Weekend Box Office #123

Sorry this is being posted so late today, but I spent the day at jury service, despite still battling bronchitis.

JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE (1271 theaters). Yeah, they pulled Coraline out of most of its 3D theaters to make room for this. There are probably enough screaming girls out there to make this around $15 million for the weekend.

STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI (1136 theaters). It's hard to believe that fans of the game wouldn't simply just play the game. $4.9 million.

******

Last weekend, MADEA GOES TO JAIL made a stunning $41.0 million. Look for it to be #1 again, unless the expanding SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE can pull off a miracle, though probably not.

FIRED UP did only $5.4 million for the weekend.

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My Oscar Picks

Clip this, enter the pool at whatever party you are at. Feel free to tip me if you win.

BEST PICTURE: Slumdog Millionaire
BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle, Slumdog
BEST ACTOR: Sean Penn
BEST ACTRESS: Kate Winslet
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz
BEST ANIMATED FILM: Wall-E
ANIMATED SHORT: Presto
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: The Class
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Man On Wire
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Slumdog Millionaire
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Milk

BEST ART DIRECTION: Benjamin Button
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Benjamin Button
COSTUME DESIGN: Revolutionary Road
EDITING: The Dark Knight
SOUND EDITING: Wall-E
SOUND MIXING: The Dark Knight
MAKEUP: Benjamin Button
MUSIC (SCORE): Slumdog Millionaire
MUSIC (SONG): "Jai Ho", Slumdog Millionaire
VISUAL EFFECTS: Benjamin Button

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Weekend Box Office #122

Still sick, still dragging.

This weekend:

TYLER PERRY'S MEDEA GOES TO JAIL (2032 theaters). Typically, this didn't screen for scritics, though these movies always seem to do well despite their quality. $17.2 million for the weekend.

FIRED UP! (1810 theaters). They are advertising the hell out of this, but it doesn't look that great. $8.1 million.

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Sorry, I'm Back

I went away for a short anniversary trip, and forgot to post about the weekend movies before I left.

In theory, I'm returning with a mental reboot, but in fact I had (and still have) severe bronchitis all weekend. Still, I did avoid reading or writing anything for 5 days.

Meanwhile, though the economy continues to head south, the box office was huge this past weekend. Friday the 13th did over $43 million for its first 4 days, an opening-weekend record for a horror movie.

Confessions of a Shopaholic did a solid $17.8 million. The International did a slightly-underwhelming $10.7 million.

He's Just Not That Into You, Taken and Coraline are all holding on very well, each doing between $18 and 23 million for the weekend.

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Weekend Box Office #121

So I'm back on the horse. I finished a fairly-solid rewrite draft of my dark thriller this morning. Now I can send it out into the world, and dive into writing something funny for a change.

******

A few mildly-intriguing movies opening this weekend:

THE PINK PANTHER 2 (3243 theaters). This looks like ass. It's hard to imagine who is going to see this; most people who bothered to watch the first movie don't seem to have liked it at all, and anyone who didn't seems more likely to just rent that movie rather than spend money on this one. Prediction: $7.1 million for the weekend. I'd be happy if it did less, but hell it'll probably do more.

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (3175 theaters). They are advertising the hell out of this, the cast is solid, and reviews have been okay. It'll probably click. $16.5 million for the weekend.

PUSH (2313 theaters). The screen count on this is lowish, but it may be #1, because it looks cool enough. $17.6 million for the weekend.

CORALINE (2298 theaters). Interesting-looking, but I'm not really sure what the audience for this is either, because it really doesn;t look like it's for kids. $5.6 million.

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The Creative Urge Thing

So yesterday on Facebook I made the joke that my creative urge had seen its shadow, and retreated into its cave for six more weeks.

I hope it's a joke.

But my writing has stalled. I put aside the rewrite of my violent thriller in late December to focus on brainstorming my take pitch. The pitch was three weeks ago, and since then I haven't really written a word.

Oh, I've thought about stuff. I've jotted down a few notes, many on a new comedy idea that my brain has been wrestling with, trying to figure out the best characters to make the story work (mainly, the question of whether the lead should be male or female, and why).

I printed out a rough draft of my violent thing, so that I could curl up with it and make the changes I've been pondering to focus it more and make it more of a story.

And I was going to do the curl up thing yesterday... and then I didn't.

Because I had paying work to do, and the wife was home sick from work, and my day was short because of my screenwriting group and a meeting beforehand.

And so there was no time to indulge the creative urge. And it felt ignored, and went back to its cave.

I guess I was the shadow.

But I'm feeling like this is the year I have to write something sellable, and be a lot more productive than I ultimately was last year, when my productivity was maybe a C-.

There's the violent thing to polish up, and as much as I hate the dark reputation it has given me in script group, it might be commercial.

Then I have two comedy ideas I have been wrestling with, one of which I did 40 pages of last year but which needs a minor main character reboot, the other the new thing.

I need to get the stuff I've written out there more. I need to network. I need to write.

I need.

I need to get my creative urge out of its cave.

Depressive rant over.

*****

TAKEN make $24.7 million over the weekend. Pretty impressive, considering.

THE UNINVITED did $10.3 million. NEW IN TOWN stumbled in with only $6.7 million.

THE PINK PANTHER 2 looks like it is going to be an atrocity.

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