Box Office Special. A Sticky Cartoon Strip-a-Thon !
Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 10:04PM I didn't cover the box office last weekend in one of it's most interesting episodes. What's wrong with me? So today in honor of Channing Tatum's third consecutive $35 million plus opening last weekend (expect him to be offered every part for a 25-40 year old man in the next year, even the ones he's totally wrong for) a Magic Mike themed box office countdown to kick off Stripper Week. I'm pretending that the nation's #1 movie featured a musical stripping sequences a la Magic Mike. Just go with it. (File under: Anything to keep the commerce part of movie-going interesting. Cuz that's so notthe interesting part!)
Inappropriate Spider-Man cartoon (I made it*!)
Box office chart after the jump...
Box Office Dozen
01 THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN $62 new (cum $137) Review
02 TED $32.2 (cum. $119.8)
Mark Wahlberg's true gift is comedy and people by and large seem to understand this. Even his best dramatic work comes with laughs -- most of them intentional! I'm not sure that people love talking teddy bears in the movies but they did this time.
03 BRAVE $19.6 (cum. $173.9) Capsule
Princess Merida has shed concerns about her drawin power as quickly as she busted out of that restrictive princess dress to shoot arrows and ride wild through the forest.
04 SAVAGES $16 new
05 MAGIC MIKE $15.6 (cum. $72.8) Review
06 MADEA'S WITNESS PROTECTION $10.1 (cum $45.8)
07 MADAGASCAR 3 $7.5 (cum $195.9)
08 KATY PERRY: PART OF ME $7.1 new (cum $11.2)
09 MOONRISE KINGDOM $4.5 (cum. $26.7) Capsule
This has slowly turned into Wes Anderson's most successful outing outside of The Royal Tenenbaums (in terms of general audience response). In it's seventh weekend it's still holding up well suggesting that people are telling their friends to see it.
10 TO ROME WITH LOVE $3.5 first wide weekend (cum $5.6)
11 PEOPLE LIKE US $2.1 (cum $9.1) Capsule
12 THE AVENGERS $2.1 (cum. $611.1) Review
In other box office news: Rock of Ages and Meryl Streep's Hunky Son-in-Law Vampire Hunter lost the most screens this holiday weekend so they'll be ending their runs soon with tallies under $40 million and thus way below their budgets; Beasts of the Southern Wild had the best per-screen average at 18 locations and will cross the million dollar mark soon; The failure of People Like Us is sad news, regardless of what you think of its quality... common Hollywood wisdom says not to release movies about normal non-super-powered people during the summer (Channing Tatum's pelvic thrusts are a super power) and this proves the rule.
What movies have you seen the past two weekends?
And how much money did you feel like shoving into their thongs?
*and I only wasted 2 hours of my life... same as when I watched the movie!
Brave, Magic Mike, Nathaniel's Drawings, Spider-Man, Ted, box office, nudity, strippers
Reader Comments (19)
Actually I skipped movies this weekend and went to the opera for the first time in my life. I saw "Pelléas et Mélisande" staged by Robert Wilson. So beautiful. I wish he would direct a movie.
PS How much cock do we get to see in Magic Mike?
"Magic Mike" is a very entertaining star vehicle for the charming Mr Tatum who delivers on every level- including what I hope becomes his signature naked butt shot.
PS : Peggy Sue no there is not full frontal nudity...( well have to wait for the gay porn parody- "Amazing Mike's Dick"
Damn it! I demand an instant remake directed by a French auteur.
I didn't see any movies in theatres, but I watched Bullets Over Broadway, When Harry Met Sally, and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 again, and watched Hoop Dreams for the first time.
Meghan -- whoa. 3 out of 4 greats aint' bad ;)
I just hope Channing (or his advisers) continue to be smart about how they are choosing his roles. He doesn't overreach and seems to know his limits...but you're right, he'll get offered some stuff that probably is more cut out for Ryan Gosling and it could blow up in his face. He reminds me of Sandra Bullock in that way.
