It was a big weekend for spoofing familiar concepts with 21 Jump Street filling movie houses and the only other top ten newbie Casa De Mi Padre, doing a parodic riff on Mexican movies starring Will Ferrell and everyone's favorite Mexican tag team: Gael García Bernal & Diego Luna. Would love to hear from anyone who saw the latter in the comments since this one slipped me by and GGB is an old favorite. (My review of 21 Jump Street will be up tomorrow evening.)
TOP TEN (Estimates)
01 21 JUMP STREET $35 new in wide release
02 THE LORAX $22.8 (cum. $158.4)
03 JOHN CARTER $13.5 (cum. $53.1) [Review and Taylor Kitsch Beefcake]
04 PROJECT X $4 (cum. $48.1)
05 A THOUSAND WORDS $3.7 (cum. $12.1)
06 ACT OF VALOR $3.6 (cum. $62.3)
07 SAFE HOUSE $2.8 (cum. $120.2)
08 JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND $2.4 (cum. $95)
09 CASA DE MI PADRE $2.2 new in limited release
10 THIS MEANS WAR $2.1 (cum. $50.5)
Another Milestone for A Separation
Asgar Farhadi's Oscar winner A Separation (our favorite of 2011) continues its incredible theatrical run passing the 5 million mark. Five million for an Iranian family drama at the US box office? Unheard of. Every once in a blue moon the nation's box office gives us good news for quality cinema. While we're here why not a look back at the biggest foreign hits from the past year?
TOP TWENTY SUBTITLED HITS RELEASED IN THE US IN 2011
Disclaimer: I didn't count The Artist. Though it's foreign, it's silent so we're excluding it but you'll understand that if we did it'd be number one with an incredible $42 million. Don't believe those naysayers that call it a box office disappointment. Black and white + no stars + silent + foreign = $42 million is big big numbers.
Kristin Scott Thomas continues to be a draw ... at least when subtitled.
The ones that got a lot of people talking...
01 SARAH'S KEY [France] $7.6
02 A SEPARATION [Iran] $5.6 and still playing
The Oscar winner this year which we like writing about.
03 BIUTIFUL [Mexico] $5.1 Technically a 2010 picture since it had a one week qualifying run before being pulled until the nominations were announced. But we'll count it for comparison's sake.
04 OF GODS AND MEN [France] $3.9 It was held back to 2011 to capitalize on a presumed Oscar, but the nomination didn't even come. Did very well for itself in 2011 anyway which is not the usual case for that sort of "wait for the Oscar" trick.
other successes
05 DON 2 [India] $3.6
06 THE SKIN I LIVE IN [Spain] $3.1
"Success" being relative. This didn't do Pedro Almodóvar's usual numbers though I'm unsure as to why.
07 ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA [India] $3.1
08 PINA [Germany] $3.0 and still playing The Oscar nominated dance documentary... in 3D.
09 RA ONE [India] $2.5
10 INCENDIES [Canada] $2.0 Another Oscar nominee from last year
POTICHE was such fun. Arthouse audiences (mostly) agreed.
minor hits... but still hits
11 BODYGUARD [India] $1.8
12 POTICHE [France] $1.6
13 DELHI BELLY [India] $1.5
14 THE DOUBLE HOUR [Italy] $1.5
15 SAVING PRIVATE PEREZ [Mexico] $1.4
16 CERTIFIED COPY [France| Italy | Belgium ] $1.3
17 NO ERES TU, SO YO [Mexico] $1.3
18 DESI BOYZ [India] $1.0
19 IN A BETTER WORLD [Denmark] $1.0 The Foreign Film Oscar winner last year
20 READY [India] $.9
ol' faithfuls French cinema and Bollywood continue to have the most reliable ticket buyers in the US arthouses. Bollywood movies don't need any press attention at all to find audiences. Even if you follow the movies religiously chances are you haven't heard of their annual hits if you're not out there looking for them. France is a different story in that way, getting and needing the media push.
Hrithik Roshan & Shah Rukh Khan are superstars of Bollywood. So is the male physique.
And also: What is it with Bollywood and über muscley male superstars? Bollywood men are way more objectified than their Hollywood counterparts.
Jeon Do Yeon, our favorite Korean actressjust outside the list Japan's ultra violent epic 13 Assassins got some attention and press but didn't quite cross the million mark.
sad observation Though South Korea is where it's at right now for regional cinema heat (as opposed to heat tied to specific filmmakers) the country's cinema has yet to catch on with arthouse moviegoers here in the States. Despite huge acclaim Mother, Thirst and Poetry, three of the most interesting films of the past few years, didn't totally catch on. None of them crossed the magic million dollar mark and only one of them passed ½ a million. The Housemaid and Secret Sunshine were also not true breakthroughs despite the exciting lead actressing of Jeon Do-Yeon.
Answer me these questions three
- Which of the top 20 foreign hits did you see?
- What did you see this weekend?
- Any theories as to why The Skin I Live In wasn't up to Pedro's usual numbers or why Bollywood worships male flesh?