To Infinity and the Top of the Box Office!

Toy Story 3 topped the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $109. That's an opening record for Pixar! We have to keep the 3D factor in mind though. Higher ticket prices for 3D give movies a (deceiving) boost at the box office. I wonder what the gross is adjusted for the 3D ticket price and how it holds up against Pixar's other flicks.

I haven't seen Toy Story 3 yet. *cries*

Bradley Cooper for the Win!

Haven't been around much. Whoops! I haven't posted about Bradley Cooper in about 3 weeks. What is wrong with me?! Anyhow, that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about posting about him. I mean, The Hangover topped the box office this weekend, which is AMAZING! At first, when the estimates were released, I was bummed. Bummed as in 'Damn you Up!'. But then I saw the actuals on Monday and well, that was just the best part of my day. Which actually says more about my crappy day, but hey. Nearly $45 million for an R-rated comedy. That is serious business kids. Plus, the movie has good reviews. The movie is even fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (77%). Good word of mouth will make sure this movie has legs and make it one of the most profitable films of the summer! It's $35 million production budget has already been earned back in one weekend!

I will finally check the movie out this upcoming Tuesday. Can't wait!

Also, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed Coop is in talks to play Faceman in The A-Team. Good lord, Fox, cast him already!

Box Office Buzz: Racer loses Speed...

It's only the second week of the Big Summer Movies and already it disappoints. While Iron Man holds strong at the top spot with another $50m, it's kid-friendly Speed Racer that's tanking. Not a big surprise though as the reviews were not kind and, IMHO, the whole thing just looks.. ehhh. About five months ago, I put this flick on my must-see list for 2008, but the more I actually saw of it, the more interest I lost. And I'm someone who has much love for Emile Hirsch and will watch him read the phonebook! Speed Racer opened in the second spot with only $20.2m. Considering it's a film by the Wachowski Brothers, I doubt it has a small budget. I think we can safely say that Warner Bros. won't be racing to greenlight a sequel.

Cameron D. and Ashton K. fared better with What Happens in Vegas. Their comedy grossed $20m, which is pretty average (and sometimes even good) for what romcoms are making these days. Patrick Dempsey's Made of Honor is doing pretty decent too. It opened last week with $14.7m and has now grossed about $26.3m total domestically. I've seen a lot of Vegas promotion and barely any for Made, so really, it's not doing bad at all. Maybe a March release would've been better, but hey, what do I know?

Next week sees the release of Prince Caspian. I have no faith at all in the summer of 2008.

The numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1) Iron Man - $50.5m/$177.1m
2) Speed Racer - $20.2m/$20.2m
3) What Happens in Vegas - $20m/$20m
4) Made of Honor - $7.6m/$26.3m
5) Baby Mama - $5.8m/$40.4m
6) Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $3.8m/$50.8m
7) Harold & Kumar 2 - $3.2m/$30.7m
8) The Forbidden Kingdom - $1.9m/$48.7m
9) Nim's Island - $1.3m/$44.3m
10) Redbelt - $1.1m/$1.2m

Box Office Buzz: Cloverfield & 27 Dresses liven up January

Who says January is a slow month? I think it's only slow if studios etc. make it a slow month by releasing crap. Let me applaud J.J. Abrams for releasing a potentially big monster movie called Cloverfield in January! And lookie.. it grossed $40 million in its opening weekend! See, if you release quality, the people will come. The movie looks great, I loved the initial marketing, Mike Vogel is awesome and I cannot wait to see this opening day here in The Netherlands.

But what I'm really happy about is 27 Dresses opening in the second spot with a pretty damn great $22 million. Yes, Katherine Heigl is able to open a movie! I knew she could do it! I know people wanted her to fail after what she said about Knocked Up in her recent Vanity Fair interview, and that she should be thankful to Judd Apatow. I defended her here, and like I said in that post, Katherine Heigl is a star. People will go see a movie for her. And it helps that Prince Charming himself James Marsden co-stars of course! Considering 27 Dresses cost only about $30 million to make, it's a hit for Fox already!

The other big release, Mad Money, did not do as well as Cloverfield and 27 Dresses, but that was to be expected as it stars Katie Holmes. Need I say more? Though the $7.6 million it grossed in its opening weekend is already more than I had anticipated. Ellen Page's Juno is heading towards the $100 mark, while those cute Chipmunks are heading for the $200 million! I will never doubt your movie making decisions again, Jason Lee. I take back everything bad I've said about making a Chipmunks movie. I Am Legend is heading towards the $250 million mark.. people sure love Will Smith!

The weekend numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1) Cloverfield - $40,037,000/$40,037,000
2) 27 Dresses - $22,750,000/$22,750,000
3) The Bucket List - $14,010,000/$41,569,000
4) Juno - $9,925,000/$85,052,000
5) First Sunday - $7,800,000/$28,466,000
6) National Treasure: Book of Secrets - $7,609,000/$197,492,000
7) Mad Money - $7,600,000/$7,600,000
8) Alvin and the Chipmunks - $6,900,000/$196,280,000
9) I Am Legend - $4,870,000/$247,447,000
10) Atonement - $4,759,000/$31,884,000