Ted is gay friendly while a movie about male strippers demands its audience takes it seriously while ignoring its number one support group: gay men.
I would think that women, due to sheer numbers, would constitute the biggest support group for male strippers.
Saw Take This Waltz and have been wrestling with it ever since. Fascinating movie. Can't decide if its flaws are flaws at all.
Also saw To Rome With Love. Not wrestling with that one so much. Die hard Woody Allen apologist here, but this struck even me as almost completely half assed, though it was still minimally charming enough (especially the opera singer story line) to entertain.
To Rome with Love made me remember how much I love Judy Davis in any role.
Saw MAGIC MIKE and thought it was fine. I'm still generally anti-Tatum but even I have to praise his moves and easy charm in the film.
My friends and I wanted to make it a double feature with MOONRISE KINGDOM but it was sold out so alas just the one movie this weekend. We did check out SPIDER-MAN on Independence Day and last weekend I saw BRAVE.
The cartoon is funny! Though I heard him say in an interview that he wore a jockstrap (and a cup?) to protect himself from accidents. I'd love to see a picture of that. Those are the kind that make back scenes meaningful.
What I saw recently:
Mr Deeds Goes to Town - I haven't seen so many classics so I decided to watch them chronologically instead of haphazardly. I'm currently in the late '30's where I shall be for a while since there's a LOT of movies from this era I want to see. This was charming. I liked Gary Cooper in it enough but thought he might have been a little too restrained, mysterious and stoic.
The Amazing Spider-Man - Nat, I haven't read your review but I found this entertaining enough and even moving (don't laugh!) at some parts. Obviously the plot had some "wha? really?" moments but I guess it helped that I had low expectations. Plus I thought Garfield and Stone were good and pretty cute together.
Coriolanus - In addition to catching up on classics, I'm also catching up on 2011 movies. I don't love the source material but enjoyed this interpretation of it, especially Fiennes (HOW was he not a bigger contender for Best Actor?), Redgrave and Cox.
Nothing about the boneheaded move to release "Savages" in July instead of its original fall date? It could have gotten "The Town" numbers and a possible Oscar push.
Iggy -- thanks for noticing the cartoon. I was so proud of it ---i even got a little jiggle movement in with his legs. ;)
Love the cartoon!!
I saw Take This Waltz yesterday. By the end, II liked it much more than I thought I would given how frustrating I found some of the behavior of the characters. I think this may be my very favorite Michelle Williams performance (which is saying a lot) and, wow, Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman were both very impressive. Really powerful movie that has stayed with me (over less than 24 hours, I know, but still).
I also watched a little David Lean comedy called Hobson's Choice which I was utterly charmed by. Charles Laughton is astoundingly hilarious. Thank you, Netflix, for the suggestion!
I've been completely wrapped up in watching Wimbledon tennis for the last two weeks. And there was plenty of drama, surprises, tears, and heart-warming finishes in that. The men's final reduced both men to tears (and me too).
Heat wave in DC and saw both Take This Waltz and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Definitely both gave me lots to think about. I think I almost loved Take This Waltz (despite a little clunky dialogue) and feel a little conflicted over Beasts. Is it a tad condescending to its characters? Does it have a point? I definitely cried though.
Saw Magic Mike and Ted last week/weekend. Ted was awful but kind of exactly what I needed when I saw it (long story).
In all the possible ways Magic Mike could have gone wrong, it wrong in the worst, most fascinating way: It was actually a good movie. In a just world, Channing Tatum would get an Oscar nod for Best Actor. I was blown away, and not just by his "dick popping". You could argue that he was just playing himself, but that's always what everyone says about Clooney and he gets nommed with ease pretty regularly. McConaughey's strip was the best, but that's not really surprising, for a bunch of reasons. The whole movie felt just like the hot, sweaty, sticky Florida summer, and I mean that in the best way possible.