Weekend Boxoffice Chart

[Evil Avatar]

Tom Cruise's alien-invasion thriller War of the Worlds led the box office in North America with estimated ticket sales of $77.6 million, the second-best tally for a July 4 holiday weekend, distributor Paramount Pictures said on Monday.

Here is the Weekend Boxoffice Chart for the holiday weekend of July 1st to July 3rd.

War of the Worlds $77.6/$113.2
Batman Begins $18.6/$154.1
Mr. & Mrs. Smith $12.7/$146.0
Bewitched $10.8/$40.3
Herbie: Fully Loaded $10.5/$36.8
Madagascar $7.0/$172.4
Rebound $6.0/$6.0
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith $5.0/$366.4
The Longest Yard $3.5/$148.2
George A. Romero's Land of the Dead $3.2/$16.7

[bobbler]

Where is the money count?

Anyone know how much Batman Begins has brought in so far?

[Com_Gaunt]

I thought War of the Worlds was somewhat dissapointing.... I have known the story since a couple of years after Jeff Wayne came out with the War of the Worlds rock opera and I felt that it missed some of the vastness of a million people running away from the tripods portrayed in the novel. Tom Cruise was crying too much and the "Brave new world" idea portrayed by Tim Robins did not get explained enough like in the novel. Also the narration by Morgan Freeman was not near as excellent as the narration by Richard Burton in the Rock Opera. Overall, I think that Independance day is the better "Aliens invade earth and destroy us all" movie.

[Malovech]

...and don't forget that idiotic ending. Man Spielberg just can't resist his sappy, feel-good impulses. This movie angered me so much it almost ruined my weekend.

[zorper]

I'm the local H.G. Well's nut of the board and would like to say I found the "War of the Worlds" movie a reasonably good faith interpretaion of the original novel. Well, as much as Spielberg could squeeze into two hours anyway.

If you can look at an image of Cruise without seeing "Scientology stooge" or visualizing putting an axe in his head (my personal problem), then the movie is worth is going to see.

[Com_Gaunt]

...and don't forget that idiotic ending. Man Spielberg just can't resist his sappy, feel-good impulses. This movie angered me so much it almost ruined my weekend.

You mean the whole "family gets back together" thing in the end? That was too disney for my taste as well. Hopefully the other two versions coming out (Victorian setting and the animated version with Jeff Wayne music) will be darker.
He got the bacteria and such right on par with the novel. I think that the extra explanation of why the the Aliens were vulnerable to bacteria as listed in the novel should have been added.
I also do not agree with the “Aliens come down from lighting bolts into their buried tripods” idea, what’s wrong with capsules raining from the sky?

[Com_Gaunt]

I'm the local H.G. Well's nut of the board and would like to say I found the "War of the Worlds" movie a reasonably good faith interpretaion of the original novel. Well, as much as Spielberg could squeeze into two hours anyway.

If you can look at an image of Cruise without seeing "Scientology stooge" or visualizing putting an axe in his head (my personal problem), then the movie is worth is going to see.

It was not bad, but I expected something darker.... more carnage if you will....

[ÜberJumper]

I thouroughly enjoyed War of the Worlds. Needed more army vs aliens at the end though.

As for the Lightning bolt thing... kinda makes sense they'd use a "weapon/tool" that just happened to look like lightning to "dig" to the machine's capsule docking port. Especially when the digging tool thing has the ability to EMP stuff around it.

And why not have the US Military mobilize a small number of retrofitted Alien Walkers that had been uncovered by accident and reverse engineered.

[Blade]

WoW served its purpose.

I also saw Cinderella Man this weekend. Good flick, but not quite as good as other boxing classics like Raging Bull. Almost as good as MDB.

[Racknahm]

I thouroughly enjoyed War of the Worlds. Needed more army vs aliens at the end though.

And why not have the US Military mobilize a small number of retrofitted Alien Walkers that had been uncovered by accident and reverse engineered.

What you're asking for is to turn it into Independence Day.

[greensky]

I went to Land of the Dead and they gave me a ticket to War of the Worlds... I still went to Land of the Dead and it was good. I'm not planning on seeing Independence Day II.

