Black Sheep @ The Box Office

It is of no surprise to me or no one else I'm sure that TOY STORY 3 held on to the top spot at the Box Office with nothing but mediocre challengers for the crown.  The $59 million haul is a reasonable 46.5% drop off considering sequels tend to drop steeply in their second weeks.  At $226.5 million, it has amassed almost as much in two weeks as SHREK FOREVER AFTER has in its entire six week run.  The Adam Sandler ensemble comedy, GROWN UPS, did solid business in second place.  This opening is on par with previous Sandler summer comedies like CLICK or YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN and $10 million shy of the entire domestic take of his last film, FUNNY PEOPLE.  Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz managed some mild returns for the action-comedy, KNIGHT AND DAY.  The response is certainly not overwhelming and could throw the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise into serious question going forward.

Outside the Top 10, two Black Sheep favorites continue to perform well.  The $2 million drama, WINTER'S BONE, has now hauled in over half its budget with another solid week of expansion.  The week's big indie success again though is CYRUS, from the Duplass brothers.  It pulled in over $17K per screen on just 17 screens for a 65% increase over last week.  This weekend I caught COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY.  The review is coming later this week but the film itself may not make it there, pulling in only modest returns, $4K per screen on 20 screens.  Another review coming later this week is for Alain Resnais's festival hit, WILD GRASS.  The French film, which drove me insane while I watched it, only earned about $7K on five screens limiting its expansion plans.

NEXT WEEK: Those pouty little vampires are back as THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE roars into 4000+ screens on Wednesday for what will certainly be one of the biggest hauls of the year.  M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER opens on 3000+ screens, including some 3D screens to help boost what I think will be a pretty mild gross.  And Taylor Hackford, LOVE RANCH opens on the art house front.

Source: Box Office Mojo

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: Yo Joe!

I don’t think anyone can say they didn’t see this coming. G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA has debuted atop the North American box office chart, just as everyone presumed it would. When it comes to an obvious blockbuster like this one, the real question is not whether it will come out on top but really more so by how much. With a $56 million start, Hasbro and Paramount can rest peacefully knowing they’ve launched another successful franchise. And knowing is half the battle …


G.I. JOE solidified its success on Friday when it debuted to a single day gross of over $22 million, the fifth highest of any film this summer. This amount was also almost more than last week’s box office champ, FUNNY PEOPLE, brought in all weekend. This weekend, the firs official Judd Apatow disappointment stumbles more than 65% for a fifth place finish. So with this weekend looking much brighter than last, there was even room for audiences starved for movies to spread the money around. This week’s second debut gives Meryl Streep her third $20+ million summer opening in the last four years. JULIE & JULIA, which co-stars Amy Adams, brought in just over $20 million for a second place opening. While this is a solid start, it is about $7 million lower than Streep’s other summer hits, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and MAMMA MIA!


The week’s only other wide release, the Steve Zahn thriller, THE PERFECT GETAWAY, wasn’t the perfect anything for viewers this weekend. It opened in seventh place and, despite mostly positive reviews, will likely disappear very soon, with very little mystery left to be solved. The Top 10 did see one other debut; in its fourth week, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER expands to over 800 screens and finally earns enough to be seen amongst the elite. The expansion may have eroded its average to about $4.5K per screen but this is still the third largest in the Top 10. Elsewhere in the art-house world, the Charlene Yi/Michael Cera mockumentary, PAPER HEARTS, debuted to an average of $5.4K on 38 screens. It seems to me it should have been higher but there hasn’t been very much publicity for this quirky little film (Black Sheep review coming this week). Two other Black Sheep favorites continued their limited runs with limited success. THE COVE, a must see documentary, added 52 screens and saw its gross balloon by 174% by its average dropped from $17K to under $3K. Don’t miss the Black Sheep interview THE COVE director, Louie Psihoyos. Faring better was the Asperger’s Syndrome romantic comedy, ADAM. It added 16 new screens and maintained an average of $5.2K per screen. This touching film gets the Black Sheep treatment very soon.


