Frame By Frame

Someone recently said they thought R-rated comedies do better at the box office than those with a PG or a PG-13 rating. At the time the thought made me scratch my head and wonder if that were truly the case. So, I headed on over to the Box Office Mojo site and decided to check the numbers myself. A quick scan of the numbers quickly proves the point wrong. As a matter of fact, that’s simply not the case.

The weekend box off numbers for this year alone reveal a very different story. The Weekend Box Office list for 2008 has just two true comedy genre type movies hitting the number one spot. Semi-Pro, a R-rated offering from Will Ferrell, and the PG-13 movie Meet the Spartans are the only two so-called comedies to hit the number one spot. Then, even though those two movies did hit the number one spot, they quickly fell when people discovered they were nothing more than rude and crude and a waste of time. Semi Pro fell so quickly that many say it was a studio/Will Ferrell failure.

So, what’s really going on here?

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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
3 Lloyds - Family-Friendly for the Rating of PG-13

This week’s new film releases couldn’t wait until Friday to challenge The Dark Knight’s record-breaking run at the box office. By the way, the numbers continue to climb for the Caped Crusader. As of Monday, the Batman Begins sequel had taken in $400.04 million dollars in domestic sales in just 18 days. That number put it past the previous record holder, Shrek 2, which broke the $400 million dollar mark on the 43rd day of its release. The Dark Knight is now ranked eighth on the list of all-time box office hits. But, given the numbers, it will surely move into the seventh spot soon. When it does, it will become Hollywood’s top-grossing comic book hero movie when it passes the $403.7 million dollar mark earned by the original Spider-Man.

With big numbers like that, just what does Warner Bros. Studios plan to do for a follow up? The answer — Another sequel which opens on the big screen today.

This time around it’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. America Ferrera, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn all return for this follow-up to the 2005 movie based on the young adult novels. The four friends have completed their freshman year of college and have separate plans for the summer. Once again they discover the pants that are supposed to bring them closer together, may actually push them further apart from one another.

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The Dark Knight remains the protector of the number one spot for the weekend box office. The latest Batman flick now has a domestic gross of $349.9 million dollars with a weekend box office take of $43.8 million. If you’re keeping track, this also means The Dark Knight now stands as the eighth highest-grossing movie of all time. At this rate, if the Caped Crusader continues to perform this strong, The Dark Knight could overtake Star Wars to become the second highest grossing film in history behind Titanic. Star Wars earned $461 million dollars while Titanic pulled in $600.8 million dollars.

Aside from The Dark Knight what else took place at the box office this weekend. Actually, when looking at the numbers millionaire Bruce Wayne almost lost the top spot to a Mummy. The third installment of this series starring Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell came close to bumping Batman from number one. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor came to life in the number two spot with $42.5 million dollars. A distant third is Will Ferrell’s latest embarrassment of rude and crude, Step Brothers. Rounding out the top five, Mamma Mia and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

In the area of surprises, the animated trash-compactor kids movie WALL-E is at number eight while another G rated flick, Space Chimps remains in the top 10, at the number 10 spot. I’m not saying I’m surprised because these are bad movies. I’m actually surprised because they’re kid movies holding in the top ten at the box office. Hopefully Hollywood is taking note of this fact.

As for true surprises when it comes to the top ten at the box office, I am very surprised that Kevin Costner’s latest flick, which opened over the weekend, premiered at only the number six spot. Swing Vote only managed to pull in $6.3 million dollars. But then again, this is one of those movies that the filmmakers decided to bury. Maybe next time the studio will realize they needed to do more screenings of the movie for reviewers. As a reviewer I get pretty frustrated when studios refuse to do screenings for the critics. It used to be they didn’t do screenings because they figured the name alone of a star would pull in big numbers. But, time and time again, especially in the economic times we’re living in now, such is not the case. People simply are not willing to take a risk on a movie unless they hear some buzz about the movie first.

So, come on movie studios, lets get back on track and start screening movies for the critics again.

Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus

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Say it isn’t so! I can’t believe Bob Barker would have stood for this.

My all time favorite Price is Right game is Plinko. I love watching that big Plinko chip bounce down the board wondering where it will land. Of course the excitement builds with both the contestant and the audience wondering if the chip will hit the big money. Now it turns out the game can be fixed. That’s right, the Price is Right game Plinko can be rigged so it will drop the chip into a dollar spot the producers want it to land in. A recent report revealed that the shows famous game was intentionally set to direct chips into the $10,000 slot for a shooting last week of the Price is Right video game. The problem was, no one reset the game when taping for a new episode got underway.

As a result, one female contestant suddenly found herself greeted with a very lucky day.

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