[Com_Gaunt]

As for the Lightning bolt thing... kinda makes sense they'd use a "weapon/tool" that just happened to look like lightning to "dig" to the machine's capsule docking port. Especially when the digging tool thing has the ability to EMP stuff around it.

I think they should have stayed closer to the original story in that context. I also think that the red weed could have gotten some more explanation.

[bobbler]

They should have used an Apple laptop to send a virus to the aliens instead -- a 20th century twist!

:rolleyes:

[evilpenguin9000]

I saw Land of the Dead this weekend. I was hoping for more. It really doesn't stand up to Romero's other work in my mind. And the remake of Dawn of the Dead kicked its ass.

[if76]

I thought the ending with the son being alive "somehow" and Boston being completely spared from the alien invasion was weak.

More importantly though I think the entire ending with the germs was kinda lame. Yes I know this is faithful to the book, the radio broadcast, and the original movie but it just didn't feel right to me. I mean think about it. How many movies have incredibly powerful villians that just die on their own?

Imagine if T1000 had a programming glitch where at the end of the movie he just has an illegal operation and dies. Imagine if at the end of Predator, he dies cause he's alergic to mud or something.

It may work in a book or radio broadcast but it just didn't work for this movie. Personally I think a better ending would have been if another group of aliens came in and kicked the aliens' asses. Maybe a cameo from the close encounters dwarfs.

[ÜberJumper]

Racknahm:

Well not really, but I can see how you'd think that.

ID4 seemed pretty far fetched to me.

War of the Worlds seems like it makes more sense than ID4, but still the whole bacteria thing bugs me. You figure an advanced space travelling alien race that can exist for millions of years would have figured out that "hey, there's viruses and bacteria and stuff out there".

[GrinR]

Not that I'm reeeeally sensitive, because I'm not, but this thread should have a spoiler warning on it. Half the posts here tell the ending or twists in WotW.

[Com_Gaunt]

War of the Worlds seems like it makes more sense than ID4, but still the whole bacteria thing bugs me. You figure an advanced space travelling alien race that can exist for millions of years would have figured out that "hey, there's viruses and bacteria and stuff out there".

HG Wells explains this perfectly in my opinion. As he states it, disease and bacteria had been eradicated from marsian society millions of years before. So basically, they "lost" the battle due to their perfection.

[Jetherik]

Batman was AWESOME. Exceded my expectations.

[bobbler]

Wasn't the whole idea of the bacteria thing to show how God's tiniest creation saved man kind? More so than a practical reason for them dying... The book was a social/religious commentary on how society (during the time it was written, but also works for now) is constantly "degrading" and that we needed to open our eyes, and how we're not the most important thing since sliced bread, etc, etc?

So porting that to a movie that doesn't really continue with the commentary that the book was hinting at will indefinately lose some of the 'purpose' that the ending had.

[CapnBob]

Wasn't the whole idea of the bacteria thing to show how God's tiniest creation saved man kind?

I don't recall the book putting a lot of weight on God, especially not God creating aliens to attack humanity and creating bacteria to kill the aliens just to make a point to humans about how totally powerless they are. I mean, seriously, is the whole point of the book that God is a total dick who just likes to fuck around with humanity for no good reason? I must have missed that part.

[Ravana]

The first thing I thought of when hearing the Tripods "call" was "Wow, that would make an awesome car horn."

[bobbler]

It wasn't explicitly said in the book... But I believe I've read a few analyses of the book that were hinting that the book had some social/religious commentary about how society stopped caring about the important things, people thought they were king of the world, and all that jazz. It also implied that the Aliens weren't necessarily made by God, but God's most insignificant creation saved humanity and outdid them in their efforts to stop what was happening.

Who knows...

[Crabby]

I think the kid living was the most far-fetched aspect of the latest movie. I kinda thought he was engulfed in that wave of fire like Cruise's character did.

I also felt the whole experience was a little hollow, but I have yet to articulate this feeling. In other news I saw Batman Begins again and that movie is still smoking hot.

