Hollywood B.O.: The Few, the Proud
I'm glad "The Social Network" won the weekend again. It's a good movie, possibly a great movie, that deserves a wide audience.
I'm also glad the new wide releases, "Life As We Know It," "Secretariat," and "My Soul to Take" all tanked. Both the first and the third look like crap movies (28% and 6% on Rotten Tomatoes), while the second is a crap movie, a pile of non-horse crap (since we don't see much of the horse), which somehow garnered a...WTF? 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? And 75% from TOP critics? Is the world insane? One critic, Jenna Busch of Huffington Post, while applauding the film, counsels caution: "...but I'm not sure the Oscar buzz is appropriate here." That's like telling baseball fans that MVP buzz for Willie Bloomquist isn't quite appropriate. You only have to make such a statement in a world where B.S. and P.R. rule.
Here's my cautionary statement: Last weekend was still the second-weakest weekend of the year: $92 million overall.
And comparing this weekend, the 41st weekend, to the same weekend in other years? Not good. Every 41st weekend since 2001, except for 2005 (remake of "The Fog"), grossed better numbers. That's undadjusted for inflation.
Adjust, and you have to go back to 1995, with the top draw another David Fincher film, "Seven," for lower numbers.
But so what, right? I'd rather have fewer people show up in the theaters for "The Social Network" or "Seven," than 10 percent more show up for the likes of "Beverly Hills Chihuaua" (2008) or "Couples Retreat" (2009).
The happy totals here.

Marion aime "The Social Network," a film with legs.
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Tim wrote:
I now have a new metric to assign to "buzz" movies -- "Secretariat is the Willie Bloomquist of film excellence."
Comment posted on Tue. Oct 12, 2010 at 04:06 PM