Monday's Movie Box Office Recap - Who won the battle of the funny?

Well this weekend’s battle of the box office draws confirmed a new comedians pull and could possibly mark the beginning of the end for another.











As expected, “Get Smart” snagged the number one spot at the box office this weekend, with draw of $39 million, which is quite substantial for a flimsy comedy remake of a television show most people who were born after 1975 never saw an episode of. But the big news really is that “The Love Guru”, Mike Myers’ return to the big screen after about 5 years time off, fell far below its expected second place rank, raking in only $14 million, making it the fourth highest grossing film this weekend. The movie, which Myers vigilantly worked on the past few years, was universally panned last week by the nation’s critics, but it was expected to come in at least second. In actuality, it was beaten, not only by rival comedian’s Steve Carell’s “Smart”, but also a cartoon that has been open for two weeks, ”Kung Fu Panda” and the lackluster Marvel action flick “The Incredible Hulk. And with this showing the first weekend out, things can only go down hill from here for Myers and his meditation master Pitka. The movie might win a second place just yet though, as the second biggest blockbuster flop, after the sad performance of “Speed Racer, the big flop of the summer. It seems that any possible future for “Love Guru” sequels has been squashed with this weekend’s totals. Congratulations should be given to “Iron Man” and “Sex and the City” for sticking it out in the top ten.

Also surprising is the $220 thousand dollars Kit Kittredge: An American Girl pulled in this past weekend with a limited release of 5 theaters. The highly reviewed first installment of the main screen adaptations of the lives of the American Girl brand is set to have a larger release in July, but if this is any indication of its pull, New Line Cinemas’ might have really hit pay dirt , possibly their last pay dirt with two films this summer, whose target audience is women. You hear that Warner Brothers and the rest of Hollywood?

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. Get Smart - $39 million
2. Kung Fu Panda - $22 million
3. The Incredible Hulk - $21.5 million
4. The Love Guru - $14 million
5. The Happening - $10 million
6. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $8.4 million
7. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan - $7.2 million
8. Sex and the City: The Movie - $6.5 million
9. Iron Man - $4 million
10. The Strangers - $2 million

This Weekend's Box Office Battle - Will "Get Smart" beat out "The Love Guru" and other comedic revelations....

And it begins…
This summer is turning out to be a battle of the lukewarm openers. This weekend will mark the opening of “The Love Guru starring Mike Myers and “Get Smart starring Steve Carell. Myers, the one time king of the comedy box office will be pitted against one of the funny men to attempt and possibly succeed in removing the crown. Meyers has not had a “box office success” in the past six years and the last time he grabbed a top spot was with the third installment of the hilarious “Austin Powers” franchise. The reviews are in for both films and it seems that the critics are all choosing “Get Smart” to win the weekend with its fresh take on the classic sitcom from the 1960’s, starring Don Adams. Critics are panning “Guru” and Meyers for the potty mouthed humor and overplayed jokes that are weaved throughout the meditation master spoof. While Myers’ continued commitment to his characters remains strong, viewers aren’t sure there is enough material to really be true to. In an interesting twist, the always lovable Carell took a huge leap, once again, stepping in a role that is almost synonymous with the original creator. Don Adams not only embodied the role of Max Smart, but one might even say that he battled this characterization for the remainder of his years. This is familiar territory for Carell since he became a household name after stepping into the shoes of another funny man, Ricky Gervais, in the American version of “The Office”. “Get Smart” is seemingly winning the battle with the critics, but neither film is being universally touted as a true rip roaring comedy for the summer. In fact that job might have to be taken care of later in the summer with upcoming comedies like ”Step-Brothers” starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, ”Tropic Thunder” starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black and ”Pineapple Express” starring Seth Rogen and James Franco.

