Weekend Box Office #57

Meanwhile, movies keep coming out.

It's sort of interesting that I haven't heard anyone suggesting yet that people boycott TV and movies until the strike is settled.

I guess the idea is that no one wants to really pee on the industries that, in the end, both sides still need to stay healthy because livings need to be made there. Can't risk chasing the audience off.

And the effects of a boycott would be hard to measure, because box office numbers are so fluid. If there was a boycott this weekend, and FRED CLAUS "only" made $35 million, who's to say how much more it would have made without a boycott? Both sides could easily claim different things.

So keep going to theaters. Hopefully this thing will be settled soon. Meanwhile, I'm going to start listing the writers on every film, something I should have been doing a year ago.

FRED CLAUS (3603 theaters). It's opening wide, they have been advertising the hell out of it, and families have to be sick of BEE MOVIE and THE GAME PLAN by now. Written by Dan Fogelman. Prediction: $39.2 million for the weekend.

LIONS FOR LAMBS (2215 theaters). Reviews have been definitely mixed; word is that this is talky, talky, talky and a more than a bit heavy-handed. It's also only 90 minutes long. Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan. $9.7 million for the weekend.

P2 (2131 theaters). I've seen the commercials, and I feel like I have seen the movie. Written by Alexandre Aja, Franck Khalfoun and Gregory Levasseur. $6.4 million.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN also opens, in only 28 theaters, while AFTER DARK HORRORFEST 2 opens on 323 screens.