When your network sucks…

So here is something ironic I have noticed lately. Out of the big four non-cable networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) the one with the worst ratings is NBC. They also happen to have my favorite shows. Of course, I am leaving out cable because, Dexter, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad rock, but for network, primetime, I love NBC.

They have The Office, 30 Rock, Chuck and now Community. Granted, we will see how The Office does without Steve Carrel,  Chuck is now over and 30 Rock has lost a little luster, but overall these shows have been great the last few years. Community is hands down my favorite (I have a crush on Annie. )Heck, I still watch SNL, even though it is so-so, and Parks and Recreation has its moments too. Yet, despite all of this, their ratings are the worst, so this can only lead me to one of two conclusions.

Either, my tastes are awesome, or my tastes totally suck. I am going to error on the side of awesome. Here is my thinking. It is widely known among creative types that what is creative and well done does not always appeal to the general masses.  Take Arrested Development for example. A genius show, it has won numerous awards and I loved it, yet after three seasons FOX canceled it. Now you can say what you want about FOX and their sorry marketing (Firefly) but the other problem was that Arrested Development was just too original, off beat and quirky for main stream America.  The same for the Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen cult hit series Freaks and Geeks.  A great show that came on in 1999-2000 it didn’t last long. It was just a little too ahead of its time and a little too off beat for mainstream. Since then it has gained a lot of attention and if it was on now, it would probably be a hit.

Now I know I probably sound like an elitist snob and I don’t mean to be. It is more of the fact that I appreciate the irony of my favorite network having the worst ratings. Incidentally, this blog has come about from numerous debates with fellow Babbler Johnny and a few other friends about NBC shows versus CBS (How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory specifically) who happen to have the best ratings right now.  Big Bang is funny, but I don’t love it. How I Met is hit and miss to me, but I know these shows are huge. (Don’t forget all their other hits, Two and A Half Men, all the CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds types, Grey’s Anatomy and Letterman.)

The other option, of course, is that my tastes just plain suck.  This is a possibility, but it is one that I am not in a position to diagnose since they are my taste and being objective is not really my specialty.  So Babblers, let me know your thoughts on this. Art is subjective anyway, but some art is definably better than others.

Joel Courtney to play Tom Sawyer..

So according to slashfilms.com Joel Courtney, the recent star of Super 8, will be playing Tom Sawyer in an indie adaptation of the Mark Twain novel. While this may all be good and dandy for Joel’s career, I want to see his co-star Ryan Lee, who played the explosive crazed Cary, star in a Tom Petty bio-pic.

Tom Sawyer?

Tom Petty?

Stiller focks things up for Bridges

As expected, Christmas weekend was a busy one. What was unexpected was how busy it was for the Little Fockers. Skyrocketing to number one, this sequel proved that people want fun and laughter during the holidays rather than grit and tech. A pleased Jeff Bridges rode a horse and lightcycle to spots #2 and #3 in the box office with True Grit and TRON. Probably the highest anticipated film of the year, TRON Legacy has already become one of the biggest disappointments within 7 days of its opening. Falling to 3rd, the estimated budget of $170-230 million dollar reboot no doubt has some Disney Execs wondering if they should be expecting their Christmas bonus or  severance notice. Hopefully with the failure of Yogi Bear it will discourage future pirates from trying to make a quick buck off of a past children’s classic.   

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Little Fockers	N/A	$34,016,320	$48,302,320	1
2		True Grit	Paramount Pictures	$25,600,000	$36,818,000	1
3		TRON: Legacy	N/A	$20,107,000	$88,296,000	2
4		The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	Fox Walden	$10,800,000	$63,928,571	3
5		Yogi Bear	N/A	$8,800,000	$36,785,000	2

Johnny Knoxville Kicks Jackass in the box office



It’s kind of a sad world we live in where Jackass 3-D has a $50 million opening weekend. Not only does it perpetuate the silly antics of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and boys, but the myth that 3-D makes for a good movie. Oh well, I guess there is no accounting for taste. It’s unfortunate since an infinitely more creative movie like Bruce Willis’ RED earned only $22 million- a far second from first. Budgeted at $40 million, The Social Network has brought in a modest $63 mil in it’s third week. Nothing of consequence opens next weekend, which means Knoxville and boys will probably kick jackass for one more weekend (*sigh).

