Really? HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU?

Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, Justin Long and Ginnifer Goodwin – it’s a cast that never ends. With names like that, it is no surprise really that HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU was a hit last February. Factor in the perfect Valentine’s Day timing and how could you go wrong. The film won its weekend with just under $30 million and went on to earn just shy of $100 million. Not bad for a film that was based on a book that was based on one line of dialogue from the “Sex and the City” series. I missed it in theatres but now that it is available to rent, I’m not quite sure how any of you were that into the movie itself.


An incredibly sappy string driven score, complete with wind chime highlights, opens the Ken Kwapis (LICENSE TO WED) film. A little girl is playing all by her lonesome in a sandbox and then a boy approaches her. She looks at him and wonders what he could possibly want with her and he in turn, in true little boy badness, shoves her and calls her names. At this point in the film, I am worried that I am in store for a very silly film but a voiceover steps in to suggest that this scenario is where all troubles begin for the ladies. This little sandbox girl runs to her mommy who explains that this little boy only treats her badly because he likes her. Suddenly, I am wondering if this cheesy chick flick might be able to answer a mystery I’ve never quite understood – why do girls always go for the bad boys? The insight lasted for about five seconds though and before long, I was drowning in good actors acting poorly, poor actors acting worse than usual and so many exaggerated dating clichés that I was glad to be single and along watching this banality of a picture.


HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU tries to capture the particular moment in time that people of the dating world are living these days. We are a society of instant gratification. We expect certainty within moments of meeting and we decide within those same moments whether to use and discard or just not bother. We play by so many rules that no one can even see the goal through the field. Though we maintain specific distances with people, we claim to want closeness and we continue to play no matter how futile we think the whole affair to be. We are a complicated bunch and Kwapis paints us all as pathetic little losers with no hopes of ever finding love. His explanations are far too facile but he is sure to reinforce that we need another to be complete our lives and experience real happiness before wrapping up so that we can all continue to lose sleep wondering why he’s just not that into me.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: For Love and Horror

You would never know there was an economic crisis going on if you just looked at this year’s box office results. For the second week in a row, the highest drop off was just over 30% and that wasn’t even for the critically lambasted PINK PANTHER 2. No, there was plenty to celebrate this weekend with Valentine’s Day falling on the biggest date night of the week and FRIDAY THE 13TH returning to theatres just in time to have the release day coincide with the film’s title.


When the original FRIDAY THE 13TH opened in 1980, it cumed about $6 million and went on to take in a total of just under $40 million. This was big back then. Oh how far we have come as this latest relaunch of a franchise has amassed more than that in just one weekend. I’m sure once you take inflation into consideration, the original still has a lead but it won’t for long. Not only did this new installment debut on Friday the 13th to the best opening day of the year, it also had the added benefit of coming out in time for Valentine’s Day. Horror and comedy are the top favorite genres of couple on dates so it is no shocker to see this kind of response.


Keeping that in mind, it is also no surprise to see last week’s champ, HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, hold on so strongly with just a 29% decline. In fact, its hold could account for the mediocre debut of CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC. The “Shopaholic” series by author, Sophie Kinsella, is immensely popular, much more so that the “He’s Just Not That Into You” book, but yet could not compete with the latter’s star power. Also, it might have hurt its chances given that spending irresponsibly is really not the direction the country is going in.


Tom Tykwer’s bid at the mainstream, THE INTERNATIONAL, had to settle for a 7th place start. Tykwer, famous for his cult classic, RUN LOLA RUN, put together a stylish thriller with top-notch actors (Clive Owen and Naomi Watts) but an overcomplicated plot bogged it down. Also, viewers might want to deal with the idea of corrupt banks just as much as foolish shopping habits. No, what viewers want these days is leftovers as both CORALINE and TAKEN saw declines under 10%. This kind of staying power is practically unheard of.


It’s the week before Oscar and all through the house, not creature was stirring except for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. The front-runner for Best Picture is the only one out of the five nominees to place in the Top 10 this year. Clearly people are clamoring to see it before the big event as they assume it will inevitably be crowned king dog. The rest of the nominees fall in the following order: THE READER ($2 million, down 10%), THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON ($1.6 million, down 30%), MILK ($816K, down 27.5%) and FROST/NIXON ($473K, down 39%). Meanwhile, Oscar hopeful in the Foreign Language category, THE CLASS, continued to play well in limited release, pulling in $222K, for an increase of 23.5% over last week.

NEXT WEEK: I highly recommend you catch up on your Oscar pics as there certainly isn’t anything worth seeing in first run. Well, if you like teen comedies about jocks joining the cheerleading squad to score, you could see FIRED UP. Or if you like men in grandmother drag placed in awkward scenarios, you could check out TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL. I told you you’d want to stay home.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: We're Just That Into You

Valentine’s Day doesn’t come until next weekend but there was a lot of love at the box office this weekend. I couldn’t throw specific dates at you but I don’t recall the last time I saw such slight declines across the board in the Top 10. You just know that when a disappointment like THE UNINVITED drops off only 38% in its second week, something isn’t right.


Of course, the most love went to the impressive ensemble comedy, HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU. The film is based on a the popular novel of the same name, which was essentially based on one line of dialogue from the “Sex and the City” television series. All they need to do now is develop the film into a Broadway musical and then develop a film based on that and the cycle will be complete. I suppose there could be a book encapsulating the entire process. Or better still, maybe they could refer to it in the next “Sex and the City” movie. No matter really as the film, which was originally slated for last October, proved to be another hit for Jennifer Aniston, who, after MARLEY & ME, has finally found her box office stride.


The girl power generated from the romantic comedy’s success made its way down to kids too as CORALINE finally found its way to screens. This film was originally slated for release last year and surpassed industry expectations in its new weekend. Not only did the stop-motion animation film, based on the Neil Gaiman children’s book, play well to kids, it also played well to cult audiences who have been waiting for a new Henry Selick film ever since his last, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS.


There was a lot more love shown to holdovers than any other new releases. Last week’s champ, TAKEN, found itself, uh, taking in another $20 million, off only 17% from last week. Liam Neeson, the action star – who knew? Maybe they’ll reissue DARKMAN to capitalize on his newfound action hero role. Hmm, probably not. Clint Eastwood couldn’t get any love from the Oscar people but GRAN TORINO continues to pull in solid cash, falling off less than 10% this week for a grand total of over $120 million. Kevin James must be laughing a lot harder than any of us are as I’m sure he never imagined that PAUL BLART: MALL COP would spend a month in the Top 5 and pass the $100 million mark, which it is sure to do by next weekend. And Best Picture favorite, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE continues to pull in droves of people desperate for hope. With only two weeks to go before the Oscar telecast, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE remains the only Best Picture nominee in the Top 10.


All that holding over left little room for THE PINK PANTHER 2 and PUSH to find their own love. The Steve Martin sequel opened about $8 million lower than its predecessor. I’d say that puts an end to this embarrassing series. And PUSH had a hard time getting past its limited run to find the wide X-MEN audience it so clearly was trying to rip off.

NEXT WEEK: Given the current economic climate, I’m not sure this film has the best timing but CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC will make the jump from page to screen. Tom Tykwer goes Hollywood with THE INTERNATIONAL, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. And given that next Friday is the 13th, what better time could there be to release the FRIDAY THE 13TH remake?