Paranormal Activity 2 gets a (too scary for Twi-hards?) teaser.

While most of this 68-second teaser is just a reminder of how much you theoretically liked the first film, the last thirty seconds deliver a handful of goose-bumpy shots. Yes, putting a baby in supernatural peril may be cheap, but it is an iconic image that is effective none-the-less. According to Bloody Disgusting, this teaser is apparently too effective. Theaters have allegedly had to pull the teaser from prints of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse after parents complained. The film opens on October 22nd, meaning it will open head-to-head with Saw VII 3D (which amazingly is already finished, as it just received an R for 'sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language'). I enjoyed the first Paranormal Activity for what it was, and it works even better while watching it in your own home. But after the dynamite sixth installment of the Saw series, I'm firmly on the side of Team Kramer. Hopefully there will be enough blood for both horror franchises.

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Eclipse smashes midnight record with $30 million.

Wow. Summit took advantage of the lack of school and just crushed their own record. With just midnight showings, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has taken in $30 million (New Moon opened with $26 million in midnight showings). Obviously the die-hard fans will show up no matter when the film opens, so it'll be interesting to see how close Eclipse gets to, or how far it surpasses, the $72 million scored by New Moon last November on its first full day. It will be a nail-biter, as many casual fans were turned off by New Moon, yet this film has comparably better reviews and a somewhat misleading trailer promising lots of vampire vs. werewolf action (the film has about as much action as a season finale of Heroes). The single-day record for a Wednesday is $62 million for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (which did 'just' $16 million in midnight screenings). The six-day record is $222 million for The Dark Knight. Both records are now in serious jeopardy. We'll know more soon enough...

Scott Mendelson

Gore Verbinski's Rango gets a teaser.

This looks kinda terrific, and the animation looks genuinely stunning, almost lifelike in its detail at certain moments. It's good to see Verbinski back in the saddle, as he is a genuine talent whose work on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy remains oddly underrated, to say nothing of his fine work on The Weather Man and The Ring. The entire series hold up a few years down the line as overly-convoluted but generally intelligent and surprisingly political blockbusters (the sequels work as relatively potent 'War on Terror' analogies better than the more on-the-nose Prince of Persia). This looks like something more akin to the hilarious Looney Tunes-ish romp Mouse Hunt, which first put him on the map back in December 1997. This is also Paramount's first stand-alone animated feature since Barnyard: The Original Party Animals back in 2006. It comes out March 4th, 2011.

Scott Mendelson

Review: The Last Airbender 3D (2010)

The Last Airbender
2010
102 minutes
Rated PG

by Scott Mendelson

M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender contains a few moments of grace and visual wonder, moments that dare to show me something I've never seen onscreen before. It's a shame that said beats are contained within a stunningly inept story. Apparently based on the first season of the acclaimed Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: the Last Airbender, the film is a structural disaster, choppily bouncing from one brief expositional scene to another. The picture has no rhythm and no pacing, feeling both heavily edited and curiously padded. As the introductory chapter to a three-part story, it fails to inspire any reason to care about what comes next, as not a single character emerges from the haphazard narrative. As a film from the man who once wrote and directed such films as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, it is a heartbreaking tragedy, a 'sign' that perhaps the once-great M. Night Shyamalan is truly 'broken'.

A token amount of plot - Well, this film is nothing but plot, arguably the most exposition-filled film since Kevin Smith's Dogma (at least the latter was filled with fine actors doing grand character turns). Anyway, the film concerns a world which is broken up into four nations: Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth. In the prior ages, a peace between these four worlds was maintained by one called 'the avatar', but the young boy who was next in line mysteriously disappeared 100 years ago. Since then, the ruthless Fire Nation has embarked on a world-dominating reign of terror. But, by happenstance, a pair of young Water Nation scavengers have discovered the frozen body of Aang. Now alive but with no memory of how long he had been away, the young airbender must make peace with his earlier cowardice and fulfill his destiny.

The writing is putrid, filled with overtly shoe-horned voice over narration and pointless ADR-added explanations. The dialogue often feels overwritten and delivered in a stilted manner suggesting a foreign film dubbed back into English. I've often complained of cartoons and films that suffer from the 'we gotta find that treasure' syndrome (IE - characters explicitly explaining what the obvious goal of a given scene is). But without said voice over and said 'we gotta find that file!' dialogue, the film would nearly be a silent picture. Nearly every single line in this film is expositional in nature, either explicitly stating events that occurred off screen or detailing plainly visible onscreen action. I don't know whether this was caused by post-production hack-n-slash, or whether it was simply the byproduct of cramming an entire twenty-episode season into about 95 minutes of movie, but the film never feels like a whole motion picture, but rather the cliff-notes of a much larger story.

There is no character development because no scene lasts more than a minute or two. There is a hint of character arcs regarding the banished son of the evil leader of the Fire Nation, but Dev Patel has little to work with. Considering all of the (understandable) outrage that came from casting four Caucasians in lead roles that were Asian in the original animated series ('racebending'), it is almost offensive that the lead actors are blank slates from beginning to end. This is clearly not a case of Shyamalan sacrificing the racial balance of his story for the sake of casting an irreplaceable young actor (there is no Haley Joel Osment-like discovery in the mix here). Frankly, the casting has an accidental (?) racial undertone, as the good guys of the Water Nation are all white and/or British while the villainous Fire Nation people generally all portrayed by Indian or Middle Eastern actors. This is doubly-ironic as the villainous pose has a few decent actors in the mix (Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis, Aasid Mandvi), so their devious skulduggery provide the rare moments of entertainment.

The film looks suitably epic in scope and in content. Shooting in 2.35:1 for the first time since Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan fills the screen with impressive sights and never feels the need to linger. The special effects are fine, and there the moments of visual wonder never feel forced into the narrative for their own sake. As for the 3D conversion, this is a classic case of good news/bad news. The good news is that you'll hardly ever notice that you're watching a 3D conversion. The bad news is that you'll hardly ever notice you're watching The Last Airbender in 3D. There are few 'eye-popping' moments that take advantage of the technology, and there is occasional blurriness during certain long pans. Point being, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to see the film in 3D.

The only parts of the film that truly work are the rare moments of action spectacle. While they are few and far between, the airbending action is genuinely engaging and original in conception and construction. Shyamalan has an eye for shooting real action, as his set-pieces are rendered in long, fluid takes that showcase the obvious skill involved. Even when the overly-elaborate conjuring moments seem to resemble a dance, this is still something that we've never seen before. Even if he has lost his touch with writing and with directing actors, M. Night Shyamalan certainly has the technical skills to make a worthwhile action picture. But this is not that film. While the film is rated PG, it could have easily gone out as a G. There is no tension, no suspense, and a very low body count (the film climaxes with scenes of scores of soldiers fighting each other, but no one ever seems to strike a blow or fall down). And since we are constantly told that Aang the last airbender will be resurrected upon his death, we're not too worried about his well being.

