It was a big big weekend for Melissa McCarthy, who capitalized on that big Bridesmaids breakthrough with her first huge headliner opening of the year in Identity Thief. I use the word "first" because clearly there'll be a second. Her buddy comedy with Sandra Bullock The Heat opens in just two months time. Here's why I knew Identity Thief would be big: three of my friends -- two of whom are rarely seen inside movie theaters (the last thing they saw was Skyfall) -- both told me they wanted to see it.
box office chart repurposed and photoshopped from boxoffice.com
Critics were not kind to the comedy. And that's before we even get to the subject of Rex Reed who notoriously called McCarthy a "female hippo" in his review prompting outrage 'round the web (i.e. more name-calling only this time directed at Reed and his age instead of McCarthy and her weight). But I liked Gawker's take. If the movie is seriously as bad as people are saying, shouldn't McCarthy who is obviously talented and truly funny, bare some responsibility? Why do reliably funny actors so rarely star in actually hilarious movies? (I remember being shocked while watching Date Night and Baby Mama that the movies were not half as funny as Tina Fey is as Tina Fey.) Is the problem that funny people are asked to be the entire joke?
Other Box Office Stories...
- Side Effects opened to a non-stellar non-embarrassing $10 million
- Argo went wide again to capitalize on Oscar buzz and rejoined the top ten
- Top Gun got a 3D conversion earning just under $2 million (and a new limited edition 3D Blu-Ray)
- Silver Linings Playbook continues to inch toward the $100 million Best Picture Nominee club which is very crowded this year.
What did you see this weekend? I finally watched Yossi but otherwise it wasn't a movie weekend for me.