Weekend Box Office #148
The summer is just drifting by. I saw JULIE & JULIA -- and liked it -- but otherwise I haven't seen much of anything.
This weekend's new wide offerings:
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (3165 theaters). Apparently it's too long and slow, but has its moments, sort of like the script. It'll probably do okay, though the 2 1/2 hour running time will hurt the box office a bit. Prediction: $19.5 million for the weekend.
SHORTS (3105 theaters). They are trying to sell this as a film for kids and adults, but apparently it skews pretty young, despite the presence of Jon Cryer and James Spader. Call it $22.4 million, just for the kid factor.
POST GRAD (1958 theaters). I haven't seen any commercials for this, though the LA Times review was pretty dour. $2.6 million.
X-GAMES THE MOVIE (1399 theaters). A limited one-week run, but are there really a huge amount of X-Games fans ready to pony to see this in a theater? $5.2 million.
******
Last weekend, DISTRICT 9 made a very solid $37.4 million, and should hold well. THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE did an okay $18.6 million.
THE GOODS did only $5.6 million, while PONYO did $3.6 million, and BANDSLAM stumbled in with $2.2 million; wow did they sell this movie badly.
posted by Scott the Reader @ 10:06 AM
8 Comments:
Basterds is mostly getting good to great reviews. At least according to rotten tomatoes. Almost at 90%.
As for the knock that it's too long...I like what Ebert says. "No good movie is too long. No bad movie is too short. "
People shouldn't blame the movie for their short attention spans. I have ADD to the extreme, and I can sit through any length of movie if it's good.
Well, I've read reviews saying it was too long -- so if it feels long to critics, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Plus it's one less showtime a day.
Can't wait to see "District 9," otherwise this week's offernings look uninspired.
Quintin Tarantino always makes "different" movies, BUT as of late I wouldn't put the moniker "good" in front of that. I like the fact he tries diffrent things and is a bit unpredictable, but his offerings of late are a far cry from "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction." Basically I think this guy is living on his past reputation. MAYBE his latest movie will reverse that trend, but watching Brad Pitt lead a team against the Nazi's just doesn't grab me as a show I wanna see. Could be a lingering disappointment factor from that "Gindhouse" fiasco Tarantino laid on us last year.
The length will definitely hurt the box office, but not necessarily the quality of the film.
EC
Personally, I think Dogs is his overrated film. I prefer Jackie Brown and both volumes of Kill Bill.
Death Proof was solid the first time, pretty hard to watch the second. I still enjoy the first half of the film.
It's the first time I thought QT's dialogue felt forced. Probably didn't help that he chose some pretty bad actors for the second half of the film.
Matt,
I couldn't disagree with you more vehimently. "Reservoir Dogs" was Tarantino's best. The only Tarantino film I can say I honestly LOVED. LOVED his plot choices, and the actors all maximised their contribuitions to this twisted bothched heist story.
I loved "Reservoir Dogs" so much so that I put my own spin on it. Trying to think like Tarantino I wrote a little low budget urban drama entittled, "The Judas Project." Logline: Three friends conspire against a fellow warehouse worker under the guise of launching a rock band.
I do agree with you, Matt, the girl's excessive dialog in "Death Proff" weighed it down considerably. WISH Tarantino had focused more on the car chase, and on Kurt Russell's ex-stunt man character, which was for me the highlight of an otherwise forgetable film.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Basterds - 25
Shorts - 8
X Games - 2
As to the Tarantino debate, my faves are Pulp & Jackie, Reservoir would be 3rd. Kill Bill had decent moments but certainly didn't need to span two movies and Deathproof bored me to tears.
EC
I think I liked Dogs a lot more when I first saw it. For me it hasn't aged as well as some of his other movies.
I really wouldn't argue against it though. Even as my least favorite Tarantino film (until Death Proof came along) there's still a lot to like.
Patrick
Couldn't disagree with you more on Kill Bill. Two perfect films in my opinion.
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