The Last Airbender is a tragedy, pure and simple. It contains terrible writing, atrocious acting, and a choppy narrative that feels far more patched together than even Jonah Hex, despite running a reasonable 102 minutes. I don't know what happened to the M. Night Shyamalan who wrote and directed The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, and even the flawed-but-worthwhile The Village. I don't know what he had at Disney that he hasn't had at Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, and now Paramount (someone to tell him 'no'?), but he desperately needs to find it again. I wrote in my review of The Happening (which is a masterpiece compared to this one) that I still hadn't given up on Shyamalan. And, frankly, I still haven't. But that says more about me than it does about him.

Grade: D+

Review: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: An IMAX Experience (2010)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
2010
124 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

I'm probably one of six people on the planet who preferred Spider-Man 3 to Spider-Man 2. The second Spider-Man picture is arguably the better film. It's better written, better acted, and contains moments of real pathos and drama (Aunt May's birthday present to Peter, Peter confessing his role in Uncle Ben's death, the train action-scene, Peter's conversations with Doctor Octavius). Yet it is derailed by the fact that Peter Parker spends the entire movie in a swirl of self-pity, endlessly moping for the girl he loves, while forgetting the fact that he dumped her first at the conclusion of the first film (nevermind that most of his other problems have pretty obvious solutions - move in with Aunt May and take your Spider-Man photos to other newspapers for money, etc). The third film, by virtue of having three hundred subplots, focuses less on the annoying Peter Parker/Mary Jane romantic plot, and is less forehead-slappingly obnoxious despite the kitchen-sink plotting. So while the Twilight Saga: Eclipse is not as focused and disciplined as Twilight Saga: New Moon, I did enjoy it a bit more due to the plentiful distractions from the Bella/Edward/Jacob arc. It's not nearly as fun and light-on-its feet as the first Twilight picture, but it's a case of improvement-by-default.

A token amount of plot - Edward and Bella are back together, much to the chagrin of Bella's father (the again-delightful Billy Burke) and Jacob (the native-American/werewolf who helped her recover from being dumped by Edward in the last film). As Bella decides whether or not to become a vampire in order to be with Edward forever, an old threat rears her head. In order to avenge the death of her mate at the hands of the Cullen clan back in Twilight, Victoria (Byrce Dallas Howard replacing Rachelle Lefevre) is breeding an army of 'newborn' vampires (vampires are most powerful and out of control during their initial months after being turned) to kill Bella, wipe out the Cullen clan, and/or rampage their way into Forks, Washington. With a threat this severe, the Cullen clan will be forced to align themselves with the local Quileute tribe, who of course are also werewolves.

Obviously, there is a little bit more going on here than just a non-stop pity party for Bella. And, ironically, the character work ends up mirroring the Peter Parker progression as well. Mirroring Peter's struggle to win back Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2, Bella spent the second film drowning in self-pity after Edward dumped her. But in this film, she's got her man, so she's become a bit more of self-centered jerk. Just as Peter Parker became cocky and obnoxious once he got what he wanted, so too does Bella. This time around, she basically uses her desirability as a weapon, using Jacob's infatuation to make Edward jealous for no particular reason. And while Edward was merely a little creepy in the first film, and mainly absent in the second, here he comes off like a controlling, jealous, and easily angered obsessive. Yes, Bella generally doesn't stand for his overt 'protectiveness', but Eddie still comes off like a future domestic-abuser more so than the first two pictures. Our three leads are still relatively bland and not-terribly personable, so whenever the film focuses on their romantic plight, the picture becomes frankly a little dull.

Much has been written, by myself and others, about the theoretically terrible morals that this series teaches young girls about romance and self-esteem. But I will say that the film seems to almost be questioning, if not condemning, Bella's choice to leave behind her friends and family to live with her vampire boyfriend. Even Edward is very much against Bella becoming a vampire, and any number of characters (Jacob, Rosalie Hale, Bella's unknowing parents) make quite convincing cases for why she should not go on this path. It doesn't help that Bella slightly more chemistry with Jacob than with Edward, but of course the idea of her choosing neither of these men and simply going to college isn't even an option to her. Anna Kendrick's Jessica gets a valedictorian speech that all-but explicitly mocks the very story that has been told up to this point in the series. Point being, whether it's Stephenie Meyer's source material or director David Slade's directorial hand, Bella's single-minded pursuit of Edward is not presented as the picture-perfect that one might expect from a series that has been sold as wish-fulfillment fantasy.

As is the case with the prior two pictures, the film comes to life whenever someone other than Bella, Jacob, or Edward takes center stage. I wrote back in my Twilight review that I loved the supporting characters, and that still stands. By virtue of being about more than just Bella obsessing over Edward, this film allows said supporting cast to shine a bit more. A few of the Cullen family members are given flashbacks showing how they became vampires (Jackson Hale was turned while fighting for Texas in the Civil War, although Jackson Rathbone is not allowed to give his opinion on slavery). Bella's mother (Sarah Clarke) is given one extended moment of motherly warmth, and Sheriff Charlie again stands in for an uncomfortable audience as he helplessly watches his daughter disappear into the Cullen family (his 'sex talk' is highly amusing, and the pay-off is a corker). The problem is as it always has been with this series. The game lead actors (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner) are forced to be relatively blank slates, so that the reader can imagine themselves as their favorite character, while the rest of the cast get to be distinct human beings (undead or otherwise).

Whether or not the film is 'better', it certainly is a more entertaining picture than the dreary New Moon. There are moments of (generally bloodless) violence, and there is a brief climactic action-blow out to satisfy carnage junkies. The film has superior production values and the period flashbacks combined with brief excursions into downtown Seattle add a bit of variety to the backwoods locales. It's still not 'big' enough to justify the IMAX upgrade, although the film's dramatic scenes are often shot in extreme close-up, so those that want ginormous and super-detailed looks at their favorite hottie might do well to pay the surcharge (everyone in this movie looks gorgeous and there is plenty of eye candy regardless of your sexual preference). The supporting cast is given more time to shine, and the Cullen family remains as entertaining as ever. The film's morality is just as awkward it has always been, but there are signs that the material isn't as regressive as it's been painted (regardless, I still think that our young girls can handle a little escapist fantasy and still keep their self-esteem). Like the Spider-Man series, this third film is less streamlined and less disciplined than the second entry, but the emphasis on the entire Twilight world vs. exclusively focusing on Bella's love triangle makes this entry superior entertainment. And like Rami's webslinging adventures, the first film is still the best.

