine, and the dialog was amusing. The whole thing was very Seinfeld-esque, really, but it was more like the series finale than, say, The Puffy Shirt or The Soup Nazi. This is apparently Woody Allen’s least favorite (but most commercially successful) of his films, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy his other works more.
- The Red Balloon (3 stars): This is the only short film ever to have won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It’s a sweet film about a boy who strikes up a friendship with a red balloon, who follows him around Paris. I wasn’t blown away, but there are certainly worse ways to spend 35 minutes of your time.
- Bridget Jones’s Diary (3½ stars): I imagine it’d be rather hard to go wrong with both Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, and luckily Bridget Jones’s Diary doesn’t prove that theory wrong. This is standard-issue rom-com fair, but it’s better than average thanks to the cast.
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (3½ stars): A fairly faithful if superficial adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel. It glosses over the darker themes and avoids perhaps the most disturbing ones altogether, but that’s not surprising for a film made in 1945. While I enjoyed this version, it mostly just made me excited for the potential of the version coming out next year, as it looks to be tackling the glossed-over issues head on judging by the newly released promo posters.
Box Office Predictions: 07 November 2008
New wide releases this week include animated sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa; Soul Men, a comedy starring the late Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson; and Role Models, another comedy starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott.
Kind of a boring weekend. America wants silly escapism, though, so Madagascar‘s expecting a pretty big opening. Admittedly, I found the first one to be surprisingly fun. The voice cast is returning, which bodes well.
Official Predictions
1. Madagascar
2. Soul Men
3. High School Musical 3
Recap: 3 November 2008
As predicted, HSM3, Zack & Miri, and Saw V took the Top 3 spots. Here’s your Top 10.
- High School Musical 3: Senior Year ($15 million)
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno ($10.7 million)
- Saw V ($10.1 million)
- Changeling ($9.4 million)
- The Haunting of Molly Harvey ($6 million)
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($4.7 million)
- The Secret Life of Bees ($4 million)
- Max Payne ($3.7 million)
- Eagle Eye ($3.4 million)
- Pride and Glory ($3.3 million)
Everything Else
My movie-watching this past week was pretty dismal. The first half of my week was spent in a mad race to finish my script before sending it off to the BFSC. I managed to watch about half of Creepshow on Thursday before I got caught up in Thursday night television.
Friday I met up with a good friend to discuss The Picture of Dorian Gray
Sunday was a pretty crazy day, and thank God for the extra hour of sleep. I got up and pushed to the 10 percent completion mark on the novel, and then I went to coach our last little kids’ soccer game of the season. After that, I went straight to the Sunday write-in at which I ended up being the ONLY attendee. So, here’s my plea: If you ask me to specifically schedule a write-in at a time and place you specifically request, PLEASE show up. I’ve got plenty of NaNo spirit, believe me. But I don’t generally drag all my write-in crap, including a huge poster board declaring the writing goals and progress of my fellow WriMos, if I’m just going to be writing alone.
The upside is that I did manage to break 10,000 words at my solitary write-in. So, I went home and worked out (because an overworked brain sadly does not burn many calories), and then as a reward I settled down with some dinner, some leftover Halloween candy, and a nice big glass of wine to watch Love Actually. Which by the way has officially become my second-favorite Christmas movie after the untouchable The Muppet Christmas Carol.
This morning I’m feeling a little melancholy for the following reasons:
- I miss screenwriting. I’ve fallen in love with the medium over the past year, and I’m bummed that I won’t get back to it until December at the earliest.
- I don’t have a large chunk of hours I can allot to writing today because I’ve got my day job and then freelance editing job this afternoon/evening.
- My spine feels like it’s melting into my back, which is not pleasant. I’ve also been fighting a nasty headache-causing knot in my neck/shoulder for several days.
So, if anyone would like to contribute a little metta, prayers, or back/shoulder rubs to my cause, I’d much appreciate it. I think I just need to get into a groove, and then I’ll probably be OK. And if not, Dec. 1 is only 27 days away!
Box Office Predictions: 31 October 2008
This week we’ve got a several new or expanded releases: Clint Eastwood’s drama Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie; obligatory horror movie The Haunting of Molly Hartley; Guy Ritchie’s latest, action/heist/comedy/I’m-not-really-sure-what-genre-based-on-descriptions RocknRolla; and sex comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno with Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks.
The two big rollovers from last week are, of course, High School Musical 3 and Saw V, and it’s likely these will both do well again.
It’s likely Jigsaw’s latest escapade will do well on Friday, it being Halloween and all, but HSM3‘s got a larger target audience and multiple-viewings power. The dark horse here is Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which has gotten plenty of publicity based on the name alone.
Bit of a tough week, but here goes:
Official Predictions
1. High School Musical 3
2. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
3. Saw V
(Dressed as a Chipotle burrito. Barbacoa specifically.)
(Yes, I’m one of those dog owners. No, Lilo does not like being dressed up. Happily for her, she’ll be spared the horror this year.)Happy Halloween, everyone!
