Notes From The Swamp, and Weekend Box Office #81

This is the longest I've ever gone without posting. I've just been beyond-swamped with work this week, and certain areas suffer because of that.

Not that I'm complaining, because I need the money.

Still, hopefully in the next few days I'll put up a nice big post about the summer movies coming out.

Until then, new releases:

BABY MAMA (2543 theaters). Early reviews for this have been good, while they've done a smart thing by having a bunch of different trailers with a bunch of different jokes, leaving the impression that there's a big well of funniness to draw from. Will lose a lot of young males to HAROLD AND KUMAR, but should do a solid $14.6 million.

HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUATANAMO BAY (2510 theaters). I think the plot was a major misstep here; I think any other storyline would have drawn a bigger audience than tossing them into Guatanamo Bay, which isn't inherently funny. At all. Still, it'll do okay. $12.7 million.

DECEPTION (2001 theaters). Generic title, no real story hook, and a cast (Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams) that doesn't have much drawing power isn't going to add up to much of an audience. $3.9 million.