Grade: B-

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows gets a dynamite trailer.

Wow... just wow. After a somewhat low-key teaser clip that was shown on the MTV Movie Awards just a few weeks ago, Warner Bros. has unleashed this genuinely epic trailer. This is a thunderously impressive preview, full of the kind of emotional pathos and visual oomph that the Twilight crowd could only dream of. You can practically hear Harry, Hermione, and Ron telling Bella, Edward, and Jacob to get the hell off of their lawn. As far as tentpole teasers go, this is Dark Knight/Star Trek good. Warner Bros is selling the astonishing legacy of this series first and foremost, as well they should be. Eight rock-solid epic films, nearly ten years in the making, with nearly every major cast member (save the late Richard Harris) intact. It's hard to believe it'll be nine years since The Sorcerer's Stone premiered by the time part I of The Deathly Hallows opens this November. By keeping the films rooted in character and emotionally-charged, Campellian-storytelling, these films will live on long after their special effects have become dated. This series is a truly unprecedented achievement in cinema history and deserves to be celebrated as such.

Scott Mendelson

New feature: Not Necessarily the News.

Another new occasional feature, one dealing with random speculation that inexplicably gets turned into real news due to various bloggers who are desperate for hits and/or scoops. All of the items below are either complete speculation or painfully obvious developments that are being branded about as BREAKING NEWS for the sake of page views.

Chris Nolan is discussing Batman 3 while promoting Inception. You think? You think he's too dumb to realize that the quickest way to get people to pay attention to Inception news-bites is to mention the next Batman sequel as often as possible? You think he's so dumb that he's going to accidentally drop a major piece of story or casting news while discussing the film he's actually promoting, thus changing accidentally changing the subject/headline for every Inception article for the next two weeks? The only casting news you'll hear is whether or not Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Christian Bale will all return (most likely), whether or not he'll recast The Joker (nope), and whether or not Cillian Murphy will return as The Scarecrow (maybe).

Peter Jackson may direct The Hobbit. Peter Jackson may direct The Hobbit, which is about where he's been since February 2004. It's arguably been more likely since The Lovely Bones underwhelmed critics and audiences alike, but it's still not news until he signs the dotted line. And, frankly, if he does, it will be a tragedy not a triumph. Even as a prequel defender, I acknowledge that George Lucas returned to the Star Wars universe somewhat begrudgingly after pretty much all of his other projects flamed out (The Radio Land Murders, Willow, Howard the Duck, etc). In other words, he had nowhere else to go. A Peter Jackson who has resigned himself to the idea that he'll be stuck in middle-Earth for the rest of his filmmaking career. Is THAT the guy any fan wants directing The Hobbit?

Sony is THIS close to picking the new Peter Parker for their Spider-Man reboot. They have been THIS close ever since the reboot was announced back in January. Here's an idea: wanna bet that Sony announces and introduces the new webslinger at the San Diego Comic-Con at the end of next month? Again, once someone gets signed, then it's news. Otherwise, it's just speculation. And even then, it's not really news when some up-and-coming teenager who is a completely inside-the-box choice is announced anyway. When Toby Maguire, an unconventional choice primarily known for low-key dramas, got the gig back in 2001, it was news. If Donald Glover gets the gig after-all, it's news. If Logan Lerman gets the job, it's not news. News is when the villains are cast.

Daniel Day-Lewis is going to be Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes 2. No, Guy Ritchie simply mentioned that he'd like Daniel Day-Lewis to play Professor Moriarty in the next Sherlock Holmes picture. Day-Lewis has not been approached and no negotiations have yet taken place. It was a filmmaker personally speculating about who he'd love to get if he could. The other names tossed around, Gary Oldman, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn(?!), are more like a random blogger thinking up 'gee, wouldn't it be cool if...' lists. In 1993, I had my own dream X-Men cast (Alan Rickman as Magneto, Jodie Foster as Rogue, Kevin Costner as Cyclops, etc), but that doesn't make my idle speculation into news. Could Day-Lewis end up as the main villain in a sequel to a franchise popcorn picture? I suppose, Nine tanked (and stunk) pretty hard and he would be treated like absolute royalty on the set. If it happens, great, but until then, it's just a director's pipe dream.

Scott Mendelson

Spike Lee returns to genre filmmaking with Nagasaki Deadline.

I don't generally comment on stories from Deadline Hollywood, but this one seems legit (and notably non-sensational) enough to merit commentary. According to Mike Fleming, Spike Lee is wrapping a deal to shoot the modern-day terrorism thriller Nagasaki Deadline. Basically the gist is that it involves a damaged FBI agent who must prevent two (simultaneous?) attacks on US soil while uncovering the apparent historical motives behind the attacks. The project had been bounced around for around a decade, and had even been looked at by Martin Campbell as one of the flurry of post-Casino Royale thrillers that he was offered (he eventually decided to remake Edge of Darkness and helm Green Lantern). But now the project will mark Spike Lee's first film since Miracle at St. Anna in October 2008.

This is exciting news, as there is nothing that pleases me more than seeing A-directors playing in the B-movie sandbox. Inside Man sacrificed none of Lee's moralizing and potent social commentary and none-the-less remained a rock-solid piece of high-quality pop entertainment. Let's hope that Nagasaki Deadline delivers the same level of quality. And in an era starved for star-driven thrillers for adults, the film could theoretically strike just as hard at the box office as Inside Man, which grossed $184 million worldwide on a $45 million budget (remember when Universal knew how to budget its adult pictures responsibly?). This is a project I will be following closely.

Scott Mendelson

Toy Story 3 retakes crown, as Grown Ups and Knight and Day make solid showings. Weekend box office in review (06/27/10).

Ten-and-a-half years ago, Toy Story 2 opened with $57.3 million over the Fri-Sun portion of Thanksgiving weekend, which was the third-biggest Friday-to-Sunday take on record (behind Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace at $64 million and The Lost World: Jurassic Park at $72 million). Today, the third Toy Story picture has taken in $59.3 million on its second weekend. That's the seventh-biggest second-weekend take in history, and the very largest non-opening weekend for a 'part 3' ever. And, at a second-weekend drop of 46.2%, it's the fourth-smallest drop for a film opening to over $100 million. The film crossed $200 million on Saturday (nine days), which is the eighth-fastest on record and the fourth-fastest such dash that did not involve a holiday weekend boost. With $226.8 million so far, the film has the seventh-largest ten day total ever, and the the third-biggest such total for a film not aided in any way by a holiday weekend in those first ten days (behind Spider-Man 3 at $240 million and The Dark Knight at $313 million). With sustained weekday numbers and a hold such as this, the film could theoretically cross $300 million by the end of the long Fourth-of-July weekend. It won't be the number one film in America for long, as Twilight Saga: Eclipse is opening this Wednesday, but the Pixar masterpiece is almost certain to become the year's highest-grossing film in America in just a few weeks. Audiences have no problem with sequels and what-not, as long as they are this good.