NEXT WEEK: It’s a biggie, folks! PAPER HEARTS will commence its expansion next week, hoping to spread the love across the nation. A couple of lower brow comedies hit with modest runs, POOL BOYS starring Matthew Lillard on 400 screens and the Jeremy Piven vehicle, THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD hits 1500 screens. The latest from Hayao Miyazaki, PONYO, enlists huge names in hopes of crossing over on 800 screens. I’m not sure what kind of hard times Lisa Kudrow and David Bowi have fallen on but they are both in the Vanessa Hudgens teen rock comedy, BANDSLAM (2000 screens). Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams travel through time with love in THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (2700 screens). And finally, one of my favorite movies of the year, DISTRICT 9 unleashes all its alien gooey goodness on 2900 screens. See it!

Source: Box Office Mojo

Black Sheep @ The Box Office: No Laughing Matter

$23 million doesn’t sound like the opening weekend gross of a number one summer title but it is for this week’s FUNNY PEOPLE. In fact, that amount is the lowest gross of any number one film this summer and also 23% less than what writer/director, Judd Apatow’s last movie, KNOCKED UP, pulled in on its opening weekend. Still, distributor, Universal, thinks the number is great and falls perfectly in line with what they had in mind to begin with. Now, that’s funny.


FUNNY PEOPLE is considered a departure for both the director and the star, Adam Sandler. The major reason for that is that it isn’t very funny. To be fair, it isn’t supposed to be – it is a movie about a dying comedian after all. The departure angle is Universal’s argument for the supposedly acceptable gross. They believe the picture will speak for itself and that it will grow just like the director and star have grown in the weeks to come. One problem with that theory – reviews are mixed to poor. They’re not about to be booed off stage but it shouldn’t be too hard to follow them.


Audiences weren’t interested this weekend in much of anything that Hollywood had to offer. ALIENS IN THE ATTIC opened on over 3100 screens but only mustered a very earthly $7.8 million. And horror flick, THE COLLECTOR, missed out on the Top 10 and couldn’t crack an average higher than $3K. It was the holdovers that most impressed this week. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE redeemed itself after a 60% drop last week by slipping less than 40% this week. That did of course have to do with the addition of over 160 IMAX screens as it had to wait in line for TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN to finish its IMAX run first. Last week’s number one, G-FORCE, has now pulled in over $66 million in under 2 weeks. And comedy hits, THE HANGOVER and THE PROPOSAL are still only dropping off with scant 20-something percents week on week.


The art-house crowd also had much to celebrate this week as expansions went smoothly and launches started solidly. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER made its first major move toward the mainstream with the addition of 181 screens. It still managed an average of over $10K per screen and will certainly find itself in the Top 10 next week when it adds 800 more screens. THE HURT LOCKER has not seen as much success as that but that stands to reason given the heavier subject matter. Still, now playing on over 500 screens, the Oscar contender saw its gross increase week on week by another 32% for a total of $6.8 million. And British import and Black Sheep favorite, IN THE LOOP added 27 screens for 60% increase and an average of nearly $9K. As far as launches go, the dolphin documentary, THE COVE, opened to a solid $13K average on just four screens (look for the Black Sheep interview with the director coming later this week) but it was ADAM, a Fox Searchlight picture about an unlikely love, that scored this week’s biggest per screen average, with $16.5K.

NEXT WEEK: The last of the summer blockbusters, G.I JOE blasts its way onto over 3500 screens. Sony counter-programs with the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams comedy, JULIE & JULIA on 2300 screens. Universal gets scary with THE GETAWAY on 2000 screens. And the quirky Charlene Yi/Michael Cera mockumentary, PAPER HEART opens on 40 screens.

Sources: Box Office Mojo, Variety

FUNNY PEOPLE

Written and Directed by Judd Apatow
Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Leslie Mann and Eric Bana


Ira: Do you like music?
Daisy: Did you just ask me if I like music? That’s like asking if I like food.