Recap: 26 October 2008
I was on a business trip/quasi-vacation last week, which explains the lack of posts. Sorry about that. With NaNoWriMo starting Saturday, a couple of things could happen. I’ll either be posting more since blogging is at least a semi-productive form of procrastination. Or I’ll be posting less because I’m shooting for 75,000 words this year and will be bleeding from my fingertips due to my output. Anyway, back to business for now.
This Week’s Top 10
- High School Musical 3 ($42 million)
- Saw V ($30.5 million)
- Max Payne ($7.6 million)
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($6.9 million)
- Pride and Glory ($6.3 million)
- The Secret Life of Bees ($5.9 million)
- W. ($5.3 million)
- Eagle Eye ($5.1 million)
- Body of Lies ($4.1 million)
- Quarantine ($2.6 million)
What I Watched
- The Duchess (4 stars): I’d expected this movie to be a bit drab, to be honest, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Period pieces are a guilty pleasure of mine, so I would have enjoyed it anyway, but it moved along quite nicely. Keira Knightley lives up to the hype and gives her best performance to date.
- High School Musical 3 (3½ stars): I dragged my sisters to the midnight showing, which is really rather embarrassing considering I’m 25 and they’re 19 and 17 respectively. Once we survived the hormone-drenched mob getting into the theatre, I had a really fun time. The story’s cheesy and predictable and admittedly a rehash of the same themes from the first two outings, but the music is solid and the choreography is wonderful.
- Sunset Boulevard (4 stars): See full review here.
- Starter for Ten (3 stars): Starring James McAvoy, this is a British romantic comedy/dramedy set in 1985 (and released in 2006). It’s not spectacular, but it has some fun moments. If you’re a fan of the genre or James McAvoy, it’s worth adding to your Netflix queue.
- Lost in Translation (3½ stars): See full review here.
What I Read
I finished Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors
I also devoured Neil Gaiman’s newest novel, The Graveyard Book
I picked up a new book, Eat, Pray, Love
What I’m Writing
I’m working feverishly to finish MUTE before the end of the week for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there’s a contest I’m planning to enter, and the deadline is in mid-November, but I have to ship a hard copy overseas. Secondly, Saturday is, of course, Nov. 1, which means I’ll be starting my NaNoWriMo novel as soon as the clock strikes midnight.
I’ve been looking forward to starting this novel for what seems like months, which is always a dangerous feeling for NaNo, which has a tendency to produce feelings of despair and self-loathing in even the most steel-hearted writers. Luckily, I’ll have thousands of other WriMos with whom to wallow.
I’ve also been writing a bit of short fiction here and there, most of which I’ve posted on this blog. I spent most of one of the conference days working on a short story that’s a long way from being complete, but I might find a few spare moments to work through it even in the midst of the avalanche of words I’ll be writing in November. The genre kind of fascinates me at the moment, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep churning these little story flashes out on a regular basis.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Guess that’s what happens when I’m away for two weeks.
Recap: 12 October 2008
Sorry for the lack of predictions Friday. I would have lost miserably anyway.
This Week’s Top 10
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($17.5 million)
- Quarantine ($14.2 million)
- Body of Lies ($13.1 million)
- Eagle Eye ($11 million)
- Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist ($6.5 million)
- The Express ($4.7 million)
- Nights in Rodanthe ($4.6 million)
- Appaloosa ($3.34 million)
- The Duchess ($3.32 million)
- City of Ember ($3.2 million)
What I Watched
- Dead Poets Society (5 stars): See full review here.
- Caffeine (3 stars): This relationship comedy set in a London coffee shop almost plays as an amalgam of short films instead of a cohesive feature-length movie. In a good way. Most of the time. Once I got over the less-than-stellar British accents the Americans were trying to put on, I was decently amused.
- Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (4 stars): People proclaiming this is a Juno wannabe are sorely mistaken. They’re two completely different films, and if Juno is known for snappy, snarky dialog, Nick & Norah’s dialog at times feels almost too natural and too awkward for it to be a movie. This movie left me feeling pretty restless with my own life. And any movie that can affect me for hours afterwards has done something right.
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (3½ stars): See full review here.
- Igby Goes Down (3½ stars): I hesitate to call this a dark comedy because it’s not particularly comedic in the traditional sense. Then again, it’s not overly dramatic either. And yet it doesn’t really fit the mold for what I would normally call a dramedy. So… let’s just call it a dark, sometimes comedic film with stellar performances from a cast including Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum.
Recap: 5 October 2008
This is becoming something of a trend: I pegged the top 3, but not in the right order.
This Week’s Top 10
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($29 million)
- Eagle Eye ($17.7 million)
- Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist ($12 million)
- Nights in Rodanthe ($7.4 million)
- Appaloosa ($5 million)
- Lakeview Terrace ($4.5 million)
- Burn After Reading ($4.08 million)
- Fireproof ($4.07 million)
- An American Carol ($3.8 million)
- Religulous ($3.5 million)
What I Watched
- What a Girl Wants (2 stars): My sister convinced me to watch this because of Colin Firth. And, sad to say, that’s probably the only reason to watch this. Granted, without the silly B-story love interest, I think this movie might have been perfectly respectable. Well, maybe that’s going a bit far, but you get my drift. As it is, save yourself some time and just watch this.