[zorper]

In the first chapter of "War of the Worlds" Wells compares the Martian invasion to the colonial powers' destruction of local peoples. So in my opinion, the the whole story is about arrogance. The current arrogant owners of the Earth, Man, are defeated and turned into food. The Martians are then in turn defeated by thier own arrogance by their faith technology. Well's was making a social statement, one that is still valid. And it is about as un-Hollywood as possible: The humans don't win against the bad guys.

And for those people complaining of the happy ending of the movie, I basically agree. But that ending was in the book. At the very end, out of the blue, the Writer meets his wife in his house. The house has miraculously survived despite being right near the initial landing.

[mister_slim]

It's funny that Verne, who focused so much on the plausibility of his science, is less remembered than Wells, who mostly just used fantastic machines as a storytelling tool. I could draw a fairly good analogy to modern SF, I suppose, but it seems like kicking a dead dog.

[Heretic Machine]

It's funny that Verne, who focused so much on the plausibility of his science, is less remembered than Wells, who mostly just used fantastic machines as a storytelling tool. I could draw a fairly good analogy to modern SF, I suppose, but it seems like kicking a dead dog.

Er... what? I've always thought of Verne as much more popular than Wells. I mean, most people can name at least a couple of Verne books. Some people don't even know who Wells is.

[mister_slim]

Er... what? I've always thought of Verne as much more popular than Wells. I mean, most people can name at least a couple of Verne books. Some people don't even know who Wells is.
Well, subjective list of important works:

Verne:
20,000 Leagues
Around the World in Eighty Days

Wells:
The Time Machine
The Invisible Man
Dr. Moreau
War of the Worlds
(and he's apparently the 'father of miniature wargames'?)

[Blue]

For War of the Worlds, I actually am appreciative of the fact they had a happier twist at the end. There was little to nothing remotely "happy" or uplifting in that film and had people just died in the end, I would have gone home and put a gun to my head. The film was, as a whole, pretty dark and depressing. I don't think it's a matter of being unable to resist a sappy ending, I think it's a matter of leaving your audience with at least one moment of decency in the entire film.

Maybe that's just me.

[Hellstorm]

Bewitched and Herbie doing better box office that LoD? Sucks to be Romero.

[bobbler]

Hey... I saw bewitched.

I almost forgot about it -- maybe that says something about it?

[Racknahm]

It's remake city this summer.

[Nessus]

I'm glad to see that Land Of The Dead finally broke even. And with DVD sales it should actually turn quite the profit. So I imagine there's a decent chance he'll get to make the next one.

And I liked War Of The Worlds, but agree with a lot of the people here regarding the lightning and the happy ending.

[saneman]

On what Zorper said. About the writer meeting his wife at the end. I haven't read the book since I was a little kid, and all that really stuck with me was the unique (at that time in my reading experience) way in which an alien invasion story was told. I thought the movie did a good enough job of keeping to that.

What bothered me about the ending wasn't that cruise's ex-wife+family were there at the end. It's a bit odd yes that they were so unscathed, but their being there provided a degree of closure to Cruise's journey in the film. He managed to get his daughter to her mother. It'd be a hollow ending indeed for Cruise+Fanning to come so far only to find the mother dead. What bothered me was that his son was there too. Just completely out of the blue. No hint of how he might have survived that enormous wall of flame that seemed to consume him earlier on. Not only that though, but there was no need for him to be there, except to make an already satisfying ending needlessly "happier".

That's the criticism I think people have with Mr. Spielberg's films sometimes. Minority Report is an even better example of this. It's not that the endings are "happy", it's that they seem to go out of their way to be incongruously happy.

EDIT: just wanted to add that I enjoyed War of the Worlds, as I enjoyed Minority Report. There were just points that bothered me. (I enjoyed Minority Report less when doing a comparitive essay on the film and the short story... comparing Spielberg's storytelling to Dick's is umm... uniquely vexing).

[Hizawky]

On what Zorper said. About the writer meeting his wife at the end. I haven't read the book since I was a little kid, and all that really stuck with me was the unique (at that time in my reading experience) way in which an alien invasion story was told. I thought the movie did a good enough job of keeping to that.