This change in the scope of comedy is a long way coming and it seems that whatever Mike Myers had tried this time around, it might have failed. The comedian, who was recently profiled in not the greatest light by Entertainment Weekly, has been battling the rumors of his being difficult and insane dedication to his roles in Hollywood for years now. But isn’t the true battle him and his comedy stylings are having with the viewers themselves? This weekend’s battle could signal more than just one person being funny over another, but could really be the nail in the coffin to 1990’s style comedies. With the success of Judd Apatow and Co. and their more truthful comedies, it seems that the comedy genre audience itself is developing different tastes, making it more difficult for the old standard to continue to succeed. Ferrell recently hit a wall block with his 8,000 version of the same story with the dismal ”Semi-Pro”, which was too painfully bad to even finish. Ferrell hopefully took the clue and will continue to produce funny comedies that utilize different plot synopsis than “kooky, over weight, out of the limelight big name gets his glory again”, well you get the picture right? We live in a world of entertainment where “Saturday Night Live” is no longer the producer for successful box office demons it once was and actually the only ones coming out of the sketch comedian paradise with the goods are the female comediennes, which is a whole other topic to discuss at a later date. The new comedy camp seems reside in the behind the scenes magic of “Apatown”, with its ever presence of funny men and woman churning out heartfelt comedies. I for one hope that comedians can see the writing on the wall and more importantly, Hollywood execs can once again produce rip roaring comedies all the time. I have not had the opportunity to see either of the big comedies opening up this weekend and will present my personal reviews of them next week. I can say though that I have been beyond psyched for “Get Smart” and not only just for the always funny Carell, but to finally see Duane Johnson, previously known as The Rock, to become a genuine all around movie star, a development way too long in the making.












Whether the box office results show “Guru” or “Smart” at number one, the battle has already been won by the next generation.

The Green Hornet is off...or well on..

Seth Rogen has finally been green lit as the star and title character in the upcoming feature film bringing life to the comic book story of The Green Hornet. Rogen has discussed his interest in the project for quite some time now and it is said that he had to push incredibly hard to grab the role due to his goofy persona and schlubby exterior. He is currently writing the script for the project with partner in crime Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad with Rogen. The Green Hornet is expected hit theaters in the summer of 2010. This movie is just another in a long line of atypical leading men taking the reins of "hero" characters in blockbusters. And some say that if it wasn't for Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Iron Man in this summer's most successful blockbuster so far, studios wouldn't be so keen on taking a risk on a non-action type leading an action film. I heart Rogen and am very excited about seeing him take a departure from the normal Apatown fare.

Box Office Results and other Movie News....

So we knew it was going to happen and with all the Sex and the City: The Movie madness for the past few weeks the ladies took the reigns from Indiana Jones and nabbed the top spot for the box office totals this past weekend. The movie could be one of the only movies, whose stars are 40 + year old women, to grab the top spot. I promised my dissertation (joking, it should be much shorter than that) on the SATC madness, backlash and the actual movie, but my ass was caught up in family drama, and by that I mean a sick puppy, so I can not see it until tonight. I will be attempting to publish my review and coverage on the SATC backlash later tonight, but no promises. Odds are, first thing tomorrow.

Anyways, here is the full list of the top 10 movies from this weekend’s box office totals.
1. Sex and The City: The Movie - $55.7 million
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- $46 million
3. The Strangers - $20.7 million
4. Iron Man - $14 million
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $13 million
6. What Happens in Vegas - $6.9 million
7. Baby Mama - $2.2 million
8. Speed Racer - $2.1 million
9. Made of Honor - $2 million
10. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $1 million

In other movie news, MTV televised their “live” Movie Awards last night which has truly just become a two hour block of free advertising for movie studios pushing Summer releases. I couldn’t tell you who won anything other than Johnny Depp who walked away with two awads, since he truly took the audiences and my breath away. It’s a rare find nowadays to see a movie star of his caliber and to be around it is quite something else. Other stars who showed up to peddle some new flick or remind the kids they were still alive were Lindsay Lohan, Ellen Page, Steve Carrell, Duane Johnson, Anne Hathaway, Will Ferrell and Puff Daddy. Mike Meyers hosted the hot mess, promoting his Love Guru movie any second he could and reunited with one time partner in crime, Dana Carvey for a Waynes World sketch.
It was a bit bizarre, mainly because half of the studio audience had probably never known the original. Tom Cruise did his best "cool dad" performance and gave some kind of achievement award to Adam Sandler and he accepted it graciously and quite funny. But the funniest part of the show was not the ill fated award presentation involving “fake marijuana” with Seth Rogen and James Franco, who were promoting the much anticipateted , but it was the “viral video clip” for the upcoming Tropical Thunder movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Ben Stiller and written by Justin Theroux, a favorite here at The Spielster. You can check out the rest of the show and clips from it at MTV.com.

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And in other happenings at the Universal Studios lot this weekend, a fire spread across the New York City sets there damaging multiple popular backdrops, such as the clock tower from Back to the Future and part of the King Kong attraction. Poor water pressure is being blamed for the fire being able to spread to almost two blocks long of the sets lot. According to reports this morning, the fire was calmed down, but the local fire department is watching over the lot to make sure it remains contained.

