Box Office Update: The Season of Suck

This shouldn't be such a surprise, but these first few weeks of 2011 will never earn as much as the first few weekends of last year. That's mostly because Avatar made so much more money than it deserved to. On the other hand, True Grit is proving to be kind of the Avatar of this year. That's a weird comparison to make between an epic sci-fi adventure and a smoothly paced western journey, but I feel it's a bit true. Of course, True Grit is far greater than Avatar, but both have appealed to mainstream audiences, made five times their opening weekends, and held onto audiences pretty well in subsequent weeks. True Grit is a film that shouldn't be this entertaining based on rather low-on-action beats of the plot, but Joel & Ethan Coen have quite obviously turned it into a roaring success.

Meanwhile, the new releases were obviously destined to fail, and Season of the Witch is already the frontrunner for next year's Razzie Awards. Besides negative critical reception, the film took in just over $10 million, which doesn't bode too well for the next few weeks. I'm not holding my breath. Country Strong did relatively well, but I expect a sizable drop in the coming weeks due to negative word of mouth. What really killed it this weekend were the heavy Oscar contenders this year. Black Swan, The King's Speech, and The Fighter all held on pretty well, and I wouldn't be surprised if they all clawed their ways towards the $100 million mark in the coming weeks. It's a longer walk for The King's Speech, but it could really turn the Oscar race around if it does well enough in the box office.

1. True Grit (Third Weekend; $15 million)
2. Little Fockers (Third Weekend; $13.8 million)
3. Season of the Witch (First Weekend; $10.7 million)
4. TRON Legacy (Fourth Weekend; $9.8 million)
5. Black Swan (Sixth Weekend; $8.4 million)
6. Country Strong (Third Weekend; $7.3 million)
7. The Fighter (Fifth Weekend; $7 million)
8. The King's Speech (Seventh Weekend; $6.8 million)
9. Yogi Bear (Fourth Weekend; $6.8 million)
10. Tangled (Seventh Weekend; $5.2 million)

Box-Office Update: You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

I don't get how people can continuously make extremely stupid decisions, but once in a while do something that makes logical sense. That's what I've been thinking across this weekend's box office results, because audiences obviously go with the typical decision of going to see Little Fockers. Anyone could've guessed that, because people are stupid with their choices. One the other hand, True Grit was the surprise hit of this weekend, not taking the top spot, but certainly outperforming any expectations it had. Gulliver's Travels was practically canceled out by Little Fockers, so it hitting the seventh slot isn't all the confusing or surprising.

Adding on to the typical confusion is Yogi Bear, which is doing far better than it should be doing. The animated whatever took a drop of 46.4% this weekend, while TRON: Legacy took a heftier drop of 54.3%. I knew that it wouldn't do well with repeat viewings, but I never thought once in hell that Yogi Bear would keep more audiences. We'll have to wait to see how it fully pans out, but it's understandable how this wasn't as truly magnificent a weekend at the movies as last year. Christmas Eve landed on a Friday, which is usually the top day for people to head out to the theaters, but most were instead stuck at church. At the same time, last year had Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, so the fact that this weekend was 50% down from that one makes complete sense.

1. Little Fockers (First Weekend; $34 million)
2. True Grit (First Weekend; $25.6 million)
3. TRON: Legacy (Second Weekend; $20.1 million)
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Third Weekend; $10.8 million)
5. Yogi Bear (Second Weekend; $8.8 million)
6. The Fighter (Third Weekend; $8.5 million)
7. Gulliver's Travels (First Weekend; $7.2 million)
8. Black Swan (Fourth Weekend; $6.6 million)
9. Tangled (Fifth Weekend; $6.5 million)
10. The Tourist (Third Weekend; $5.7 million)

Cameron Taking On "Avatar" Sequels Next

As usual, there is some good news, some bad, and some that's open to interpretation based on what you like. James Cameron has spent the last year twiddling his thumbs, wondering if he wants to just go ahead and shoot the Avatar sequels now, or do what Christopher Nolan did and take a break to make a separate classy effort. The only problem with the latter decision is that Cameron isn't classy, so this decision makes sense. The man has confirmed that his next projects will be the two sequels to Avatar to finish off the trilogy. Currently, he foresees the effort to take a good six years, presumably for the technical costs.

I assume, based on what he did for the first film, he could probably just bust out the next two scripts in about a week. If he has the entire world mapped out in his head, why spend any time working out something like intriguing dialogue. Just give fans what they apparently want. I know it sounds like I'm being pessimistic, and that's because I am. I'm just playing the odds, based on what I saw of the first film. For me, these next six years will be something of a relief, and then we'll just be finished with this franchise as the final two installments are both released within a two year period. What do you think of this news. Are you one of the people who loved Avatar, or are you a member of my party?

Producers Guild of America Giving James Cameron the 2011 Milestone Award

In years gone by, the Producers Guild of America has giving their Milestone Award to many well deserving filmmakers such as Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, and Walt Disney. The next to join this prestigious pantheon of film legends is none other than the once-great James Cameron. First off, let me say that I feel that James Cameron totally deserves this award, at the very least for his spectacular work on Aliens, The Abyss, and the first two Terminator films. I would've given the award to him back then rather than now, because the last two feature-length films he's done have been visually fantastic, but narratively stupid.

Titanic's success was a freak of nature, almost guaranteed never to happen ever again. I never understood what people saw in it, as it was one of the most corny films I'd seen in my life up to that point. Then, more than ten years later, Cameron is able to top himself in the range of cheesy stupidity with Avatar. The fact that it's now the highest grossing film of all time is nothing less than an abomination, for me at least. It's not worth traveling an hour to see it in IMAX 3D. The 3D wasn't even that great, and was frankly confusing. Nevertheless, Cameron waited ten years to make this film, which is honorable no matter how stupid the end product is.

Weekend Report: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

You may be asking yourself why this weekend feels so familiar. Is it the fall breeze returning to your day. Unfortunately, no. It's the repeat of so many films you've already seen in different forms. The most obvious example is Avatar: Special Edition, which I can't believe It's your best chance at a fun experience at the movies this weekend. Then again, you could just go home and watch Avatar on DVD and you'll probably get the same experience. OR you could stay at home and watch Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

Other than that, I really can't recommend anything new this weekend, because there isn't anything new. Takers is just another rehashed form of The Losers or something else like that. The Last Exorcism follows along the same sort of plot as The Exorcism (big surprise). Centurion wreaks of Gladiator, or rather a less engaging version of Gladiator. In short, Robin Hood. We have more interesting films on the way, but it'd be nice if we didn't have to wait so long to get the pay off we deserve.

My Opinion: This weekend offers a last opportunity to catch up on the big films this summer you may have missed. Skip out on all the new releases or re-releases, and perhaps you won't be the only person on earth who hasn't seen Inception. Or you could be one of the first people to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, before it becomes a cult classic. I'll be seeing Winter's Bone this weekend, and I'll get a review up for you on Sunday at the latest.