Not to be completely outdone, the Adam Sandler ensemble comedy Grown Ups opened to $40.5 million, as is demanded by law for such broadly-farcical Sandler comedies. Sandler may get underwhelming box office when he's experimenting outside his safe zone, in films such as Little Nicky, Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, Reign Over Me, Funny People. But when he's in his comfort zone (PG-13 gross-out, feel-good humor aimed at juvenile males in a non-fantasy setting), Sandler is the most consistent opener in the business. Sure, there are the outliers I Love You Chuck and Larry ($34 million) and The Longest Yard ($47 million), but Sandler's broad comedies have opened between $37 million and $42 million pretty much every time since The Waterboy opened with $39 million in November, 1998. Ironically, while any number of films are called 'critic proof', Sandler is the rare star whose films seem to perform inversely proportional to the number of positive reviews they receive.

Anyway, Grown Ups is his fourth-biggest debut on record. And, oddly enough, four of his nine biggest opening weekends opened on the same respective weekend in 2010, 2002 (Mr. Deeds with $37 million), 1999 (Big Daddy with $41.5 million), and 2006 (Click with $40 million). With the exception of Will Smith (who can open anything in any genre), Adam Sandler may be the most consistent opening-weekend draw around. Like most Sandler comedies, expect this one to have a heavy drop over the holiday weekend and then rebound as it becomes the safe second choice for general audiences for the month of July. Sandler's comedies close anywhere from $100 million (the surprisingly-good You Don't Mess with the Zohan) to $167 million (Big Daddy). With a campaign aimed at general audiences, including women and older movie goers, expect the film to end in the upper range of Sandler's goofy-comedy filmography.

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz scored third place, as Knight and Day opened with $20.1 million. That gives the film $27.4 million since it opened on Wednesday. In other words (as I said previously), all opening the film on Wednesday accomplished was to knee-cap the Fri-Sun number, as too few people needed to see the film right away (low Wednesday and Thursday box office), but just enough saw it quickly to keep the three day number on the lower-rungs of Tom Cruise's mainstream openings. As for Cameron Diaz, this is actually her second-largest opening for a live-action picture sold on her drawing power that wasn't a Charlie's Angels picture, behind the $20.3 million debut of What Happens in Vegas back in May 2008. It's her eleventh-biggest opening and her eighth-biggest live-action opening. Where the film goes from here is an open question. Every film that Tom Cruise has opened to at least $24 million has grossed at least $100 million. Whether or not the $27 million five-day gross puts it in that catagory remains to be seen. Point being, Tom Cruise isn't known for massive openings, he's known for well-recieved pictures that have long legs. Expect plenty of people to catch up with this one after the holiday.

In holdover land, Jonah Hex collapsed in its second weekend, dropping 69.7% in its second weekend. Only five films on record have fallen more while playing on more than Hex's 2,825 screens. With just $9 million in ten days, expect this critically-savaged $50 million DC Comics adaptation to lose most of its theaters in the next two weeks. The only hope for profitability? A much-longer and R-rated DVD/Blu Ray release that is completely honest about what occurred behind the scenes of this much-tinkered-with disaster. The Karate Kid dropped another 48% in weekend three, ending day seventeen with $135.7 million. This is a strange case of Sony underestimating the film's appeal, while overestimating the competition. Had Sony known how well the picture would do (and how not-dominating Shrek: Forever After would be), they likely would have opened it at least a week earlier, where it would have dominated the four-middling releases of early June and had an extra week to take the family audience before crashing into Toy Story 3. Still, hindsight aside, a win is a win is a win. This $40 million production has an outside shot at $175 million if it can keep screens after the holiday rush. Shrek Forever After lost 867 screens, or most of its 2D auditoriums (darn it, says the parent of a two-year old who would like to see it, but now has to wait until said 2D prints hit second-run theaters), and fell 44% in weekend seven. Still, the film has $229.5 million domestic and $320 million worldwide. Fox's The A-Team dropped 56% this weekend and ended weekend three with $63 million ($110 million worldwide).

In limited-release news, Winter's Bone is successfully expanding, and the $2 million rural thriller has already grossed $1 million before expanding past seventy screens. Solitary Man is doing okay too, with $2 million in the till, but the Anchor Bay film has no chance of recouping its $15 million budget unless there is a major expansion (even five years ago, a Michael Douglas film like this could have gotten a wide release). The 'controversial' crime drama The Killer Inside Me ("Eeek! It shows violence against women as being really gruesome, painful and unpleasant!") opened in LA in its second weekend, grossing $19,248 on four screens. Most of the money for this one, as with most IFC releases, will likely come from home viewers ordering it 'on demand'. (why or why does AT&T U-Verse not offer IFC films On Demand?). Oliver Stone's documentary about South American politics, South of the Border, grossed $21,545 on one screen. And the Afghanistan-at-war documentary, Restrepo, grossed $35,581 on two screens.

That's all the news this weekend. Join us next weekend for what should be a huge July 4th holiday weekend. It starts Wednesday, when The Twilight Saga: Eclipse attempts to equal or surpass the $222 million six day gross of The Dark Knight. It continues Thursday, when Paramount and M. Night Shyamalan attempt to turn a critically-acclaimed Nickelodeon action cartoon into a major franchise with The Last Airbender (after the last few years, the best twist I could hope for is that the film is at least as good as Signs) . Check into Mendelson's Memos for updates during the first two days of the holiday, and then as much daily box office as my weekend schedule permits. For a look at what happened this weekend in 2009 ( Transformers 2 crushed any and all comers), click accordingly. For a look at this weekend in 2008, and a look at what happened on this weekend twenty-one years ago, click accordingly. Otherwise, take care until next time.

Scott Mendelson

Friday box office - Toy Story 3 crushes newbies, Grown Ups opens per normal Sandler standards, and Knight and Day regains momentum.

