I made it clear Friday that, my no-link vengeance notwithstanding, I didn’t see Walden and Disney Media suffering for making it next to impossible for Bullz-Eye to review the second “Chronicles of Narnia” film, “Prince Caspian.” But, suffer they did, though perhaps the blow was not fatal. To be fair, $56 million is always a tidy chunk of change, but a dyslexic comedown considering that expectations were closer to $80 million and the first “Narnia” film, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” reversed the digits for a $65 million opening weekend. And, see, we reviewed that one!
Still, other theories abound. Nikki Finke blames the film’s more violent nature. At first blush, this makes absolutely no sense, since, well, Peter Jackson’s LOTR films didn’t exactly find this to be an impediment, but I’ll give her the possibility that a significant shift in tone could be responsible. I haven’t seen either movie, so I’ll leave actual viewers to judge whether she’s on the right track or not. However, she may be right if audiences come to the theater expecting strawberry shortcake, but find themselves served steak and eggs instead. On the other hand, Carl DiOrio notes that the film seems to be generating positive reaction, so that it may be sticking around through the fierce competition of this summer’s tent-poles flicks. Other factors might include a case of diminishing returns on religion-based marketing efforts, the subject of an interesting Hollywood Reporter article. Also, quite possibly, increasing gas prices , general economic malaise, and the fact that movies themselves are simply way too expensive these days are making parents think long and hard before spending their increasingly limited cash on the sequel to a movie their families enjoyed but perhaps failed to love. Or, maybe, it really is the curse of Bullz-Eye.
Speaking of curses, “Speed Racer” — despite netting some decent word of mouth at least among some parents I know — dropped to an ignominious fourth place in its second week with $7,645,000. However, I should add that the $160 million budget figure that I mentioned last week is now looking more like $120, so that makes the film $40 million worth less of a disaster for its makers. “What Happens in Vegas” defeated it by about $5 million, which does not warm the cockles of my Ashton Kutcher-disliking heart.
Triumphing over all — at least until next weeks return of Indiana Jones — “Iron Man” continues to evade missiles in the #2 spot with well over $31 million — it’s racked up a terrific $222,485,000 in only three weeks, and that’s just the domestic take. I saw “Iron Man” last night, as it happens, and it’s nice to know that a mix of solid storytelling, laughs mixed with dead serious subtext, an enjoyable romance and, of course, plenty of story-based thrills (even if somewhat muffed in the final act, partially because of a less than compelling main villain) still can add up to big dollars, on occasion.
Meanwhile in Indiewood… Box-Office Mojo has mysteriously cut back on the amount of information this week to only the top 35 pictures (trying to boost premium memberships?), but I can still glean a few nuggets.
One is that director Tom McCarthy deserves a nod of congratulation for getting his low-key, small-scale drama, “The Visitor,” into this weekend’s top ten while playing in only 224 theaters. The film has been out for some six weeks now and our plaudits to Overture Films for giving this film the kind of slow, steady release it needs. Meanwhile, we won’t even tell you how the too-quickly released “Redbelt” has fared, despite being a solid enough, violentized update of the fun but creaky chestnut, “Golden Boy.” Also, both the Francophile-friendly thriller “Roman de Gare” and the kid-power opus “Son of Rambow” continue to do solid business.
Sadly, according to an article in yesterday’s L.A. Times, “solid” may no longer be good enough, thanks to the possible spread of the vicious home-run mentality that is slowly rotting mainstream Hollywood to smaller indie films as well, where even an epic drama about the violent and sexually charged life of a figure from history who remains both immensely popular (at least on t-shirts) and controversial forty years after his death (Steve Soderbergh’s “Che”) is having a hard time finding a distributor at Cannes. If some folks have their way, all indie films will soon be “My Big Fat Little Miss Pregnancy.”
Still, even with B.O. Mojo getting all stingy on us, at least Variety was kind enough to let us know of the very strong performance (roughly $15,000 per screen) in just three theaters of Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s critically lauded “Reprise,” a narratively adventurous coming of age film and just the kind of production that’s in real danger of complete marginalization. No surprise that it would be a dark horse, but if even an over the top, zany slapstick spy spoof like “OSS 117: Cairo – Nest of Spies” is considered marginal fare on the freakin’ art house circuit, there indeed may be trouble ahead. Ironic that, just as Americans are growing more comfortable with subtitles, the whole market for movies of any language that are something other than “filmed deals” may be drying up for a time.
*It’s safe to say that “
* The congenitally jaundiced 
I actually saw “Redbelt” last night and can attest to the lackluster receipts, at least in Long Beach, CA — the theater was less than 1/3 filled at the 7:25 Saturday night screening. It has its flaws and it’s certainly not Mamet’s best, and mainstream audiences are certain to be slightly baffled by those odd cadences which occasionally make themselves known in any Mamet-directed film. (Iambic pentameter…it’s an English major thing…you might not understand.) On the other hand, it’s a more than acceptable entry in the ancient genre of anti-prizefighting prizefighting movies with a possible nascent superstar in its leading man, and it has some strong, bone-crunching fighting sequences. To my mind, it deserved more time to try and find an audience before going this wide. If a movie of this sort is going to sell it all, it needs a lot more time than one week to develop the kind of awareness needed for a major national release. The resulting $825 per screen average should be no surprise in the circumstances.
Also, the would be blockbuster’s trailers look less like anime and more like a particularly gaudy video game, and that might not help with the grown-up side of the equation, though 
*Since we’ve been basing movies on video games and theme park rides, why not movies drawn from tourism board ad campaigns? That’s the question asked by the makers of “
And, in other news…. After opening in just a couple of theaters last week, writer-director David Mamet’s 
Forget what I said 
