A weird week in Hollywood has been capped not only by an unfortunate fire which injured some fireman, burned a historic set, and may have destroyed some priceless original recordings, but also by some box offices surprises.
*Though the Hillary Clinton campaign may well be in its last few days (Puerto Rico notwithstanding), the power of mature womanhood is as strong as ever, and it asserted itself this weekend with the expectations-shattering success of “Sex and the City,” which defeated the should-have-been undefeatable “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull.”
On my Thursday night post, I was foolish enough to swallow the conventional wisdom whole. Said “wisdom” stated that “Sex” would earn a healthy $30 million or thereabouts, to be almost certainly bested by the combined family/geek-male appeal of “Indiana Jones,” which would earn in the neighborhood of $50 million. The H-wood experts were closer to being right about the Indy flick, which looted some $46 million, but we’re all now learning what happens you underestimate the power of women — you have to eat $25.7 million worth of crow because the HBO TV adaptation made a total of $55.7 million. (There was originally a whole bunch of godawful sex puns and analogies here — stuff about “orgasmic Fridays” and “box-office g-spots” — but you were all spared by some kind of weird-ass blogging mishap on my part, resulting in the mysterious and tragic loss of 45 minutes or so worth of work and me wondering what the @#$@#$ happened to the magic of the undo button. Think how lucky you are.)
Anyhow, the upshot of this performance, the best ever for a television series adaptation since 1995’s effects/stunt packed “Mission: Impossible,” is that a sequel, or series of sequels, seems to be inevitable. Look for “Sex and the Retirement Community” coming to a Megaplex near you in 2025.
* A horror remake of a French shocker, “The Strangers” also surprised the guessers by more than doubling it’s $9 million budget on it’s first weekend, netting a better than solid $20.7 million for this kind of picture against some very high-profile competition and coming third by appealing, shockingly, to both males and females according to Variety‘s sources. (It can happen!) This means that directing newcomer Bryan Bertino is pretty much guaranteed that flavor-of-the-month feeling for a bit. Just based on reading the reviews, mixed-to-just-plain-bad as they are, it might be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
*The successs of “The Strangers,” somewhat mutes the very solid ongoing performance of two strong summer holdovers. The #4 “Iron Man” garnered some $14 million several weeks into its run, making it almost certain to hit the $300 million mark — a well deserved achievement for the solidly entertaining superhero flick. Meanwhile, the below-expectations “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” hung in there with just over $13 million for a total of $115,674,000 domestically. Not bad for a disappointment.
Meanwhile in Indiewood.…It was actually a very nice weekend of box-office for several new and ongoing productions in limited release — just not the one I had the highest hopes for. The highly acclaimed steroids documentary, “Bigger, Faster, Stronger*” opened in six NYC and SoCal screens, but failed to register at all on Box Office Mojo. Perhaps the malformed arm muscles of the guy in the opening trailer is freaking people out. (They certainly have that impact on me.) Or, maybe it just needs time.
On the other hand, “The Foot Fist Way” entirely eluded my attention but had the third best per-screen average this weekend, i.e., $36,000 in only four theaters. The martial arts-themed film is apparently big on physical comedy and uncomfortable humor, making it not quite everyone’s taste and garnering comparisons with such get-it-or-don’t-comedies as “Napoleon Dynamite” and the British “The Office.” Judging from the trailers, I’m in the “don’t get it” group this time, but I wasn’t bowled over by “Dynamite” either. So much for being in tune with cultural touchstones.