You’ve got your funny, you’ve got your people. And FUNNY PEOPLE, the third film by Judd Apatow, the reigning God of all things supposedly funny at the movies, only has room for one of these things. Which one, you ask. Let’s just that's an awfully big cast he's got there. Apatow has set himself apart in the last few years by making stylish comedies that speak directly to an audience that isn’t often engaged when it comes to comedy. It isn’t slapstick; it isn’t stupid. It is smart comedy with real people who have relatable problems but who don’t mind getting dirty with their humour. A comedian who has joked his way through life and is now facing his own mortality is certainly a real problem, just like a forty-year-old who has yet to lose his virginity or a one night stand that resulted in a pregnancy (Apatow’s two previous features, THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP, respectively) are real problems, but FUNNY PEOPLE forgets to be exactly what got Apatow and all his regulars there in the first place – funny.


Apatow has certainly stepped up his game. In many ways, he didn’t have much of a choice. His name has been built up so high at this stage for all of his producing gigs that when one of his own movies drops, it has to lead by example. Casting Adam Sandler as the aforementioned dying comedian was the perfect start to a project brimming with potential. George is not so much unlike Sandler, at least when it comes to his career. Both started out in standup and both went on to make movie after crappy movie to appease the masses. More importantly, both are now in need of redemption for their regrets. (I can’t imagine Sandler is too proud of YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN; I could be wrong, but that’s doubtful.) The art imitating life doesn’t stop there either with Seth Rogen playing Ira, George’s assistant, as Rogen looks destined to follow in Sandler’s footsteps in Hollywood. While it is clear that both are pushing their dramatic acting abilities in this picture, well, it is also clear that they’re trying so it isn’t exactly a resounding success.


People are funny and Apatow knows this. FUNNY PEOPLE definitely refers to the vast cast of people who are all undeniably funny (Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill play their own brand of comedians as Ira’s roommates in a subplot that is essentially useless) but it could just as easily refer to the funny things we do as people. Whether that is Ira cussing out a girl he has yet to even have a date with for sleeping with one of his friends or George naively thinking that he can get back with the girl who got away (and who got married and got herself two kids, all played by Apatow’s real-life family, wife, Leslie Mann, and his two daughters, Maude and Iris Apatow) just because time was running out and sympathy was on his side. Hollywood works that way but life just doesn’t and fortunately, Apatow has earned himself enough clout in Hollywood to play against convention, as long as he isn’t making, “Sad People.” He might as well have made the sad one here though; at least then people would know what they were in for.


There is a scene early on in the film where George makes an impromptu appearance at a comedy club the same day he finds out he is dying. He doesn’t want to tell the audience about it; he just doesn’t know what to do with himself. Understandably, his jokes fall flatter than a flat line, and he pauses while on stage to listen to the sound of the cars on the nearby freeway, audible to everyone inside as no one is laughing. It is a touching moment but it also sums up what it is like to watch FUNNY PEOPLE. There is hilarity surrounding you but the delivery only inspires discomfort and a couple of chuckles. Your heart goes out but you wish your gut was hurting just a little too.

Black Sheep's Summer Longin' (Part Two)

The summer movie season is often pretty top heavy, with studios packing all their bigger fare is at the beginning and letting some of their untested hopefuls trickle in near the end. I always prefer the later days of summer myself. Sure, it’s winding down but I always find that it just forces you to be in the moment and appreciate that summer is still upon you rather than focus on its inevitable departure. And, aside from the return of Quentin Tarantino (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS), there is plenty to help you carry the feeling of a warm summer night well into the fall.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber Directed by Marc Webb Starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Release Date 07/17 I’m pretty sure that summer consists of about 100 or so days and not 500 but I’m not so great with math so I don’t want to make any bold statements. I do know that this Sundance favorite from first time feature filmmaker, Marc Webb, has the potential to capture many a heart. On paper, it doesn’t sound so fresh. We’ve got a guy who falls in love with a girl and the big twist here is that he’s a romantic and she’s a realist. From the trailer though, it seems to me that Webb may have figured out how romance and realism need to learn to work together to make a successful relationship. The film also boasts two of today’s most promising younger actors, Zooey Deschanel and Gordon Joseph-Levitt, so you know you are in for a good time one way or another. The question is, will you still be having as much fun the next morning.