At $18 million, Toy Story 3 has the 29th-biggest non-opening Friday of all-time. However, if you discount day eight or day ten grosses (IE - for a film that opened on Wednesday) that were not part of a holiday weekend, Toy Story 3 once again shoots up to number four, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($18.5 million), Spider-Man ($19.9 million) and The Dark Knight ($23.2 million). It's eight-day gross is now at $185 million, which is eighth on the list, just ahead of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($184.9 million). In realms of eight day grosses where the first or second weekend did not fall in a holiday, the film moves up to third place, behind Spider-Man 3 ($199.2 million), and The Dark Knight ($261.8 million). At a 57% drop from Friday to Friday, the film should bounce way back with weekend matinee business today and tomorrow. Expect a second-weekend total of $60-65 million, and a ten day total of about $230 million (the sixth or seventh-best, depending on the final numbers).

Broadly farcical Adam Sandler comedies generally have opening days around $14 million and opening weekends around $39-42 million, and Grown Ups was no exception. With $14.5 million in the till, this marks Sandler's fourth-biggest opening day, behind You Don't Mess With the Zohan ($14.8 million), Anger Management ($15.3 million) and The Longest Yard ($16.1 million). Sony marketed this one as a broadly-appealing family comedy, selling the relationships between spouses and kids as much as between the five best friends. Besides, with a cast as huge as this one, almost any moviegoer will find someone they like. Knight and Day rebounded a bit after a soft Wed/Thurs launch, grossing $6.3 million on Friday. Once again, opening on Wednesday was a terrible idea, especially in light of the sneak preview last weekend. Anyone who absolutely had to see it right away probably saw it last Saturday night, and everyone else was willing to wait until Friday. Sure, the film will get to around $25 million over five days, but how much more impressive would that look if it had merely been over 3 days? A $21-25 million three-day launch would be right in the Cameron Diaz/Tom Cruise comfort zone for original properties. Finally, Jonah Hex dropped 74% in its second Friday, ending its eighth day with just $500,000. Alas...

Scott Mendelson

With astounding midweek numbers, Toy Story 3 scores $167 million in seven days.

I was seemingly alone in my slight disappointment with the low 2.68x weekend multiplier for Toy Story 3, which opened to $110 million off of a $41 million opening day. Apparently I was an idiot to worry, as the film has recovered whatever steam it allegedly lost over its first three weekdays. The picture grossed $15.6 million on its first Monday, a mere 51% drop from Sunday and the fifth-biggest non-holiday Monday of all-time, behind such lightweights as Avatar (it's first two Mondays: $16 million and $19 million respectively), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($18 million) and The Dark Knight ($24 million).. On Tuesday, it kept up the pace, grossing another $15.1 million. That puts it again at number five for non-Holiday/non-opening day Tuesday grosses. Again, it's behind just Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($15.7 million), the fifth and twelve days of Avatar ($16 million and $18.2 million respectively), and The Dark Knight ($20.8 million).

How about Wednesday? Well, in its sixth day, Toy Story 3 grossed a mere $13.4 million. That puts it in eighth-place in the realm of Wednesdays that were not opening days and fifth in terms of Wednesdays that were not part of a long opening weekend. When you factor out Wednesdays that were in the middle of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years holiday weekends, Toy Story 3 has the third-best non-opening Wednesday on record, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($14.1 million) and The Dark Knight ($18.3 million). In its seventh and final weekday before the second weekend, Toy Story 3 grossed another $13 million. That's the nineteenth-biggest non-opening Thursday of all-time. However, when you subtract Thursdays that were part of a film's opening weekend, as well as Thursdays that fell in a holiday weekend, Toy Story 3 has the second-largest such Thursday behind the $16.4 million scored by The Dark Knight. With $167.6 million, Toy Story 3 has the ninth-largest seven-day gross in history. However you slice it, Toy Story 3 is keeping some very select company.

Scott Mendelson

You can all breathe easier now, The Expendables has been rated R.

There has been much discussion on whether or not Lionsgate was able and willing to send out the $50 million action-fest into wide release with an age-limiting R-rating. The several test screenings (with their mixed word-of-mouth) and the overtly green-band trailers led many to wonder if the 1980s action homage would end up being edited to a PG-13. But fear no more. The Expendables has been officially been rated R, for "strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language". Now if Lionsgate could just cut a trailer that would convince us that the film isn't going to be 80% set-up with only the final reel containing actual action/adventure. I'm getting the feeling that this one's going to play more like Commando than Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Scott Mendelson

Knight and Day opens with just $3.8 million on Wednesday. The bane of the stupid Wednesday/Thursday opening.

I've said this several times over the last few years, but it bears repeating: It’s suicide to open on Wednesday unless you’re dealing with a severely hardcore ‘must see it NOW’ fanbase. Knight and Day is not The Lord of the Rings. It is not Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It is not Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and it is certainly not Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Yes, Fox may have been deluded into thinking that Tom Cruise's star-power alone is what powered War of the Worlds and the first two Mission: Impossible pictures to their massive five or six day weekends. But those three were holiday weekends, not the week before a major holiday. And Knight and Day is not a heavily-anticipated Steven Spielberg adaptation of a classic sci-fi novel. Nor is it a mega-budget adaptation of a beloved TV show that benefited from a killer marketing campaign. It's just an action-comedy that stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I know plenty of people who want to see Knight and Day. But every one of them is able and willing to wait until the actual weekend to do so.

Had the film opened on Friday, it likely would have taken in anywhere from $7 million to $10 million on its opening Friday. Now, because Fox split up its opening day into three days, two of which are in the middle of the work week, the best that Fox can hope for is a $7 million Friday. The film will suffer in the press for its less-than-stellar Wednesday opening, and it will make absolute peanuts today. No matter what it takes over the full five days, that number would have looked far more impressive had it been a straight three-day opening weekend. And no matter what it does, it will still have to fight off the stigma that comes from barely opening on its first day. Even if it performs like the outlier of Wednesday openings, Shrek 2 (which did an eye-popping 12 times its opening day by its first Sunday), the picture will end up with $46 million by Sunday. Not bad, but surely a $35 million three-day weekend would have been more boast-worthy. Heck, had Shrek 2 opened on a Friday back in May 2004, it likely would have eclipsed the $114 million opening weekend record set by Spider-Man two years prior. Of course, I'm complaining about the release strategy of a film that pulled in $441 million in domestic grosses, but the point still stands.

