10/21 – 10/23 I’m trying to remain optimistic about the U.S. box office. I think Doom is going to make over $25 million this weekend. Maybe even $30 million. I’m not sure if that’d be a good thing or not though. On the one hand it would get us out of this box office funk we’re in, on the other a bad movie would be the one to do it. It’s lose-lose. That said, this is the last weekend an under $20 million number one will be acceptable. If we get more of this movie disinterest next week, then it’s time to start waving the white flag and consider that something is seriously, desperately wrong in the American movie industry. I’m sure the Hollywood studios will just blame their customers. Perhaps instituting mandatory cavity searches at the theater will fix the problem.
Here’s what’s opening this weekend:
Expanding
Good Night, and Good Luck expands into a 225 theater release. This isn’t as wide as it’s going to get, they’re planning to go even wider in November. So if you’re a history buff and can’t find it this weekend, wait a bit and maybe it’ll show up in your town later.
Misc. Limited Releases (Opening in fewer than 500 theaters.)
This weekend’s significant limited releases consist mainly of movies that’ll be widening out in the next few weeks. The Steve Martin/Claire Danes/Jason Schwartzman love triangle movie Shopgirl hits in an 8 theater release. That means you better live in New York if you want to see it. Otherwise, wait till next week when it goes a bit wider. The same is true of Robert Downey Jr.’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, another 8 theater, NYC/LA only release that’ll go wide November 11. Neither is getting rave reviews, but both seem worth a look. Shopgirl is based on a book by Steve Martin, and while it’s not likely you’ll see him do the King Tut routine, it’s gotta be better than the other crap he’s been doing lately. At least it’s not Cheaper By the Dozen 2. That won’t hit for a couple more months. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a little harder to pin down. It’s a murder mystery, but you get the sense that somewhere along the way homosexuality comes into it as well. Maybe that’s just the effeminate nature of Robert Downey Jr. pushing its way through into the ads. Val Kilmer costars in, but even if he didn’t, anything with Robert Downey Jr. in it is a must see.
Doom (Opens in 3,044 theaters.)
Based on the once popular First Person Shooter videogame of the same name, Doom rolls into theaters with Karl Urban and The Rock as super-soldiers sent to Mars to kill everything in sight. That’s about as close as the movie gets to a plot, but it’ll probably be fun for hardcore fans of FPS gaming. It takes its gaming roots literally, and rather than try to translate the game to film, it instead tries to recreate the experience of playing through the game. The result is akin to sitting on your buddy’s bed watching him play a game while you stare blankly at the ceiling, waiting for your turn at the helm. Watching is never as fun as playing. At least it isn’t directed by Uwe Boll.
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (Opens in 2,007 theaters.)
The poorly named film Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story stars Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell in the story of a washed up horse trainer who nurses a broken racehorse back to health for his cutesy little girl. Cue the inspirational music. Here’s the thing about Dreamer: it might be good. Here’s the thing about me: I don’t care. I’ll see Dakota Fanning in hell before I watch this movie. Her creepy head looms off the poster, predicting sappy, sucky things inside the film. It’s Seabiscuit with a dirty little Muppet. This movie will give you cooties. It’s true.
North Country (Opens in 2,555 theaters.)
Charlize Theron uglies herself up again for another Oscar bid in the sexual harassment movie North Country. It’s based (loosely) on the true story of a put upon woman working in the mines, who finally gets fed up and slaps a lawsuit on her employers’ asses. Charlize is getting Oscar buzz, and she’s a legitimately great actress so I’m sure she deserves it, uglied up or no. But the premise sounds boring, and CB’s Lexi Feinberg says in her review that’s it’s also kind of disjointed. Maybe the message of the movie is a good one, maybe it’s even an important one, but I have little hope that they’ve properly nailed the execution. See it if you have a thing for Oscar contenders, otherwise skip it.
Stay (Opens in 1,684 theaters.)
Stay is getting terrible reviews, so why am I recommending it? Did you see what your other choices are? Scroll up and reflect. It isn’t pretty. Stay wins by wrote of its freaky, interesting trailers. That’s no guarantee that it’s any good. At best it’ll be a crazy head trip, at worst it’ll be every bit as bad as most people are predicting. It stars Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, and Naomi Watts in a film about being trapped between the world of the dead and the living… or maybe being stuck in the Matrix. We’re not certain. The movie’s directed by Finding Neverland’s Marc Forster, which automatically earns it the benefit of doubt. Of course that’s the sort of thing people were saying about Domino, and boy where they wrong. If you don’t live in a city where Shopgirl or Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang are playing, roll the dice and see if Stay is really as bad as the critics are claiming.
STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: Elizabethtown, Serenity