- Final Draft (2 stars): I did learn a very important lesson from this movie. Cutting yourself off from the outside world by locking yourself in an apartment to finish a screenplay is a very bad idea.
- Woman of the Year (3 stars): See the full review here.
- Son of Rambow (3½ stars): I was highly amused by the reasons behind the PG-13 rating for this film: “violence and reckless behavior.” This is a story about unlikely friendship and love of movies, so I, of course, loved it. The two leads were wonderful, and the story (if a little uneven at times) is funny, sweet and emotionally authentic.
- The Full Monty (4 stars): The story of down-and-out steel workers who convince themselves that performing in a strip show would be a good idea. As you can imagine, chaos ensues. It’s hilarious and touching, and it walks the line between feel-good and schmaltz better than I’ve seen in a while. I’ll also note that, despite the plot, the movie is monty-free, though butts do abound from time to time.
In Other News
I finished Voyage of the Dawn Treader
I’ve since moved on to Neil Gaiman’s collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors
Last but not least, it’s nearly time for National Novel Writing Month! Get thee to the Web site and sign up! If you have no idea what NaNoWriMo is, check out Matt’s post about it. He sums it up quite nicely. And, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. This will be my fourth year participating, so I’m a bit of a veteran as far as NaNo goes.
Edit: Matt says this post is better, but I say you should check out both. There’s no such thing as too much when it comes to NaNo-related motivation.
Box Office Predictions: 3 October 2008
We have a slew of wide releases this weekend: family flick Beverly Hills Chihuahua, smart teen comedy Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, conservative comedy An American Carol, drama Blindness, and biopic Flash of Genius.
As much as it pains me to say it, it looks like Beverly Hills Chihuahua has the best shot at taking No. 1. The box office has been lacking in family films lately, and this one’s opening in more than 3,000 theatres. It’s movies like this that make me embarrassed to admit I own two chihuahuas, albeit long-haired and very anti-purse ones.
After that, it’s between Nick & Norah and last week’s winner, Eagle Eye. We’ve had at least a couple of weeks with thrillers at the head of the pack, so I’m banking that the theatre-going crowd will be in the mood for lighter fare this weekend.
Official Predictions
1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua
2. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
3. Eagle Eye
Recap: 28 September 2008
My suspicion that Eagle Eye would take the audience away from Lakeview Terrace turned out to be unfounded. The big surprise this weekend was Christian drama Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, which has already made 13 times its budget. I think we can chalk this one up to a pretty brilliant marketing strategy.
This week’s Top 10
- Eagle Eye ($29.2 million)
- Nights in Rodanthe ($13.6 million)
- Lakeview Terrace ($7 million)
- Fireproof ($6.5 million)
- Burn After Reading ($6.2 million)
- Igor ($5.5 million)
- Righteous Kill ($3.803 million)
- My Best Friend’s Girl ($3.8 million)
- Miracle at St. Anna ($3.5 million)
- Tyler Perry’s the Family That Preys ($3.2 million)
What I Watched
- The Great McGinty (3 stars): See full review here.
- Cinema Paradiso (3 stars): Netflix sent me the 170-minute director’s cut of this 1988 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language film, and I think this is the exception to the rule that director’s cuts are better than theatrical releases. Having not seen the theatrical, I obviously can’t compare, but this movie seemed to go on forever. That being said, it was a sweet story, well-acted and all that jazz, but I was expecting more.
- Eagle Eye (2 ½ stars): I always have trouble rating movies that are obviously not very good but during which I still had a good time. This movie falls into that category. There are huge plot holes, and the script could have used more humor, but I was still entertained. Shia LaBoeuf was better than I expected; I’d anticipated feeling like he was miscast, but he pulled off the character well enough. Still, I miss the days of Louis Stevens when he got to showcase his talent for comedy.
- Then She Found Me (3 ½ stars): Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, this movie explores a woman’s life as she deals with divorce, meeting her birth mother, a new relationship, and her desire to get pregnant at age 39. The cast as a whole is equal parts funny and touching, but Colin Firth is, as usual, rather brilliant. Bette Midler also shines as Helen Hunt’s birth mother. The story suffers a little because of its insistence on tackling so many issues, but all in all it’s a solid little movie that deserved better distribution than it got.
- Citizen Kane (3 ½ stars): See full review here.
Box Office Predictions: 26 September 2008
Opening today, we have thriller Eagle Eye, Spike Lee’s war drama Miracle at St. Anna, and sapfest Nights in Rodanthe.
Eagle Eye should have no problem taking the top spot. Miracle at St. Anna is only playing in 1,100 theatres, so it’s doubtful it’ll break the Top 3.
Official Predictions
1. Eagle Eye
2. Nights in Rodanthe
3. Burn After Reading