What bothered me about the ending wasn't that cruise's ex-wife+family were there at the end. It's a bit odd yes that they were so unscathed, but their being there provided a degree of closure to Cruise's journey in the film. He managed to get his daughter to her mother. It'd be a hollow ending indeed for Cruise+Fanning to come so far only to find the mother dead. What bothered me was that his son was there too. Just completely out of the blue. No hint of how he might have survived that enormous wall of flame that seemed to consume him earlier on. Not only that though, but there was no need for him to be there, except to make an already satisfying ending needlessly "happier".

That's the criticism I think people have with Mr. Spielberg's films sometimes. Minority Report is an even better example of this. It's not that the endings are "happy", it's that they seem to go out of their way to be incongruously happy.

EDIT: just wanted to add that I enjoyed War of the Worlds, as I enjoyed Minority Report. There were just points that bothered me. (I enjoyed Minority Report less when doing a comparitive essay on the film and the short story... comparing Spielberg's storytelling to Dick's is umm... uniquely vexing).


I love Philip K Dick and own all of his short stories and most of his novels, but Hollywood's adaptions of his short stories kicks his original telling's ass.

Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report, and even Ben Aflecks Paycheck are way better than his original source material.

[saneman]

I didn't mean to make a judgement either way on either version of Minority Report, only point out that comparing the two approaches in storytelling style was a pain in the ass. There was also the added complication that I didn't start the essay until a week after it was due. Somehow I still managed a high distinction. You'd laugh too if you read the essay. It really sucked.

But yes... I didn't enjoy the film less for having read the short story, only for the circumstance in which I had to view it.

[Oblivion]

war of the worlds was kickking ass, until martians started dieying. even that seems ok, after I read the comment that said the martian society forget about disease millions of years ago after eradicating it (bacteria, how can you forget about it?), but for the son being at the end, there were no excuses. why try to make a happy ending that does not make sense at all? I hope there is an alternate ending somewhere.

[Roc Ingersol]

If Spielberg was going to have the son live, there should've been a bit more doubt as to whether he was incinerated or not. As in, show him going over the damn hill, instead of just belly crawling to peek over the top. It could've even made a decent point about the benefits of sacking up and charging, instead of pussy-footing around gawking.

And with the bacteria thing, you've really just gotta let it go. The 'science' in this fiction is pretty much an afterthought. Even in Wells' text it was tertiary; behind the imagery and allegory.

[net7runner]

Maybe I'm just a bad person, but did anyone else get constant Half-Life 2 flashbacks the entire time? For example, in War of the Worlds, we have:

-Earth is invaded by aliens
-The plot takes place in a ravaged cityscape
-Long-legged "striders" that run around killing everyone
-Previously mentioned striders emit strange roaring noises similar to a whale/sea lion
-Previously mentioned striders have a bigass laser they use to kill things
-The only time we see a strider actually destroyed, it is by a group with RPG's

Okay, so maybe it was just the striders...but I couldn't help feeling that the guys over at ILM were a little...distracted during post-production... :p

[Com_Gaunt]

In the first chapter of "War of the Worlds" Wells compares the Martian invasion to the colonial powers' destruction of local peoples. So in my opinion, the the whole story is about arrogance. The current arrogant owners of the Earth, Man, are defeated and turned into food. The Martians are then in turn defeated by thier own arrogance by their faith technology. Well's was making a social statement, one that is still valid. And it is about as un-Hollywood as possible: The humans don't win against the bad guys.

I agree with the arrogance analysis there, that's my feeling on the material exactly.
Furthermore, I think the bacteria statements were very much scifi like in that ERA. The Church and it's belief system was still very dominant at that time so the statements about microscopic creatures killing the Aliens was probably as far fetched as the actual Aliens. That is, for the majority of HG Wells's audience.
I remember a TV series from the BBC in the late 80's that told a story of people surviving the Martian occupation and leading a rebellion type a thing. Now that would be a good mini series/movie similar to "Reign of Fire" and the future bits with John Connnor in the Terminator movies but then with the Aliens as the baddies.

