Belated Weekend Boxoffice #41

I usually put up the weekend boxoffice posts before the weekend, just to try to predict how much movies will make, but this week I was distracted by my dying DVD player and a lack of enthusiasm over what was opening.

Ultimately, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry wound up making almost $35 million over the weekend, while Hairspray made a rather solid $27.8 million. Given the reviews that the films got (Hairspray is currently at a robust 94% on Rotten Tomatoes; Chuck and Larry is at 14%) expect Hairspray to pull an upset, and ultimately wind up making much more money in its theatrical run than the fake-gay firefighters do.

Which has to make John Waters smile.

Otherwise, Harry Potter dropped off 58% from last weekend, though don't feel too sorry for it, because it has made $208 million in less than two weeks.

Transformers brought in another $20 million, and it's at $262 million; it has a solid shot at being the top-grossing film of the summer.

Knocked Up is cruising along well, and has made $142 million so far. Evan Almighty has only made $93 million -- which isn't bad, until you remember that it cost $175 million, about $145 million more than Knocked Up did.

See, you don't need stars, you just need to be funny.

I didn't make it to the theaters this weekend, though I did make it out to the Dodgers game against the Mets (as a Mets fan) on Saturday. Of course, it was the only game the Mets lost out of the four (my karma is bad), while we wound up in seats in the blazing sunlight. Put it this way -- it was the first time in my life I ever sat somewhere where if a ball hit me on the head, it would have been a homerun.

The seat was right next to the bullpen, so I did get to see a bored Derek Lowe looking around for groupies. The groupies were apparently elsewhere, where it was shadier.

It was one of those days where, even though I put on sunscreen, you can now see every single spot that I missed.

The last movie I saw in theaters was Sicko, which I neglected to post about, but which I liked a lot. Whether you like Michael Moore or not, the film does a very good job making the point that the fundamental flaw with our health care system is that the insurance companies benefit from you not actually getting treatment.

My wife now wants to move to France. I think I've talked her out of it though.