took the top spot with an unimpressive $14 million from 2,755 theatres for a $5k average. Those numbers are virtually identical to
's from last week signaling that we have unquestionably moved into that dull grey period between summer blockbusters and awards season.
We'll get to the couple of contenders that opened in limited bows this weekend but I guess we should talk about Ms. Foster a bit first.
's tepid opening. In recent years she's seemed like a female counterpart to Denzel Washington in terms of box office consistency (a feeling underscored by their appearing together in
all opened between $25 and $30 million en route to cumes between $85 and $95 million. In fact with the terrible recent histories for actresses like Nicole Kidman. Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie. Foster and the rarely-seen Julia Roberts seemed like the only women you could count on to open a movie.
Add to that track record the indie following for director Jordan what the studio suits call 'urban appeal' from co-star Terrence Howard and a plot that pitches as easily as '
with a woman' and it sure sounds like another modest hit for Foster regular as clockwork.
And yet that isn't exactly what happened. If I had to venture a guess. I'd say that culturally we've lost a lot of our bloodlust. With the war in Iraq still raging the VA Tech shootings even Michael Vick killing dogs. I think we've just lost the stomach for it. You saw in foremost in the collapse of the 'torture porn' genre this summer but it might also have had something to do with
's underperformance as well (supposed to be a lot more shooting and killing in that one compared to the original).
If that's the case studio execs have got to be freaked. I know
opened well but that was targeted at a niche market with a lot of name recognition and it has fallen hard and fast from those impressive opening numbers (off 47% this week to $5 million and a $51 million total). After
flicks that they're almost sure to turn a profit but I still see a big disappointment coming). On top of which it will be very interesting to see how a whole slate of Oscar hopefuls having to do with the Iraq war perform in the coming months. There's major talent and good buzz behind many of them (Robert Redford's
held up pretty well in its second week dropping 35% to $9 million and a $28.5 million cume. I've heard speculation the Russell Crowe's off-screen antics have really hurt his box office appeal and I'm inclined to agree but I'd like to hear any other opinions on the subject. Even with good legs my guess is that after prints and advertising the embattled Lionsgate is still going to lose money on this.
Billy Bob Thorton tried to pull another trick out of his
this weekend but didn't come up with much. It opened in third place with $9 million from 2,231 screens and a $4k average. Thorton's collected enough paychecks to hopefully go back to acting for awhile (next up for him is
based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel which always seems to net interesting performances) but I for one can't believe that Seann William Scott is still making movies. Shouldn't his second CBS sitcom be getting canceled right now? Interestingly though.
director Craig Gillespie is getting good buzz out of the Toronto Film Fest for the Ryan Gosling-starer
an interesting but clearly failed experiment that brought in just $5.3 million from 2,275 screens for a $2k average. All the word of mouth on this flick is bad as far as I can tell but I do think they cut a hell of a trailer for it. Had they put a little more marketing muscle into it.. who knows? We might have had Korean producers backing summer blockbusters out of Disney.
Clive Owen obviously couldn't continue as the next Bourne since he was one of the original assassins in the first movie!I see Matt Damon coming back to make atleast one more - this one has done so well!
but logical inconsistencies like that didn't stop WB execs from considering Michael Keaton for the new Joker (which I think would've been brilliant) or from shaving twenty years off jack ryan's age for
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