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Jackass 3D	Paramount Pictures	$50,000,000	$50,000,000	1
2		Red	N/A	$22,500,000	$22,500,000	1
3		The Social Network	Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group	$11,000,000	$63,119,000	3
4		Secretariat	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$9,503,000	$27,517,000	2
5		Life as We Know It	Warner Bros. Pictures	$9,200,000	$28,865,000	2

The Socal Network has a lot of ‘friends’

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The Social Network	Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group	$15,500,000	$46,069,000	2
2		Life as We Know It	Warner Bros. Pictures	$14,635,000	$14,635,000	1
3		Secretariat	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$12,600,000	$12,600,000	1
4		Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$7,015,000	$39,401,000	3
5		My Soul to Take	Universal Pictures	$6,919,000	$6,919,000	1

The Box Office never sleeps

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ended up on top of the box office. The sequel to the 1987 Wall Street did a modest $19 million. The atypical Zack Snyder production Legend of the Guardians only brought in $16 million. The rest of the box office was filled with lackluster performers with The Town having the most critical acclaim with a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Opening this weekend, The Social Network (100% so far on RT) which is about the story of the start of a little known website called ‘Facebook’.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	20th Century Fox	$19,000,000	$19,000,000	1
2		Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$16,335,000	$16,335,000	1
3		The Town	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$16,030,000	$49,117,000	2
4		Easy A	Sony Pictures Releasing	$10,700,000	$32,814,000	2
5		You Again	N/A	$8,300,000	$8,300,000	1

The summer of ‘meh’…

George Clooney’s The American rounded out the summer season with a modest take of $13 million for the weekend. It was followed by a long list of mediocre performances by mediocre movies. This has been an interesting summer with disappointing results. USA Today posted an insightful article to what happened and how the movie-going experience is changing.

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

How you view Hollywood’s summer movies depends largely on how you measure success.If you’re a dollars-and-cents fan, summer 2010 marked a new record for revenues, with $4.35 billion in ticket sales in the USA and Canada, according to Hollywood.com.

But if you measure the health of the industry by how many people actually go see movies, things aren’t so rosy. Attendance this summer was 552 million, the lowest total since 1997.

Hollywood didn’t help itself much with its slate this weekend, which went to George Clooney’s thriller The American with $16.4 million over the four-day holiday.

Though the movie met its modest expectations, the weekend newcomers proved underwhelming to U.S. audiences, who have yawned at many summer selections.

Explaining the ticket sales record is easy. Movies are more expensive than ever, now hovering at $7.88 a ticket. And those 3-D and Imax shows routinely cost $15 a ticket.

Explaining the attendance swoon is trickier. The summer had plenty of films that impressed critics and moviegoers, like Toy Story 3 and Inception.

But there has been no juggernaut of 2010 yet. The highest-grossing film so far is Toy Story 3 at $408 million, the only movie to cross the $400 million mark. Other factors tripped up Tinsel Town’s summer break:

• 3-D overhype? While it’s hailed as the usher of Hollywood’s new digital era, 3-D conversions and cheap films “caused people to lose their appetite” for the technology, says Hollywood.com’s Paul Dergarabedian. Of the summer’s top four films, only Toy Story was shot in 3-D.
• The Twitter/Facebook effect. Some analysts believe that as much as Twitter can spread hype, it shut others down before they were out of the gate. The $100 million Green Zone opened to a respectable $14 million, but petered out at $36 million. “Big on Friday, dead by Sunday,” Dergarabedian says. “With many substandard offerings, this happened a lot.”

The Robert Rodriguez pulp film Machete was second with $14 million, followed by the crime thriller Takers with $13.5 million. The Last Exorcism was fourth with $8.8 million, followed by Drew Barrymore newcomer Going the Distance, which bowed to a weak $8.6 million.

Article from USA TODAY.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The American	Focus Features	$12,968,000	$16,114,000	1
2		Takers	Sony Pictures Releasing	$11,450,000	$16,114,000	2
3		Machete	20th Century Fox Distribution	$11,300,000	$11,300,000	1
4		The Last Exorcism	Lionsgate	$7,645,000	$32,477,000	2
5		Going the Distance	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$6,885,000	$6,885,000	1

The dependable Expendables

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The Expendables	Lionsgate	$16,500,000	$64,890,000	2
2		Vampires Suck	20th Century Fox	$12,200,000	$18,564,000	1
3		Eat Pray Love	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$12,000,000	$47,100,000	2
4		Lottery Ticket	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$11,125,000	$11,125,000	1
5		The Other Guys	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$10,100,000	$88,190,000	3

* The Babbler’s favorite Scott Pilgrim vs. The World brought in a measly $5 million in its second week. Pitiful since we thought it was one of the best movies of the summer. Go see it!

