Weekend Boxoffice Chart

[Evil Avatar]

The new horror remake When a Stranger Calls connected with young thrill-seekers at the weekend box office in North America, but moviegoing generally took a back seat to Sunday's Super Bowl showdown.

Here is the Weekend Boxoffice Chart for the Weekend of February 3rd to February 5th.


When a Stranger Calls $22.0/$22.0
Big Momma's House 2 $13.3/$45.4
Nanny McPhee $9.9/$26.6
Brokeback Mountain $5.6/$59.7
Hoodwinked $5.3/$44.0
Underworld: Evolution $5.1/$52.7
Something New $5.0/$5.0
Annapolis $3.4/$12.9
Walk the Line $3.4/$110.7
Glory Road $3.0/$39.0
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe $2.9/$281.7
Last Holiday $2.5.$36.2

[ÜberJumper]

Saw Memoirs of a Geisha on the weekend. Pretty good acting. Not bad overall, seemed a bit rushed though.

Underworld Evolution was last weekend. Quite fun! Damn that beckinsale is hot!

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I saw TransAmerica Friday night - excellent movie! I highly recommend it.


Edit - Other than #4 and #9, this list seems to be nothing but schlock.

[EternalGamer]

Agreed about the list, what a sad group of films. Since the Oscar push is on, one of the local theatres started showing Capote again (after only a very short initial run). So I finally got to see it. I was incredibly impressed and I generally don't like "biopics" at all. If it won best picture I certainly wouldn't complain. I would still prefer Syriana (which isn't nominated for best picture), but of the ones up, I think Capote might be the best. No offense to Brokeback, Crash, or Good Night and Good Luck, all of which are excellent films. I actually think all the nominations are pretty worthwhile this year. Very odd.

Dan

[Crabby]

Saw Eight Below instead of the dredge offered for the real weekend showing.

Also saw The Matador last Wednedsay, and good lord, those of you who complimented it were dead wrong from my perspective!

[Acidpoptart]

Its kinda sad to see that Underworld and Big Mommas House are catching up to Brokeback Mountain. I am always sad when people see garbage over good movies. :(

And Capote rocks.

[EternalGamer]

Yeah, that is sad, but c'est la vie. At least Brokeback did better than most films that deserve recognition. I'm pretty sure it has done better than Syriana and almost as well as Crash's total run by this point. $50 million for a independant drama is a amazingly good. It's pretty good even for a mainstream "big budget" drama let alone one about gay cowboys.

Dan

[agentgray]

I'm gonna hijack this thread cause Hollywood just plain sucks.

I saw City of God this last weekend. Simply amazing. Cinematography, dialogue, direction. How could it not have gotten best picture, even if it is foreign?

Hollywood, take note. That is how to do a movie.

The movie kept me rivited the entire time. I think I went through every human emotion in that film. The part where Lil Ze satiates his "need to kill" was a shock to my system...and the way the story is told. Wow.

[EternalGamer]

Didn't City of God win for best foreign film? I agree though, it has been a while since I saw it, but I remember being very impressed, especially at the interweaving narrative structure.

Dan

[Captain Awesome]

I hate this countries blind mentality in watching anything hollywood puts out.


Good thing that crappy "When a Stranger" remake did well. We could use another hundred more, cheap, MTV horror films.

[Oblivion]

Err, where is Munich in that list? is it still a limited release?

[Captain Awesome]

Didn't City of God win for best foreign film? I agree though, it has been a while since I saw it, but I remember being very impressed, especially at the interweaving narrative structure.

Dan

What a landmark film, I also loved The Motorcycle Diaries and Amores Perros. When coming to South American drama films anyway

:)

[EternalGamer]

I'm afraid you probably missed Munich, Oblivion. It was wide release and then disappeared rather quickly from the box office, unfortunately. In my opinion, it was probably the best thing Speilberg has ever done so it was really ashame.

Dan

PS. For anyone unawares, Munich was written by Tony Kushner who also wrote the amazing Angels in America.

[Captain Awesome]

I'm afraid you probably missed Munich, Oblivion. It was wide release and then disappeared rather quickly from the box office, unfortunately. In my opinion, it was probably the best thing Speilberg has ever done so it was really ashame.

Dan

PS. For anyone unawares, Munich was written by Tony Kushner who also wrote the amazing Angels in America.

What also didnt help Munich was Spielberg's stance on not promoting or marketing Munich to begin with. Other than a few short trailers a week before its release. And even then those trailers were not shown frequently.

Maybe it has a chance on becoming a dvd hit.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I'm afraid you probably missed Munich, Oblivion. It was wide release and then disappeared rather quickly from the box office, unfortunately. In my opinion, it was probably the best thing Speilberg has ever done so it was really ashame.

Dan

PS. For anyone unawares, Munich was written by Tony Kushner who also wrote the amazing Angels in America.

Actually Munich never got a wide release - it's slowly opening in more and more theatres. I gathered that from some box office articles anyway. The same goes for all the other nominees for best picture - they are all expanding now. Except Crash of course, which is already available on DVD.

[EternalGamer]

Are you sure about that? I was pretty sure Munich already went wide release. It was ranked 5 or so opening weekend and then completely dropped off the charts.

Dan

[T-Dub]

Are you sure about that? I was pretty sure Munich already went wide release. It was ranked 5 or so opening weekend and then completely dropped off the charts.

