Box Office Report: April gets "Lucky"

WAVERING QUETION: Why aren't people in love happy?

Can somebody do me a kindness and explain to me how this weekend turned out to be so ridiculously successful at the box office? I did not believe for a second that films with as little buzz and interest as "Think Like a Man" and "The Lucky One" would end up with the colossal debuts they did, especially after more obvious smashes like "American Reunion", "Wrath of the Titans", and "Titanic 3D" seemed to wash up to some degree. Don't get me wrong, since they're still earning quite the honest intake, with "Reunion" having been made on a small profit, "Titans" pulling in a profit overseas, and "Titanic" having already tripled its budget some time ago.

Needless to say it was a weekend for underdogs, with Tim Story's black (as in the colour) comedy "Think Like a Man" becoming the surprise hit of the weekend. My guess is it found a niche in the Tyler Perry crowd of viewers, and ran with it quite well. And who could possibly be surprised that a bunch of girls flocked to theaters to check out Zac Efron in yet another Nicolas Sparks adaptation. At this point, what tween actor hasn't had the Nicolas Sparks treatment? I think we're waiting on Taylor Swift to grab one up, and I admit that if she did that, I might actually see it. Why? Because I'm an idiot who loves Taylor Swift, so back off keep reading.

Dry Months of April

It's hard to peg down a single month that is the most depressive slog of the year, but I'd make a strong case for April. Sure, January is an immediate drop off from the rush of quality cinema that greets the close of the year, and February is little better, but both of those have the positive bump of Oscar season on the skirts to divert attention away from sparse new cinematic offerings. March often has plentiful blockbuster offerings, even if some fail to live up to the stature of others. And we know that May through to December is often full of exceptional fare to some degree. April is four weeks of padding, and even if there are good films out there, they're not exactly bombastic.

Maybe it's that we're so close to big entertainment that small offerings just don't seem to have their place. "Titanic 3D" even seems to have a small nature surrounding it, as unlikely as that sounds. If you see the film, you know that James Cameron packs in quite an exceptional amount of scale, so why isn't that more of a draw? I'm not entirely sure, but nothing in me has much reason to want to see it on the big screen. It might just be a matter of time and place, and April is not a month you really want to head out for massive adventure. Quite often, and this is not just the case for students, it's a time of getting heavy loads of work done.

Box Office Report: "Hunger" Leads to Starvation

Keep doing your thing "Hunger Games", because it's going to be a long month once your magic has drifted to a state of normality. Not to say this month has no promise whatsoever. On the contrary, there are enough decent releases throughout the month to make up for the drought that's existed below the top five at the box office. I'm sick of typing in digits below $1 million, and even sicker of talking about "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"s kinda/sorta "success". In any case, it's tough to look at this weekend's stats and not see a bit of disappointment. After all, there's been strong enough success in the 3D market to assume that something like "Titanic" would be able to thrive. I guess it's just not THAT beloved.

And I guess people don't really care about the dumb revival of a dumb film series that went away for a good reason. Don't expect "American Reunion" to stick around for good measure. Their disappointment evokes a strong enough boost for last week's somewhat honest debuts. "Wrath of the Titans" fell a good deal as expected, but it's already tracking much better than "John Carter" did. "Mirror Mirror" didn't take much of a tumble at all, and it seems that there's been some kind of positive audience reaction on the part of that film. Hopefully it'll end with some solid enough wages. "21 Jump Street" seems to be reaching the point of winding down, but it'll make it's way to $125 million pretty well. Oh yeah, and "The Hunger Games" did stabilize to a degree, and should make its way past $350 million, but not much higher.

Weekend Rundown: Blast from the Unnecessary Past

This weekend isn't exactly a weekend to be storming out to the theaters, as I have on numerous occasions asked myself precisely what was coming out. In truth, nothing new is coming to wide release. What you'd be paying to see is either a rehash of stupid things you've already seen, or quite literally what you've already seen. As I was watching "Pina" on Tuesday evening, I was reminded constantly how much I wished I could have seen it in 3D glory, but was glad I still took it in theatrically. And then I thought about my feelings towards "Titanic" and asked the question, "Is it worth seeing in 3D"? The answer I came to was that it wasn't worth seeing in 2D, let alone in theaters. It's not profusely horrible, but it's just simple. Not bad, just nothing special.

That goes even more so for "American Pie", which indeed is less than nothing special, and I wouldn't allow myself to be paid to see any of those films. "American Reunion" honestly doesn't just seem pointless, but... oh, fine. That word sums it up perfectly. It's absolutely pointless, aside from the fact that they'll make money from people who want to see these characters again... doing the exact same thing they were doing before. My heart aches, because I know "Damsels in Distress" is out there in limited release, and if people knew about it more, they'd easily choose that over this dreck. But I'll settle with seeing "Shame" again. Never a bad night.

Films to see in 2012: April

There's a sense of charm that comes to establishing your most anticipated films months in advance, because I have no reason to change my current list of anticipated films for this coming. The further I get into this year, the less I've seen of the films highlighted, and it's getting to the point where I have no knowledge outside the hype people display. I only ever treat their hype suspicion, because I don't trust anyone else to know if a film's worth it. So this April, from my eyes, is just the same as any of the many months that come after it. There's going to be some great cinema, and some less than exciting films as well. That goes without saying, since it starts out with "American Reunion" of all things, continuing the tradition of not letting things die.

Technically speaking, though, the month effectively kicks off with "Titanic 3D", which even though I am never hasty to spring up and watch it even when it's on television, I'll still see it. Why? Because it's back in theaters, and the experience is the only thing James Cameron has ever been concerned with. He's doesn't obsess over script or story integrity, but he cares deeply about the audience interaction with what's onscreen. I'll politely caution you to avoid cheap space thriller "Lockout", and even more so to skip out on "The Three Stooges". I have never felt greater pain than the abysmal trailer for that feature.