[Beelzebud]

I was really hoping Land of the Dead would preform better at the B.O.

I thought it was MUCH better than any zombie flick made recently. It even has Romero's great social commentary in it just like Dawn 78 had. I think it would have been a huge success had it come out around Halloween as originally planned.

For House of Wax to do better at the B.O. tells me people are more interested in seeing the "flavor of the month" (Hilton) than the thoughtful work of a genre pioneer.

Here's hoping the DVD sales of Land of the Dead make up for it's lackluster performance. It did make a little over a million dollars so far. In any other industry it would be heralded as a success, but in movies, 1 million is a "failure".

I really liked the movie, and I can't wait to see the uncut DVD he's editing right now.

[Beelzebud]

"Bewitched and Herbie doing better box office that LoD? Sucks to be Romero."

No, it's great to be Romero, because when he is long gone, he won't be remembered for making hollywood summer movies that people watch, and then just forget.

[BleedTheFreak]

No one is talking about this, so maybe I'm just a retard (again).

But why would aliens build tripods under our land millions of years ago, then come down and take us over later, why not just take over the planet when they first came here and man wasn't even around then? Further more, does NO ONE comprehend how fucking LONG a million years is? Seriously? Anyone? A MILLION YEARS is a long time for anything to be buried in the ground, it's mind boggling. Everyone is obsesed with that dumb fucking kid at the end of the movie, no one wants to talk about how stupid it is for the aliens to have already had the things buried in the ground. It's something that bothers me. ;)

[Com_Gaunt]

But why would aliens build tripods under our land millions of years ago, then come down and take us over later, why not just take over the planet when they first came here and man wasn't even around then? Further more, does NO ONE comprehend how fucking LONG a million years is? Seriously? Anyone? A MILLION YEARS is a long time for anything to be buried in the ground, it's mind boggling. Everyone is obsesed with that dumb fucking kid at the end of the movie, no one wants to talk about how stupid it is for the aliens to have already had the things buried in the ground. It's something that bothers me.

Well, it's not true to the novel but I would assume it's like planting seeds and harvesting them later and leaving the tractor in the area or something?
So the Aliens buried their machinery a long time ago to wait on Humanity or whatever species to prosper then come back and harvest them.

Which is again not true to the novel since the Aliens from Mars want our planet and not really us. They want our planet to be a new mars, that's why the red weed is spread. At the time HG Wells probably assumed that red weed grew on Mars and that is how MArs would get it's reddish tint.

On another note, I know a place in Amsterdam that sells Red Weed ;)

[Evil Avatar]

I really liked the movie, and I can't wait to see the uncut DVD he's editing right now.

From what I read on Fangoria, don't expect much from the uncut version of the film. Almost nothing was cut from the movie.

This is just an average movie that is doing poorly at the box office. Kind of sad to see that Romero just doesn't have the magic any more and can so easily be outdone (Dawn 2004) by other filmmakers.

[Beelzebud]

No way was Dawn 2004 better than Land of the Dead.

Not in my opinion anyway. Dawn 2004 is an action movie with no soul.

And I've read in numerous places that there were indeed many cuts to achieve an R rating.

[XxSATANxX]

Yea so for the first time in a REALLY long time I go to see a movie. War of the Worlds.

God I was really hoping the aliens would stomp Dakota flat then slam her stomped corpse with death ray.

I cheered and applauded when the Tripod grabbed her!

I prayed they would kill her in a fantastic way. Imagine my disapointment when she survives and the Martians die. Damn life is so UNFAIR!

So I don't go to the movies much this may be why.

[Bone]

From what I read on Fangoria, don't expect much from the uncut version of the film. Almost nothing was cut from the movie.

Actually, Romero cut the movie much more gory, and was asked to tone it down for an R rating. Instead he added CGI zombies walking in front of the goriest stuff (like the bad CGI blockers used to get Eyes Wide Shit a rating). If you go back and watch it now you will probably see exactly what I mean.