Point being, unless it's a holiday weekend and you're really sure that there is pent-up demand for your movie, do not open it on a Wednesday or Thursday (this means you, Last Airbender). In most cases, you’re just taking the opening Friday gross and dividing it into two or three days (Sex and the City 2 took what should have been a solid $25 million Friday and chopped it into two middling $14 million days). You’re creating the impression of flophood going into the weekend because most moviegoers were just waiting until Friday to see the film. We won’t know the full box office story on this one until Saturday or Sunday. As for the allegedly-endangered Mission: Impossible 4, that will still be a go (especially with Brad Bird already signed to direct), just with a smaller price-tag and likely less back-end for Cruise. Whomever at Fox decided to push the release date up two days should be scolded if not beaten. Consider this a rule-of-thumb: unless you think people will be camping outside the theater for the midnight showing, you open your film on a Friday.

Scott Mendelson

Red gets an all-star cast, and an amusing trailer.

Well, this looks absolutely delightful. It's apparently based on a Warren Ellis comic book from DC, and I can't imagine that too many fans would be displeased on first glance. Who wouldn't want an adaptation of their favorite action comic to star Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker, and Richard Dreyfuss? Not enough? Well, it also features Karl Urban, Ernest Borgnine, James Remar, and Brian Cox. So yes, this is the second movie entitled Red that Brian Cox has made in the last two years (the earlier one was a dark drama involving an old man whose dog is murdered by teenage ruffians). Regardless, any movie with that cast is automatically worth the price of admission, and thus Red becomes one of the must-see movies of the fall.

Scott Mendelson

Predators gets a terrific international trailer, and I suddenly have an interest in the film.

Nimrod Antal's Predators was not very high on my radar this summer. I have nothing against the man, his two prior pictures (Vacancy and Armored) were lean and mean B-movies that did much with small budgets. And producer Robert Rodriguez also knows how to do much with little, and his filmography has far more hits (Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2, Shorts) than visually-inventive misses (Sin City, Spy Kids 3D: Game Over). But I don't think the world really needs another Predator film. I still don't, but this brutal and efficient trailer has convinced me that whatever Antal and Rodriguez have cooked up might be worth watching anyway. The cast (Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Alice Brega) looks sharp, the locales look gorgeous and foreboding, and the action is gory as hell. Any worries about this one being PG-13 have been officially been put to rest. This looks like a gloriously top-notch B-movie, which should be just the thing between the mega movies of July 4th weekend (Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Last Airbender) and Chris Nolan's Inception.

Review: Knight and Day (2010)

Knight and Day
2010
110 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

I can only wonder what kind of film James Mangold's Knight and Day would have been had it just been another action vehicle for a Tom Cruise (pre-2005) who was not in the midst of a PR-mandated comeback. Despite the fact that Cruise's pictures have done just fine since his 2005 couch-jumping, Scientology-hyping PR-meltdown, there is a perception that Cruise has lost his luster as a genuine movie star. So along comes Knight and Day, a variation on the 'wronged-man on the run with quasi-kidnapped female' story, which theoretically casts Tom Cruise as a borderline-satirical version on the Cruise persona (insanely-driven action hero with a touch with the ladies). As a satire on the stereotypical Tom Cruise action picture, it has its moments and its charm. But the film lacks the courage of its convictions, as well as the ability to take the story into territory that a more fearless Cruise of the 1990s would crash headlong into without thinking twice.

A token amount of plot: June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is returning home in order to attend her sister's wedding. However, a chance encounter with handsome and charming stranger Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) sets her on a path into danger and international intrigue. As the stakes mount and the body count rises, June finds herself questioning who is on her side, who is using her, and who is trying to kill her. Can she trust this apparent super spy with her life? Or is the would-be 007 a rogue agent who has gone completely insane and/or is working with nefarious forces?

The film works primarily as a pure action picture, with several glorious set-pieces that are completely absurd in their construction, yet oddly plausible because so much of the action seems practical. It is no small irony that action scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a Looney Tunes cartoon achieve a certain realism purely by staging them the old-fashioned way. What a delight to see real stunt-work, real fight choreography, and actual vehicle destruction on a grand scale. Another oddity rests in the fact that Tom Cruise, once Hollywood's preeminent superstar, has crafted something that resembles a B-movie in comparison to the more outlandish, fantasy-based entertainments of recent summers. The film is not cheap, and it certainly never looks cheap, but there is a quaint old-fashioned feel to the couple-on-the-run narrative and the practical action scenes.

But the film loses a certain amount of nerve as it goes on, and it's obvious that the filmmakers are afraid to follow the story to its logical, darker conclusion. I almost wish the action had been even more over-the-top, as it's just farcical enough to render much of it emotionless, while holding back from going completely insane. There is a sky-high body count of anonymous assailants, but next-to-no blood and almost no collateral damage. The copious violence has no sting or consequence. More importantly (and we're heading into vague spoiler territory here), the film lacks the courage to let the picture to pay off on the set-up. Point being, the Tom Cruise coming off of Interview With a Vampire or Jerry McGuire would have been unafraid to 'go there', but the Tom Cruise who is attempting to rehabilitate his image is seemingly afraid to risk completely losing the audience's sympathy, because he at this point in his career needs the audience to love him again.

The core idea behind Knight and Day is to remind people why they liked Tom Cruise in the first place. But those involved with the project forgot something essential: aside from the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise is not an action-film star. He made his mark in legal thrillers (A Few Good Men, The Firm), character-driven dramas (Rain Man, Jerry MacGuire, Collateral), and sprawling epics (Born on the Fourth of July, Far and Away, The Last Samurai). Thus the film is most successful not when it's recasting Cruise as a romantic action hero, but when it's gently mocking his famously hardcore work ethic and professional drive. Tom Cruise didn't become a star because he looked good when shooting people with machine guns. Cruise became a star because he so-perfectly embodied relentless determination in one star vehicle after another.

Still, quibbles about how its motivations and complaints regarding the road-not-taken aside, the film that was made does barely work as a slapdash caper picture. Cameron Diaz brings surprising adult charm to a role that could have been a nonstop hissy-fit (she keeps manic screaming and shrieking outrage to a minimum). The generally wasted supporting cast (Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis) succeeds only in bringing credibility to the proceedings, and Viola Davis once again proves that can do bitter, but seemingly-trustworthy better than anyone else (she was the lone highlight of Madea Goes to Jail). Most importantly for the general ticket-buyer, the film has several terrific action sequences that are creatively staged and coherently edited (I'm partial to an early fight on an airplane, filmed from the outside through the windows as we see the combat spill down the aisle). Tom Cruise is certainly capable of better, and perhaps a more fearless Cruise could have delivered what the material promised. Still, Knight and Day is relatively engaging entertainment.

Grade: B-

Audiences want family films? No, they want good films. Why family films have a higher batting average for quality.

