Sep 14 2009 Madea More Popular Than Hot Young Sorority Girls
Movies remained a popular form of distraction last weekend. These were the five most popular:
1. I Can Do Bad All By Myself - $24 million. Tyler Perry was right: he did bad all by himself. But apparently the rest of the U.S. needed the counsel of Madea to do bad this weekend.
2. 9 - $10.9 million. See? Computer-animated films can be original and successful! They don't need to have constant pop culture jokes or a Shrek! Oh, Shrek the Third opened at $121.6 million? Never mind. Continue with Shreks.
3. Inglourious Basterds - $6.5 million. All those people who keep saying, "I know, I know--I'll see it next week," really are slowly doing it.
4. All About Steve - $5.8 million. As much as I'm glad that Sorority Row flopped, I'm not sure the universally-panned All About Steve having a decent second week is any better.
5. The Final Destination - $5.5 million. What ended up being the final destination, anyway?
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Sep 8 2009 'The Final Destination' Somehow Still Really Popular
Box office totals for Friday through Monday, our day of labor:
1. The Final Destination - $15.5 million. Good to see I'm not the only one who enjoys spending a leisurely weekend watching teenagers die strange, elaborate deaths.
2. Inglourious Basterds - $15 million. Did you realize inglorious and glorious aren't the same thing? It's not like flammable/inflammable. Just in case you haven't seen the movie yet, I don't want you to go in confused.
3. All About Steve - $13.9 million. A 5% Rotten Tomatoes rating does little to tarnish the glistening star power of Miss Congeniality.
4. Gamer - $11.2 million. Look, I know Gamer looks stupid, but does it really look this much stupider than The Final Destination? Yeah, I guess it probably does.
5. District 9 - $9 million. This film's clear allegorical message really taught me something about not letting alien fluids spray in my mouth.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Aug 31 2009 Weekend Box Office: 'THE Final Destination' Fares Better Than Holiday-Themed Film
The Sirens' call of teenagers dying overly-elaborate deaths was too loud to resist:
1. The Final Destination - $28.3 million. I can't figure out if the third one was that good or if everyone just forgot prior Final Destinations existed.
2. Inglourious Basterds - $20 million. I saw a preview for this and the ABC series Shaq Vs. within a few minutes of each other, and it gave me a good idea for a show. Let's just say it loosely involves Shaq versus Nazis.
3. Halloween II - $17.4 million. An underwhelming showing, but, sadly, still enough to easily make back the $15 million budget and continue Rob Zombie's horror career.
4. District 9 - $10.7 million. Let's hope aliens don't land here while this is still in theaters. We shouldn't reveal how we're going to force them into a bottom caste until they start getting really annoying.
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - $8 million. Goodbye, final blockbuster summer movie of the year! See you again as an even more poorly-reviewed sequel!
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Aug 28 2009 Movies Coming to Your Theaters This Weekend
Halloween II
Director: Rob Zombie
Starring: Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton
Good if you want to see: if that man in the white mask is still stabbing people; a man in a white mask stabbing people.
Taking Woodstock
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Demitri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Anton Yelchin
Good if you want to see: How the original Woodstock (not Woodstock '94) started; probably a montage set to "Age of Aquarius" or "Turn, Turn, Turn."
The Final Destination
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: Some pseudo-teenagers who will mostly die
Good if you want to see: Final Destination--now with more "The"!; what the director of Final Destination 2, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, and Snakes on a Plane has been up to (hint: this); some teenagers dying in absurd ways.
Big Fan (limited)
Director: Robert D. Siegel
Starring: Patton Oswalt
Good if you want to see: a Giants superfan get beat up by his football idol, then face those consequences; my Movie Pick of the Weekâ˘.
Jun 4 2009 'The Final Destination' Trailer (The 'The' Means It's the Fourth One, and in 3D)
When a NASCAR spectator's premonition of an imminent crash saves him and his like-minded friends from certain death, the stock car enthusiasts soon find that Death won't take "I'd rather not die a horribly gruesome death" for an answer. Just as in Final Destinations 1 through 3, one by one, the racing fans begin finding their ends through a variety of grisly means. And because Death is aware of the renewed novelty of 3-D filmmaking, many of the deaths involve things coming directly at the screen! Scary!:
May 28 2009 'THE Final Destination' Poster: Someone Made All the Right Decisions
UGO has premiered the poster for The Final Destination--not to be confused with Final Destination 1, 2, or 3, because the "the" somehow denotes it's the fourth film--and someone in the creative department has just nailed it. Skull and broken mirror motif and the tagline "Rest in Pieces." Beautiful. Finally, all the triteness in the world captured on a single page. My only improvement might be to have the skull carrying a rose in its teeth, you know, because beauty is fragile, man. Maybe literally write "Beauty is Fragile" below "Rest in Pieces," also. In wisps of cigarette smoke.