Guys vs. Girls. vs. Nerds…

It was the ultimate ‘battle f the bands’ weekend between Expendables, Eat, Pray, Love, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The testosterone injected, über action romp, spear-headed by Sly Stallone KO’d the competition. Surprisingly, its appeal wasn’t just to guys either with 44% of viewers being females. The rest of the ladies went to see Julia Roberts Eat, Pray, Love. Even though it opened to poor reviews, America’s previous ‘sweetheart’ still seems to have enough appeal to bring in $24 million. The big disappointment of the weekend was the poor performance from Scott Pilgrim. Even though winning over critics, the graphic novel based movie barely had enough nerd support to cross the $10 million marker (budgeted at $60). It’s only hope is that positive word of mouth in the weeks to come will translate to more $. Inception comes back strong in its 5th week, proving that it is still one of the best movies of the year. Nothing big opening this weeks so it will be interesting to see how these movies do in week 2.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The Expendables	Lionsgate	$35,030,000	$35,030,000	1
2		Eat Pray Love	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$23,700,000	$23,700,000	1
3		The Other Guys	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$18,000,000	$70,543,000	2
4		Inception	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$11,370,000	$248,554,000	5
5		Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	Universal Pictures	$10,525,000	$10,525,000	1

The main guys were the Others guys

‘Will Ferrell with a gun’, that was the concept jokingly pitched at the San Diego Comic Con about The Other Guys. Sounds like the simple pitch worked on audiences this weekend. The buddy cop movie pairing Ferrell with Mark Walburg easily topped the box office ($35M) this weekend knocking off ’the other guys’ with ease. Even the comedic giant Steve Carrell could not compete with his opening of Dinner with the Schmucks with a measly $10 million. Needing to bounce back from the disastrous Land of the Lost, Ferrell was well supported with positive reviews from critics and strong word of mouth. Christopher Nolan’s Inception continues its box office success and will probably round out the summer at $250 million making it one of the more profitable movies of the season. This weekend will be a real battle between testosterone filled Expendables, Estrogen laced Eat,Pray,Love, and quirky Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The Other Guys	Sony Pictures Entertainment	$35,600,000	$35,600,000	1
2		Inception	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$18,600,000	$227,732,000	4
3		Step Up 3D	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$15,500,000	$15,500,000	1
4		Salt	Sony Pictures Releasing	$11,100,000	$91,980,000	4
5		Dinner for Schmucks	Paramount Pictures	$10,500,000	$46,746,000	2

Inception is no deception

The much anticipated film, Inception, hit the box office. Director Christopher Nolan and much of the same talent that made The Dark Knight, came together for this cerebral thriller starring Leo Decaprio. Scoring an $84 on Rotten Tomatoes and a cool $60 million, it looks like Inception was no deception. As a result, many of the big blockbusters played musical chairs as they got bumped down the box office ladder. Eclipse will probably end it’s run close to $300 million while Toy Story 3 will probably land near the $400 million marker. The next big film to release this weekend is rogue spy thriller SALT, starring Angelina Jolie.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Inception	N/A	$60,400,000	$60,400,000	1
2		Despicable Me	Universal Pictures	$32,734,000	$118,365,000	2
3		The Sorcerer’s Apprentice	Walt Disney Pictures	$17,373,000	$24,461,000	1
4		The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Summit Entertainment, LLC	$13,500,000	$264,900,000	3
5		Toy Story 3	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$11,742,000	$362,709,000	5

Despicable but good

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Despicable Me	Universal Pictures	$60,117,000	$60,117,000	1
2		The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Summit Entertainment, LLC	$33,400,000	$237,000,000	2
3		Predators	20th Century Fox	$25,300,000	$25,300,000	1
4		Toy Story 3	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$22,000,000	$340,200,000	4
5		The Last Airbender	Paramount Pictures	$17,150,000	$100,227,000	2