Here's a novel idea: Toy Story 3 is making bank because it's the best big-studio movie of the year and audiences have already noticed. Steven Zeitchik of the LA Times is wrong. Audiences are not flocking to family films because of some rebellion against adult pictures. Audiences are flocking to family pictures because the kids-flicks are better than the adult movies at the moment. Audiences want good films, period. Sure, critics and audiences may disagree on what is 'good', and lousy all-ages pictures like Alice in Wonderland or teen-centric movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may be massive hits despite their lack of quality. But at the end of the day, if studios make a good movie and can open the picture through marketing, audiences will usually respond. The Hangover didn't gross six times its opening weekend because it tapped into some kind of zeitgeist. It grossed $277 million off a $44 million opening weekend because it was good. How to Train Your Dragon didn't slowly pull in $215 million from a $43 million opening weekend because audiences suddenly remembered that they had kids. It stuck around because it was a terrific movie, and those that initially saw it fought like hell to make sure their friends and family saw it too.

The Karate Kid was unique amongst the summer fare in that it was arguably the lone big summer movies that based its marketing campaign on the idea that it was a good movie. The marketing did not base its campaign on the fact that is a sequel to a movie you liked two years ago (Iron Man 2), or a film you had an obligation to see if you were a female (Sex and the City 2), or a desperate knock-off of a movie you loved ten years ago (Robin Hood), or a dumbed-down version of a 25-year old TV show that was pretty dumb to begin with (The A-Team), or something that vaguely resembled action/fantasy franchises that you really liked over the last decade (Prince of Persia). Sony sold the character work of Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan and the inherent drama in the story that was being told and got audiences, young and old, into the theater based on the promise of quality. Of all the big summer movies thus far, Sony's The Karate Kid campaign was the only one that had faith in the quality of the film they were selling. And since The Karate Kid was actually an emotionally compelling and engaging movie, audiences are responding accordingly (Toy Story 3 came with the Pixar badge of quality, so they didn't have to push too hard).

And, for the record, the article in question discusses the relative failures of The Bounty Hunter and Kick-Ass. Well, let's compare the former to the break-out family film that opened on the same weekend as The Bounty Hunter. Yes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid cost $15 million while the Aniston/Butler caper cost $40 million, but The Bounty Hunter actually made $3 million more in domestic grosses and $71 million more worldwide. And Kick-Ass did not disappoint anyone who had any real knowledge of the industry. The film was made for a cult audience, and it is that cult audience that showed up. In the end, the Lionsgate picture made $95 million worldwide on a $50 million acquisition and marketing budget. When you factor in the countless nerds who will buy the DVD or Blu Ray, Carl Icahn won't have too much to complain about (Killers is a problem, but only because the glorified B-movie cost an absurd $70 million).

At the end of the day, the equation is a pretty simple one. Family pictures cannot depend on violence, sexual content, profanity, or taboo subject matter to entice audiences. If a family film wants to be compelling to an audience, the only tools they have at their disposal are the basics: writing, acting, and directing. The only trump card they have is a good story well told. This is the same reason that TV has been consistently better than the mainstream cinemas for the last seventeen years or so. While family pictures have severe content restrictions, television has severe budgetary restrictions. Two problems, same solution - plotting and acting.

It's why Toy Story 3 is a more emotionally-engaging adult drama than anything else released in mainstream cinemas this year. It's why 80s remake The Karate Kid is turning into a word-of-mouth sensation while 80s TV adaptation The A-Team will struggle to make its money back. It's why my favorite movie of 2004 was The Incredibles, why my favorite movie of 2006 was Akeelah and the Bee, why my favorite films of 2007 were Meet the Robinsons and Ratatouille, why my favorite film of 2009 was Up, and why my current favorite pictures of this year are Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon. Opening weekend is always about marketing, but the second weekend is often about quality. And, statistically speaking, you're more likely to find quality in big-studio releases for younger audiences than you are for teens and adults. It seems that audiences seeking 'adult' big-studio movies that don't feel like cartoons written for toddlers have no choice but to seek out animated and/or family fare. As always, it's the movie, stupid.

Scott Mendelson

Michel Gondry's The Green Hornet gets a trailer.

Despite my distaste for Michel Gondry's Be Kind, Rewind (a heartwarming final twenty-minutes did not redeem the nearly unwatchable first 75 minutes), this actually looks like low-key pulpy fun. Cameron Diaz seems wasted as 'the girl', but hopefully there's more to her part than just the random hot secretary. I can only hope that the next trailer gives more exposure to her and arch-villain Christoph Weitz. It's a shame Tom Wilkinson isn't in the picture past the initial reel or two, but his gravitas is appreciated. I have little knowledge of the original stories, so I don't know if the 'my dead father's company left me all the tools to fight crime' bit is from the original origin or cribbed from Batman Begins. Most intriguing is the warm and relaxed chemistry between leads Seth Rogan and Jay Chou. It seems that this new version of The Green Hornet is making a genuine attempt to have Kato be a full-fledged partner rather than a token Asian sidekick. All in all, for something that allegedly has had a pretty troubled production, this is a very confident piece of marketing. So far, so good.

Scott Mendelson

Toy Story 3 opens with massive $109 million, Jonah Hex makes just $5 million. Weekend box office review (06/20/10).

Toy Story 3 ended its first weekend with $109 million, setting a record for Pixar and the month of June. It is the second-biggest opening weekend for an animated film (behind Shrek the Third's $122 million), the fourth-biggest 'part 3' opening weekend, the biggest opening weekend ever in June, and the 10th-biggest opening of all-time. It is far and away the biggest opening weekend in Pixar history (Finding Nemo and The Incredibles both opened with $70 million). Truth be told, I'm a little disappointed in the number, when you factor in the $41 million opening day. When you factor in the usually high multipliers for kids flicks, along with the across-the-board raves from critics and audiences, I honestly expected (or at least was rooting for) a top-five opening weekend. As it is, it is just the third-biggest opening of 2010, behind Iron Man 2 ($128 million) and Alice in Wonderland ($116 million). Family pictures generally have higher weekend multipliers than the norm. But Toy Story 3 had just a 2.68x multiplier, it actually decreased 9% on Saturday to $37 million.