Dan

looks like it had a limited release on dec 23rd and a wide release on Jan 6th

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408306/releaseinfo

[T-Dub]

For those out there with a gf/bf i highly recommend Pride & Prejudice. It is the best one since the BBC version imo, possibly better.

City of God is one of my all time favorites, incredible movie.

I'm not sure if i'm ever going to see Munich though. The whole issue is so charged and i'm not sure that I want to see a film from a man that is clearly on one side.

[EternalGamer]

For those out there with a gf/bf i highly recommend Pride & Prejudice. It is the best one since the BBC version imo, possibly better.

City of God is one of my all time favorites, incredible movie.

I'm not sure if i'm ever going to see Munich though. The whole issue is so charged and i'm not sure that I want to see a film from a man that is clearly on one side.

It's a film that casts a pretty critical eye on the Israeli government. As I noted, it is written by Tony Kushner, who, while Jewish, is also highly critical of western politics. One of the main themes of the film is how organizations on both sides use individuals for their own political ends.

Dan

[KarmaGhost]

"When a Who What-now?" Never heard of it.

[didragondi]

I caught Munich last week and was impressed with how real it felt while telling what amounts to an action movie story, but from real life events. I wish it could've ended better, but sometimes real life does not fall that way.

[B_Money]

Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that they made a horror flick out of the old "We traced the call, it's coming from inside the house" campfire story?

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Munich and Syriana were the best things I have seen in a theater in years. I thought Hostel was amazing too but for different reasons of course.

I hope there is some sort of major plot twist in When a Stranger Calls otherwise someone should be shot... With current technology they could even be playing it off as she gets called on a cell phone or something. I always thought it would be the "parents" who are behind it. Has anyone seen it?

[dr_wily]

saw walk the line with the missus this weekend.. much better than i expected
performances were both phenom

damn good singing too! i believed it

..and it burnsburns burrrrns

[Nim]

No offense to Brokeback, Crash, or Good Night and Good Luck, all of which are excellent films. I actually think all the nominations are pretty worthwhile this year. Very odd.

Yep, the academy voters actually hit pretty close to the mark this year. Particularly in the acting categories. Although I guess when the blockbusters are all "Scooby-Doo 7" and "The Partridge Family," it's easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[KamaItachi]

Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that they made a horror flick out of the old "We traced the call, it's coming from inside the house" campfire story?

Well, this is a remake of an old film from the 70's. Jesus, that film caused me more nightmares than I care to count.

I'm betting this new version is rubbish, however.

[phantomhitman]

So everyone seems to want an in dpeth, perfectly written and acted movie from every film? Does anyone here actually like dropping all the hype and great expectations of indie/foreign films and going to a "fun" movie just to change it up? I think everyones assholes are in there throat around here about movies, if it doesnt move you to tears or have some real meaning its garbage. I agree that most hollywood movies are not the most thought out peices of work ever created but some of the movies are just nice to watch without ripping it the fuck apart. Gotta respect the opinions of the people though....

[EternalGamer]

I cannot speak for everyone, but I do occasionally go out to those "fun movies" you speak about and I usually ended being bored out of my mind. I had a friend insist I watch "The Longest Yard" this year and it made me realize that I was over critical of some of the other stuff I had seen last year because nothing I had ever seen came close to being as bad. It made me very glad I wasn't still a teenager getting dragged those types of films on a regular basis by friends. I had seriously forgotten how bad they are.

It's not an "emotional" thing at all. What I look for in a film is interesting ideas, whether they come from character exploration, themes, politics, or other situitions. If you can walk out of theatres and have an interesting conversation with whomever you saw it with without just saying things like "Part X was cool" or "Part X sucked", then the film is a success, in my opinion. Good films are the ones you are still thinking about days after, still exploring the problems or situitions presented in them.

The problem with most mainstream movies is that they are incredibly derrivative. I mean, I have seen The Longest Yard at least 10 times before in other incarnations with the exact same types of jokes and tired stereotypes. There is nothing real in the film, everything is just setup to manipulate an easy emotional response out of the audience: the warden has to be the ugliest asshole type person possible with no redeeming character, the main character has to be a down on his luck good guy that finally has the chance to prove himself. Neither of them seem in any way real or interesting. Everything is so black and white and lacking any level of interesting complexity or nuance. Sometimes it seems like people watch these films like they watch music videos, that if the film has a soundtrack that can inspire the "tingly feeling" or "rocking" inspirational songs then that is all they need. But the use of soundtrack in those ways to me always just seemed rather cheap and silly. There was just nothing interesting to say about The Longest Yard, even the criticisms of it are uninteresting, old and tiring because they are the same criticisms of just about every MTV film every made. Meanwhile every one of the films nominated this year can inspire any number of interested conversations, none of the character are portrayed in simple black and white ways, and the emotional investiment comes from real character development not cheap rock sound tracks.


Dan

[KamaItachi]

So everyone seems to want an in dpeth, perfectly written and acted movie from every film? Does anyone here actually like dropping all the hype and great expectations of indie/foreign films and going to a "fun" movie just to change it up? I think everyones assholes are in there throat around here about movies, if it doesnt move you to tears or have some real meaning its garbage. I agree that most hollywood movies are not the most thought out peices of work ever created but some of the movies are just nice to watch without ripping it the fuck apart. Gotta respect the opinions of the people though....

You can have a fun film without it being uninspired drivel.
This is a key difference between Sellers' Pink Panther films and what Martin's will be.