The Film World: The Weekly Report

Another week has gone by, rather quickly. A lot of movies have flown in and out of theaters over this rather long weekend. Without much of a surprise, "Hannah Montana: The Movie" took first place in this weekend box office grossing around 32 million dollars. We all figured that it was pretty much a lock for "Hannah Montana: The movie" to take the top spot figuring that it is a holiday and holidays tend to have a lot to do with families and "Hannah Montana: The movie" is a family film.

I don't know much about the movie besides it is an adaptation of the TV show, with the same name, and not one of those movies on my radar. Similar with "Fast and Furious" which seemed to have hit a bump in the road after starting off with a rather strong opening weekend. In fact, the film which grossed 72 million last weekend fell to around 28 million, and took second place. Obviously 28 million dollars is still a lot by any standards but, the numbers, will likely fade in the coming weeks until the next "great" sequel to a car film enters theaters.

Is it surprising that Seth Rogen's new film "Observe and Report" only grossed 11 million dollars? Absolutely not. This was what is known as a limited type of film. It appeals to certain people who enjoy this dark humor. By no means, was this anything like "Knocked Up" or "Pineapple Express" but I heard a lot of comparisons to a comedy version of "Taxi Driver". It is very hard to market a film like "Observe and Report" because of its rating and timing of release and since there was just another mall cop film released a few months back "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" which resulted in unfortunate comparisons. The film was released on Easter weekend. A time people like to spend with family and friends and watch a good heart-warming movie. Although I thought this film was awesome, it may just not be what the public wanted to see. I want to clarify one thing by no means was it a flop, yet. The film was made for only 18 million dollars and has already grossed more then half its budget back. However, it will not be seen in the same category of "Knocked Up" or "40 year Old Virgin" as R rated comedies that happen to find a home in the box office. Read my review on the post below for more information about "Observe and Report."

Another problem that I find with Box office numbers when it comes to Rated R films is accuracy. When I saw "Observe and Report" there was a lot of teenagers, with friends who most likely "snuck in" to the film. Since it wasn't a family R rated comedy like "Knocked UP" parents most likely would not want to sit through the movie and would rather watch something with a more family appeal to it. However, this won't stop the kids, who want to see it, from getting in. They most likely bought tickets to a film like "Fast and Furious". If you think about it, if enough kids follow this princepal then it would most likely hurt the box office performance.

Also in theaters, over the weekend, is the poor downfall of one of Americas most prized Anime series, Dragonball. This show has the words "box office champ" engraved all over the title but not the film. The film is engraved with big gray letters "flop". I have not seen this film but I have heard almost all negative reviews from people. The box office reports for this film reflects another series that should have achieved gold, "Speed Racer" like "Speed Racer" the film "Dragonball Evolution" failed to reach to its core fans and thus resulted in a dismal performance of around 4 million dollars. I really don't want to keep going into detail how bad that is but I truly find it amazing how poor the marketing was in the USA. I did not see one commercial before the release of the film or any major promotion. It was almost as if the studios all new the fate of the film and delayed the opening in the US as long as possible, opening in other countries.

Opening this weekend
17 Again-
We still have a while before Judd Apatow takes over the summer with his films "Year One" and "Funny People" but his wife Leslie Mann costars with Matthew Perry "Friends" and Zac Efron "HSM 1-3" in this going-back in time film.

Trailer

And:

State of Play

Russell Crowe makes his triumphant return to the big screen after staring in last years, "Body of Lies." hopefully this will do better in the boxoffice then that film. The political thriller: stars Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel Mcadams and Jason Bateman. The film is an adaptation of the TV series with the same name.