FUNNY PEOPLE Written and Directed by Judd Apatow (KNOCKED UP) Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann Release Date 07/31 You may not know this, and the trailer is actually smart enough to point it out, but comedy juggernaut, Judd Apatow, has actually only made two movies himself. They are THE FORTY YEAR OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP. No, he didn’t make SUPERBAD; no, he didn’t make FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL or PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. Everyone just assumes he does because his name is always tossed around in the trailer just because he is associated in some way with the film. FUNNY PEOPLE is his third film and, not only does it look sharp, but it seems much more subtle than overtly comedic. Apatow understands that life isn’t easy but he also gets that it’s pretty darn funny even when it sucks. This is what makes him the most authentic comedy writer to come around in years and what makes everyone want to be him.



TAKING WOODSTOCK Written by James Schamus Directed by Ang Lee (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) Starring Demitri Martin, Emile Hirsch and Liev Schreiber Release Date 08/14 This is an example of my total bias when it comes to certain directors. To watch the preview for this film, I wouldn’t say that it necessarily looks like a masterpiece but this is Ang Lee. This is the man behind THE ICE STORM, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I love these movies. Sure, he also made THE INCREDIBLE HULK (the first one) and LUST, CAUTION. These weren’t great and everyone is entitled to make a few mistakes along the way. And yes, it is entirely possible that TAKING WOODSTOCK will go the wrong way but I am always willing to give Mr. Lee the benefit of the doubt. The cast is intriguing, the sexuality is ambiguous and the setting is ripe with potential and sweaty young people. I remain optimistic.



JULIE & JULIA Written and Directed by Nora Ephron (SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE) Starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams Release Date 08/07 If you ask Meryl Streep how she feels about her newfound box office clout, she will tell you that she is more surprised than anyone and doesn’t have any explanation for it. I say that as if it is that easy to just run into her and ask her such a plain question but I did read that somewhere. In recent summers, with THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and MAMMA MIA!, Streep has become the queen of summer counterprogamming and a champion for female driven box office success. Her latest reunites her with DOUBT co-star Amy Adams and is based on two real life stories – that of famous chef, Julia Child (Streep) and a woman who became famous by drawing inspiration from Child, Julie Powell (Adams). To watch Streep as Child, you can almost smell her next Oscar nod and potential win considering how long it’s been since she last took one home. You know Hollywood is waiting for the right moment to give her her third trophy and they may not need to wait much longer.



PAPER HEART Written by Nicolas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi Directed by Nicolas Jasenovec Starring Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera Release Date 08/07 Now this one has me hooked. Charlyne Yi is this tiny little lady, small in stature but big on awkward hilarity. Maybe you remember her as Jodi, one of Seth Rogen’s peculiar housemates in KNOCKED UP. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter. She is now the subject of a faux documentary called PAPER HEART. In it, she plays herself and is on a mission to understand love as she herself has never experienced it. Being herself, she has the chance to speak to many a friend in the film industry, like Rogen and Demitri Martin (who makes his major acting debut in TAKING WOODSTOCK, incidentally). She also comes across Michael Cera along the way. In real life, Cera is Yi’s boyfriend. In the movie, they meet and fall in love while she is supposed to be making a movie about how elusive that darn emotion is. It’s self-referential heaven! And I will watch Cera is just about anything. That said, I’m still not sold on YEAR ONE yet.



So, as you can see there are plenty of reasons to forego a game of soccer in the park or a trip to a theme park with the family this summer. In fact, why bother with beautiful weather and beautiful people soaking in said beautiful weather when you can run to the nearest theatre and enjoy the air conditioning all by your lonesome? Hmmm … I think I need to get out more.

Have a safe and happy summer!