Daily Rounds....

So apparently Blogger had been having fun at my expense ALL LAST week. What in my mind were posts, were apparently saved drafts and even though I went in and updated the posts, they remained drafts. Ironically traffic was up, so maybe y’all like reading the same posts over and over. I will try and do better my friends and this week we can make up for very lost time. The Daily Rounds will be a today only feature this week, as I am preparing for a very long weekend in NEW ORLEANS!!!! I am extremely excited about the visit and the chance to see a part of America that I have never been to. I would love to hear any ideas about favorite restaurants, sights or simply favorite bars from my readers. I am heading out this Friday, so please email them before that.
So let’s get to the box office news…..
This weekend was a bit of a bummer for the execs at Disney with the low turnout for Prince Caspian. the second installment in The Chronicles of Narnia franchise. Not sure if it was due to the continued strength of Iron Man, the poor reviews or the lull before the summer blockbuster storm, but Prince Caspian underperformed the projections and came in $10 million less than the weekend box office total for the original movie in the Chronicles of Narnia story. This will definitely play a part in where Disney goes with the rest of the series and how they will market it in the future, since they put a lot of emphasis on it’s “Christian friendly storyline” and promoted it heavily within the Evangelical Christian markets. And since next weekend is the official start of blockbuster summer, with the highly anticipated premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the first movie in the action series in almost 20 years, Caspian will most likely find a place in second or third in next week’s totals.

















Here is the full list of the top 10 movies from this weekend’s box office totals.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $56.5 million
2. Iron Man - $31.2 million
3. What Happens in Vegas - $13.9 million
4. Speed Racer - $7.7 million
5. Baby Mama - $4.6 million
6. Made of Honor - $4.5 million
7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $2.6 million
8. Harold and Kumar 2 - $1.8 million
9. The Forbidden Kingdom - $1 million
10. The Visitor - $687 thousand

Later today, there will be reviews of “Juno”, “Stranger than Fiction” and some chit chat about “Sex and the City”. Welcome to Monday’s Movie ReCap ladies and germs!

Iron Man stops Speed Racer at the Box Office.

UPDATED: Since Warner Brothers were a little more than generous with their forecasting for "Speed Racer"'s weekend box office numbers, the film ACTUALLY CAME IN THIRD PLACE last weekend. My list below has been updated with the correct figures and I just want to say to WB that mistakes do happen, but losing out to a romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher should let you know your action movie stinks!

Let’s start things of easy this morning…
Iron Man maintained its top spot at the box office this weekend, pulling in another $50 million, which makes its bank for the past two weeks a little under $180 million. Nicely done Mr. Downey Jr. Surprisingly though, Speed Racer actually snagged the second spot on the top grosser this weekend with $20 million. Didn’t anyone read the reviews last week? The romantic comedies filled out the rest of the top spots with What Happens in Vegas at $20 million, Made of Honor in fourth with $7.6 million and Baby Mama in at 5th with $5.8 million.

Here is the full list of the top 10 movies from this weekend’s box office totals.
1. Iron Man - $50.5 million
2. What Happens In Vegas - $20 million
3. Speed Racer - $18.6 million
4. Made Of Honor - $7.6 million
5. Baby Mama - $5.8 million
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $3.8 million
7. Harold and Kumar 2 - $3.2 million
8. The Forbidden Kingdom - $1.9 million
9. Nim's Island - $1.3 million
10. Redbelt - $1.4 million

This weekend is set to give Iron Man some stiff competition with the release of the next installment in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, Prince Caspian. Disney has gone above and beyond, courting the “family focused red states” for this movie and since C.S. Lewis’ books are Christian friendly, this franchise is expected to continue to set box office records, possibly being one of the biggest grossing films of the year. We will see, but I do hope that Iron Man retains its hold on the box office, if only to celebrate talented acting and thoughtful plot lines within an action/super hero based movie.

The next few weekends are going to be very exciting for box office trackers with some of the most anticipated follow up to movies in history being released this year. Next week, we will be seeing Indiana Jones returning to the screen after almost a twenty year hiatus and The Dark Knight, starring late actor Heath Ledger as the Joker will be released after much fanfare this July. All in all, this summer is going to be quite an exciting time for action loving film-goers, like myself.

Which movie are you all most excited about?