“Breaking Bad” is back tonight, and we’ll see how creator Vince Gilligan decides to wrap things up. Here’s an in-depth look at the issue of how to conclude a great television series.
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Fox let the claws come out this weekend.
The X-Men spin-off “The Wolverine” brought in $55 million for the weekend, easily cutting its rivals down to size. The superhero film starring Hugh Jackman paled into comparison; however, to the 2009 “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which brought in $85 million in its debut. In fact, “The Wolverine” may end up being the weakest opening of the X-Men films. The 2000 “X-Men” opened to only $54.4 million. Nevertheless, Fox was happy just to have a legit hit on his hands following rivals recent big budget flops such as “White House Down” and “The Lone Ranger” and the recent “R.I.P.D.” Everyone’s favorite mutton-chopped mutant was definitely super in foreign markets where it pulled in $86 million in box office receipts.
Last week’s top film “The Conjuring” fell 47%, but managed to hold on to second place bringing in $22.1 million for the week. Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” proved that bad guys can make big bucks with $16 million in gross receipts to capture the #3 spot for he week. So far, the animated sequel has brought in $306 million.
Another animated film is doing far less, but still bringing in the kids is Dreamworks “Turbo”. It’s managed to eke out $13.3 million in it’s second week. Adam Sandler’s “Grown Ups 2” rounds out the top 5 with $11.5 million.
This week, moviegoers were scared, but not as scared as film execs.
The low budget horror film “The Conjuring” scared the heck out of the competition this week pulling in $41.5 million at the box office as the dreaded F-word (flop) started making it’s way into more frequent use. The film directed by James Wan (“Saw”, “Insidious”) easily blew away the competition in a week that had surprise low for some big name debuts.
Besides “The Conjuring,” the newbies had to bow down to Gru and “Despicable Me 2”. The animated blockbuster pulled in another $25.1 million to secure the #2 spot this week and bring its domestic total to $276.2 million.
The Ryan Reynolds-Jeff Bridges supernatural cop film “R.I.P.D” found itself being brought up on charges as it’s shaping to be the flop of the week, if not the entire summer. The film grossed a criminal $12.8 million for 7th place. Of course, the film cost at least $135 million to make, so don’t expect a sequel or for a retrial. At least the guys from “After Earth” and the “The Lone Ranger” have someone to laugh at.
One that won’t be laughing so much is “Pacific Rim”. It brought in $15.9 million for the week to bring it to $68.2 million in it’s second week. It cost $200 million and seems to be going downhill fast.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen an animated film disappoint. This one did so with the help of a nitrous-powered snail with dreams of grandeur. “Turbo” came in with $21.5 million to open it’s run, but like R.I.P.D, it also cost in the neighborhood of $130 million. Dreamworks rarely produces a dude, so this is a rarity, but don’t expect them to want to see another snail anytime soon.
“Red” was a cute movie about burned spies that surprised moviegoers in 2010. It was too good for a sequel, which is why made one. It’s also why it didn’t do as well as the original bringing in $18.5 million in its debut. Middle-aged spies and a hot septuagenarian only gets you so far. Perhaps the next mystery they can solve is why open this movie in mid-summer when the original opened in a much safer October window.
Rounding out the top 10…
8. The Heat….$9.3 million
9. World War Z…$5.2 million
10. Monsters University…$5 million
There are lots of elements which are common to virtually all gangster movies – including guns, violence, bonding and rivalry, but most of the also seem to feature a scene set in a casino at some point. One of the reasons why this is the case is that so many of the gangster films are set in Las Vegas – including Casino by Martin Scorsese and the Bugsy Siegel biopic starring Warren Beatty. Gangsters and organised crime are central to the story of Las Vegas, and therefore of casino gambling, making the two a natural fit in movie terms.
It should be remembered that Siegel actually created Las Vegas, thus the mob ties to the resort – although now purely historical – are extremely strong, and this naturally makes an interesting subject for filmmakers. Realistically you can’t have a film in Las Vegas which doesn’t feature at least one casino scene, but even those which don’t take place in Sin City usually have one. Again the reason for this is partly because in other cities gangsters have often competed over running the casino gambling industry – while of course casinos also provide a glamorous and exciting backdrop, as well as a metaphor for the risk involved in crime. Part of the enduring popularity of casino gambling is that it provides the law abiding amongst us with a taste of that risk.
It was widely predicted at one point that the rising success of online casinos would lead to the death of land-based ones, but in fact the two coexist very comfortably. After all both allow for classic games such as roulette. However in terms of movies, the land based casino is always going to be king, with the great casinos in cities like Vegas still having that Hollywood magic.
Apparently minions can take on grown ups and giant robots.
The animated sequel “Despicable Me 2” starring the voices of Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig proved that supervillains have staying power as they reigned over the box office that had two heavy hitters debuting. “Despicable Me 2” took the top spot with $44.8 million in the U.S., bringing it’s domestic gross to $229.2 million. It’s already grossed a despicable $243.2 million overseas.
The sci-fi film “Pacific Rim” was expected to be atop the box office, but came in a distant third opening at $38.3 million. The robot-versus-monster actioner will cause execs at Legendary and Warner Bros. to pull out their hair since the film cost $190 million to make. The film had a lot of fanboy buzz, but not enough to count, apparently.
The big surprise was “Grown Ups 2” which opened this week at second place with $42.5 million. Adam Sandler needed a hit and it turns out that all he needed was to work with his friends to get it. It outgrossed (literally and figuratively) expectations and gave Sandler a chance to laugh at critics who slammed the film giving it a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Rounding out the top 5 was Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in “The Heat.” The comedy came in fourth with $14 million. The Johnny Depp led “The Lone Ranger” continued it’s slide with $11.1 million.
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