Wall-E also had a lower than 3x weekend multiplier ($23 million opening day, $63 million opening weekend). Most ominously, Wall-E also had the lowest weekend-to-final gross multiplier as well, ending up with $223 million domestic (still a rock-solid by any other standard 3.5 times its opening weekend). Still, the film did just pull in $109 million in three days. It beat out the previous Pixar best by 55%. And the fact that it was a heavily-anticipated sequel that opened in the middle of summer vacation is the likely cause for the apparent front-loading. But where it goes from here is an open question. Pixar films generally have legs. So even though the film will lose its IMAX screens to Twilight Saga: Eclipse on Wednesday the 30th, and it will lose many of its 3D screens to The Last Airbender the next day, the film is certainly good enough to be appreciated in whatever size or format it plays in for the rest of the summer. Even if it fails to reach the leggy-heights of Finding Nemo ($339 million/$70 million = 4.84x) or Ratatouille ($206 million/$48 million = 4.38x), we're still talking a strong contender for the year's highest-grossing film. Even if it hits a low-for-Pixar 3.09 multiplier, the picture still does $340 million. So no need to panic yet, the best film of 2010 still has a reasonable shot at becoming the highest-grossing film of 2010. Oh, and for a great look at the theoretically nihilistic themes of the movie, go here.

No such luck is in store for Jonah Hex, which grossed just $5.3 million in its debut weekend. It's the second-worst weekend of the year for a wide-release, behind the $4 million debut of MacGruber. This was clearly a case of Warner Bros giving up, not bothering to market the film that they knew was a disaster, and going for the tax write-off. The two theatrical trailers didn't bother to sell a tone or a hook of any kind. It sold the righteous-violence of Josh Brolin, the murderous-violence of John Malkovich, and the sex appeal of Megan Fox, then edited the picture to a PG-13 thus neutering all three would-be factors. This was clearly a picture that was hurt by last-minute screenings, as even embargoes could not prevent word from slipping out not only regarding the quality, but the fact that the film was just 73 minutes long without credits (they should have sent the picture out without press screenings). Also, Warner miscalculated, trying to make the film into counter-programming against Toy Story 3. But the toys of Pixar appealed to every single plausible demographic, thus there was no one that needed to be catered to. Quality and behind-the-scenes drama aside, Warner should have kept this one in the late-August release date that was originally planned. This one is a tragedy all-around.

In holdover news, The Karate Kid dropped 46% and The A-Team dropped about 43%, ending weekend two with $107 million and $50 million respectively. Both second-weekend drops are solid, but considering the competition against Toy Story 3, The Karate Kid's hold is slightly more impressive, while The A-Team will still struggle to make its money back. Get Him to the Greek ($47 million) is about $3 million ahead of Forgetting Sarah Marshall at this point in time. Shrek Forever After lost its IMAX and many of its 3D screens, and plunged 64%. Still, the sequel has amassed $223 million and should flirt with $240 million by the time it's done. In limited release news, the John C. Reilly/Katherine Keener/Jonah Hill/Marisa Tomei comedy Cyrus scored a massive $181,716 on just four screens, giving it the best limited-debut of the year, with $45,429 per screen. Winter's Bone added 35 screens and scored another $351,316 (about $9,000 per each of its 38 screens). During the last week or just this weekend, Iron Man 2 crossed $300 million, Robin Hood crossed $100 million, Sex and the City 2 crossed $90 million, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time crossed $80 million.

That's about all the news this weekend. The only wide release next Friday is the ensemble comedy (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James, etc) Grown Ups. But this Wednesday comes the release of Knight and Day, the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action-comedy that sneaked this weekend to 85% capacity crowds. So yes, Toy Story 3 will again be number one by a solid margin. For a look at what happened this weekend in 2008 and 2009, click accordingly. Go here for a listen to an interview I did with Culture Shock (Irish talk-radio) concerning the history of the modern blockbuster. Otherwise, take care and keep reading.

Scott Mendelson

Box Office analysis to come later today...

Everyone slept in late, and it's already time to leave for Disney Land, so box office analysis will come later. For the record, Toy Story 3 managed only a 2.6x multiplier, ending the weekend with $109 million. We'll see tomorrow if the finals put it high enough for the biggest June Fri-Sun weekend (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did $109 million as well), and the second-biggest animated opening weekend (Shrek 2 did $108 million over the Fri-Sun portion of its opening weekend). Jonah Hex did just $5 million and The Karate Kid held strong with $29 million in weekend two. More context and analysis to come later.

Scott Mendelson

Toy Story 3 opens with $41 million Friday, Jonah Hex collapses.

Toy Story 3 has scored $41 million on its first day, barely beating out Alice in Wonderland's $40.8 million Friday for the biggest opening day of the year. It has surpassed the $38.4 million opening Friday of Shrek the Third to score the biggest opening Friday in animated-film history (although Shrek 3 had more tickets sold, factoring in three years of inflation and higher IMAX/3D prices for Toy Story 3). With $41 million, the Pixar sequel has the 22nd-biggest single day, the 12th-biggest opening day, and the seventh-biggest Friday gross of all time. It is the second-biggest opening day in June history, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($62 million). With just part 3s, the film had the fourth-biggest opening day day, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ($42 million), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($50 million), and Spider-Man 3 ($59 million).

Obviously we can only make educated guess as to how it will play over the rest of the weekend. Alice in Wonderland actually went up 9% on its second day to gross $44.2 million on its initial Saturday. Despite the generally high multipliers exhibited by family pictures (3.5-4.5x weekend multipliers are not uncommon), Toy Story 3 is such a broadly appealing title that it will likely play as a general-audiences smash, so 2.75x ($113 million) to 3.5x ($144 million) seems to be the logical range here. If it plays like Alice in Wonderland (2.9x), it opens with $119 million. If it plays like Shrek the Third (3.1x), it pulls in $130 million. We'll know for sure tomorrow whether Toy Story 3 enters the top-ten opening-weekend list or the top-five list. Oh, and Jonah Hex barely made a mark, opening with just $1.95 million on its first day. Since the movie is pretty lousy, the best this one can hope for is $5.5 million, putting it in the bottom 19% of all comic book adaptations (or $2 million less than what Superman: The Movie opened with on 500 screens in 1978). Game, set, match.

Scott Mendelson

That takes me back: Donkey Kong Country comes to Wii.

I don't generally buy video games these days. Sure, Red Dead Redemption might be wonderful, but I do not have the hours and hours of disposable time to invest in such a sprawling world. But this one looks like something the spouse can play right along with me, as we both got a big kick out of Super Mario Bros Wii. The original Donkey Kong Country was released in 1994, and it was the last great game on the good ol' Super Nintendo (it sold 8 million copies, which was more than any stand-alone title in Super Nintendo history). But I was less crazy about the 3D Nintendo 64 version that came out Christmas 1999. This looks like a step back in the right direction, although I have no idea what the series has been up to in the last eleven years, but it looks like I might actually have something for my wife to buy me this holiday season (oh, how she does complain that I'm hard to shop for...).

Scott Mendelson