The Wolfman, and Weekend Box Office #172/#173

So I was gone last weekend for me 10th anniversary, and completely missed posting. More than ever, I feel like a slacker.

So some catch-up:

I saw "The Wolfman", which isn't great, isn't terrible. Benicio del Toro is a strange choice for the lead, but his odd line readings add something. The big problem is that they tried to do it as sort of a throwback old-fashioned gothic horror tale, yet at the same time they somehow spent $150 million on it, and aside for a couple of action sequences the money isn't on the screen.

Meanwhile "Valentine's Day", which cost about a third as much despite having numerous more stars, made $63.1 million over the four-day President's Day weekend, compared to only $35.6 for "The Wolfman" (while "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief", which cost about $95 million, brought in $38.7 million).

And Avatar made another $28.8 million, and was the #2 movie again on Tuesday.

At least the theaters are busy, even as DVD sales are falling. Apparently people do like seeing movies in theaters, even when the times are causing them to make choices about how to spend their disposable income.

This weekend, there's only one movie opening wide, SHUTTER ISLAND, in 2991 theaters. I think it'll benefit a lot from being the only new movie, and by a lack of people urgently wanting to see any of the holdovers instead. Figure $39.8 million for the weekend....