Author: David Medsker (Page 38 of 65)

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

This is the first real weekend of competition between the studios in the Your Favorite Movie Sucks league, which the top five spots going to one studio or another.

1) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: $29 million, $67.8 million to date (owner: Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
Game over. Between “Borat” and “Charlotte’s Web,” Punch and Pie is poised to blow the rest of us schlubs out of the water. The second to last pick in the second round, “Borat” is easily the steal of the draft so far. And to those college kids who are trying to sue Fox: let it go. It’s not the studio’s fault that you’re all boneheads.
2) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause: $16.8 million, $41 million to date (owner: Jason Zingale, Seven Strangers Productions)
After an inauspicious debut, “Santa Clause” held rather well in its second week, putting off Jason’s plans to assassinate Tim Allen for at least one more week.
3) Flushed Away: $16.7 million, $39.9 million to date (owner: Kristin Dreyer-Kramer, Nights and Weekends)
Kristin’s grass-roots campaign to get all of her friends and family to see the movie in order to boost her fantasy team’s performance seems to be working. Man, I wish I had that many friends, because my first round pick didn’t do so well…
4) Stranger than Fiction: $14.1 million (owner: David Medsker, Scary Clown Studios)
Ow. Come on, people, it’s Will Ferrell! Not only that, it’s Will Ferrell in one of the smarter movies you’ll see this year. But like Jim Carrey, people are slow to accepting funny people not doing funny things. The biggest first round bust of the season so far.
5) Saw III: $6.6 million, $69.8 million to date (Steve Wamsley, TSSU Productions)
Another second round steal, “Saw III” keeps TSSU in first place for at least one more week.
6) Babel: $5.6 million (Steve Wamsley, TSSU Productions)
If we were keeping track of Oscar nominations, this would have been a better pick. But as a box office contender, well, it’s a hell of an Oscar contender.
8) The Return: $4.8 million (owner: Bill Clark, A Don’t Call Me Shirley Joint)
Have you seen the trailer for this? Cut, cut, loud noise, black. What the hell is this movie about? Don’t know, don’t care, and the moviegoing public appears to agree. Shirley stumbles out of the gate, but they have much better movies down the stretch.
10) A Good Year: $3.8 million (Nights and Weekends)
It looks as though Kristin’s efforts to goose the box office of Russell Crowe’s yuppie-finds-his-soul-in-France movie didn’t work out so well. If only Crowe had sung a Tom Jones song…
13) Harsh Times: $1.8 million (TSSU Productions)
This certainly has good cred, with Christian Bale and all, but Steve will surely wonder if “Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror,” which he dropped to pick up “Harsh Times,” would have made more money.

Current standings:
1) TSSU Productions: $79.1 million
2) Punch and Pie Pictures: $67.8 million
3) Nights and Weekends: $43.7 million
4) Seven Strangers Productions: $41 million
5) Scary Clown Studios: $14.1 million
6) A Don’t Call Me Shirley Joint: $4.8 million

Next week: TSSU opens two more movies, the biopic “Bobby” and the James Bond reboot “Casino Royale,” and Mark Pfeiffer’s Reel Times Pictures debuts with “Happy Feet” and “Let’s Go to Prison.” Will Harris’ What’s All This Then? Studios also makes its debut with “Fast Food Nation.” That’s 13 movies fighting for five spots. While we’re all duking it out, Punch and Pie has one more week to figure out what the hell to do about “The History Boys.”

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

A bunch of us hoity toity movie critics are in a fantasy league that started last week. Eight teams, six movies per team. Whoever makes the most money wins. Steve Wamsley’s TSSU Productions got out to a huge lead with “Saw III,” now let’s see what happens with the big three releases this week.

1) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: $26.4 million (owner: Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
WOW. On 837 screens, “Borat” wipes the floor with this weekend’s two family-friendly movies, one of which was released on four times as many screens. When word broke that the movie would be “60% more exclusive,” we all thought the studio was burying the movie. I guess they knew what they were doing after all.
2) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause: $20 million (owner: Jason Zingale, Seven Strangers Productions)
JZ’s gonna scream when he sees this. He never wanted the movie in the first place, but the draft room kept locking up on us, and boom, he was stuck with “Santa.” We all assured him it would make tons of money. And it probably would have, had they not released it two months before Christmas.
3) Flushed Away: $19.1 million (owner: Kristin Dreyer-Kramer, NightsandWeekends)
Uh oh. That’s not a bad number, but it’s less than you’d expect from your first round pick. “Flushed” needed to rake in big bucks before Thanksgiving, because it only gets harder from there.
4) Saw III: $15.5 million (TSSU Productions, $60.1 million to date)
Wamsley continues to benefit from the nation’s moral decay.
5) The Departed: $8 million ($102.3 million, fifth week)
This movie is not eligible for the league, and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen it yet.

Next weekend the competition gets even fiercer when “Stranger than Fiction,” “The Return,” “A Good Year” and “Harsh Times” all open, and “Babel” goes into wide release. And let’s not forget Fox’s whole “platforming” plan for “Borat,” which means it stands to make even more money. Time to start the smack talk, guys.