So the length of LOTD may not change, but expect to see more brutal slayings at least. I still haven't seen it but apparently there is a lot more intestine-chewing in this one, much of which was censored.

[Rommel]

What a scary film. Seriously, had me quaking. What I loved about War of the Worlds was how the movie never once deviated from the main character's perspective. You never once got to see what going on or understand something unless Cruise got to see it. As a result, you got the war truly from one man's viewpoint.

[Groo]

No one is talking about this, so maybe I'm just a retard (again).

But why would aliens build tripods under our land millions of years ago, then come down and take us over later, why not just take over the planet when they first came here and man wasn't even around then? Further more, does NO ONE comprehend how fucking LONG a million years is? Seriously? Anyone? A MILLION YEARS is a long time for anything to be buried in the ground, it's mind boggling. Everyone is obsesed with that dumb fucking kid at the end of the movie, no one wants to talk about how stupid it is for the aliens to have already had the things buried in the ground. It's something that bothers me. ;)

Why is it that so many people get snagged on this? Who says that the tripods have been buried for millions of years? Some idiotic slack jawed yokel. And, immediately, some people's brains lock up, and they aren't able to see that that person was wrong.

Who knows when the tripods were buried? They never actually say.

The tripods would to have been buried before mankind populated certain areas. So, the population would have to have been small. The aliens must have seen some sort of potential in the humans (as food or what have you). However, at this point, the human population of the world must have been too small for what the aliens were planning.

So, what did the aliens do? They buried these tripods, and then nurtured human growth and technoogy, leading to the population explosion of the Industrial Revolution. And they've just been biding their time, waiting for their crops to grow.

And, now that the human population is so huge, they've decided to come in and harvest them. First, they send in the tripods to blow things up, scare people, and make them disorganized. Because they know that an organized defensive from humans could potentially mess up their plans. Once everyone is running scared, they send in the harvesters.

And, at first, things are OK for the aliens. But, in time, due to their arrogance and lack of foresight, something starts to go terribly wrong. It turns out that some bacteria or virus (the common cold?) to which they initially thought themselves immune, is crippling them. Imagine if you were piloting a tripod, and you came down with the worst case of the flu ever.

After all, viruses on earth are constantly evolving. They may have thought themselves immune at some point. But between that time and now, a thousand new strains of disease coudl have popped up, especially with the overuse of antiobiotics nowadays.

[BleedTheFreak]

Why is it that so many people get snagged on this? Who says that the tripods have been buried for millions of years? Some idiotic slack jawed yokel. And, immediately, some people's brains lock up, and they aren't able to see that that person was wrong.

Who knows when the tripods were buried? They never actually say.

The tripods would to have been buried before mankind populated certain areas. So, the population would have to have been small. The aliens must have seen some sort of potential in the humans (as food or what have you). However, at this point, the human population of the world must have been too small for what the aliens were planning.

So, what did the aliens do? They buried these tripods, and then nurtured human growth and technoogy, leading to the population explosion of the Industrial Revolution. And they've just been biding their time, waiting for their crops to grow.

And, now that the human population is so huge, they've decided to come in and harvest them. First, they send in the tripods to blow things up, scare people, and make them disorganized. Because they know that an organized defensive from humans could potentially mess up their plans. Once everyone is running scared, they send in the harvesters.

And, at first, things are OK for the aliens. But, in time, due to their arrogance and lack of foresight, something starts to go terribly wrong. It turns out that some bacteria or virus (the common cold?) to which they initially thought themselves immune, is crippling them. Imagine if you were piloting a tripod, and you came down with the worst case of the flu ever.

After all, viruses on earth are constantly evolving. They may have thought themselves immune at some point. But between that time and now, a thousand new strains of disease coudl have popped up, especially with the overuse of antiobiotics nowadays.

Hey, that was excellent thanks! You know, I even said something similar to my wife, about the only way we know them to have been buried was from some guy. I even hypothesized that the things being send down in the lightning strikes were the tripods themselves, perhaps through nanotech, they constructed the tripods underground after the lightning had sent all the required materials into the earth, and when they were fully constructed they revealed themselves to the jedi. You get the idea.