Monday
Apr222013
Box Office: Tom Cruise On Top... Again
Monday, April 22, 2013 at 1:00AM Amir here, to fill in for Nathaniel for the 411 on this weekend's box office. I haven't seen any new releases in quite a while, but I'll definitely get to Oblivion later in the week. Looking at the top ten, it turns out I'm not the only one who can't resist Tom Cruise on the screen. The man can do (almost) no wrong when it comes to opening a film at #1, his star power having endured many couch-jumpings, turbulent relationships, rock musical failures and all sorts of other crazy stuff. Oblivion's 38 million dollar gross isn't stellar but it's good enough to put the film on course to easily make its budget back. Ooh, what's that you say? International sales? Well, yes, considering that, Oblivion has already grossed more than its production budget, so we'll count it as a solid success.
Box Office (Wide)
1. Oblivion ($38.1) (new) REVIEW
2. 42 ($18) (cum. 54)
3. The Croods ($9.5) (cum. 154)
4. Scary Movie 5 ($6.3) (cum. 22)
5. G.I. Joe: Retaliation ($5.7) (cum. 111)
6. The Place Beyond the Pines ($4.7) (cum. 11) REVIEW
7. Olympus Has Fallen ($4.5) (cum. 88)
8. Evil Dead ($4.1) (cum. 48)
9. Jurassic Park 3D ($4) (cum. 38) MEMORIES
10. Oz: The Great and Powerful ($3) (cum. 223) REVIEW
There were no other wide releases this weekend, but here's the story I'm interested in: The Croods has quietly become a sensation. It's barely lost any screens and is holding on to its sales really well. I threw a hissy fit when my aunt forced me to take my little cousin to watch it, but I ended up enjoying its cliched thrills quite a bit, high-fiving my cousin frequently when the unlikely cave-superheroes escaped doom at every turn. Could an Oscar nomination be on the cards? I'm skeptical but the massive box office might count for a lot if the field is weak and team DreamWorks play their cards right.
Three new films ruled the day among limited releases. I'd personally only heard of Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem before I sat down for this post, but Home Run (a sports drama) and Filly Brown (a hip-hop drama) took the top two spots. Further down the screen count pecking order, Francois Ozon's superb new film In the House had the best screen average of any film this weekend ($11,738) and if you haven't seen it, get yourself to a theater as soon as possible. If your thirst for francophone cinema is still not quenched, hilarious Canadian sperm donation comedy, Starbuck, is still playing on 30 screens.
What did you all see this weekend?
Tom Cruise in a space suit? Tattooed Ryan Gosling? Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and the has-been team?
Reader Comments (13)
what did i see this weekend? So many movies my eyes are begging for mercy. More soon!
Oblivion opened one week earlier here in Malaysia, so I already watched it last weekend. I like it but not couch-jumping love it. I'm sure I will forget about it soon (in fact, I think I may already did). This is the problem with many of Tom Cruise's movies lately, they don't leave an impact. Can anyone recall Jack Reacher's story line now?
The past weekend there was only one new release here and it was a relatively old movie in North America. It was Broken City starring Mark Wahlberg & Russell Crowe, I think opened in North America in January. I watched it, and felt it was such a boring film. Ex-cop turn private investigator and corrupt politician. We've watched so many such films before and I'm pretty sure half of them even starred Mark Wahlberg or Russell Crowe.
This coming weekend it will be Iron Man 3 (I think we are one week earlier again). Although I've been complaining for the last few months that we can't watch a movie without Iron Man 3's trailer preceding it, I'm still going to watch it. But trailer wise it is a boring one, I hope the film proves it's not.
I started with "The Bay" on Thursday night (well-crafted but ultimately forgettable), continued with "Django Unchained" on Friday afternoon (my enjoyment abounded), and sojourned through a marathon of "The Tree of Life" (simply didn't get it), "Bachelorette" (so many repugnant characters) and "Life of Pi" (much to admire though generally disappointing) on Saturday. My bed and sofa have been my movie theaters lately.
HE IS 1 OF THE LAST MOVIE STARS REALLY
Re-watched A Separation which never fails to destroy me in its final 15 minutes. Saw Slacker for the first time. I liked it and respect it but I prefer much more character-based Linklater. Watched Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire and then Mad Men to end the weekend.
Saw The Place Beyond the Pines - not sure what I thought. I left feeling that I really enjoyed it, but then thinking back on it parts of it didn't work, especially the final third with the two sons. I just didn't believe either of those actors were the product of their respective parents' loins. But holy cow did Emory Cohen from "Smash" drop that baby weight in record time and become legitimately great-looking. He didn't even look that good on this past week's episode of "Smash."
I can't believe Nat said he never even thought of "Drive" until after the movie was over. As soon as Gosling stared at Eva Mendes during their first conversation, doing his quiet, soulful, brooding, long-pause-between-lines thing (is it a shtick yet?), that's immediately what I thought of, but he added little tweaks to this character for at least a little differeniation.
Short version: good, not great, the sum better than the parts.
mark: Really? Star, whether in movies or TV, means EXACTLY one thing to me: Charm. You don't necessarily have to be a traditionally great actor (or necessarily all that famous) to be that, but it can help. But what's the tenor of Tom Cruise's last fourteen years, in a general sense? Is it the traditionally "I'm really super charming" "star" type? No, he's tilted MUCH more toward "famous guy trying a bit too much to be the hard man" (see: Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, MI:2, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, MI:3, Lions for Lambs, Valkyrie, Tropic Thunder, MI: Ghost Protocol, Jack Reacher and Oblivion) than he has "traditional movie star" (see: Knight and Day and Rock of Ages) or "everyman" parts (War of the Worlds). Mark Wahlberg? Channing Tatum? Dwayne Johnson? (Yes, he's an action guy, but Retaliation has a lot of moments that show he has room filling charisma. Who else could sell but him and Tatum could come even close to selling a light observational moment of playing video games in an ACTUAL ACTION MOVIE?) Robert Downey Jr? Chris Evans? The vastly cinematically underserved Bruce Campbell? These aren't all, in their current working mode, a more fair idea of the "star" as an actual type of actor, as opposed to just a measure of fame? (Divide the "hard man" Tom Cruise against the "other roles" he's done and you get 14/17 = 82%.)
Saw "42" and actually liked it. Harrison Ford could be looking at a supporting actor nod if he plays his cards right. The film itself played it too safe, and I kept thinking in the back of my head how much grittier a Spike Lee joint would have been given the subject matter. But they went for the "rousing sports drama" approach instead, and in that model, they succeeded. Chadwick Boseman is someone to watch for when he lands more complex material, and Nicole Beharie is a goddess. But see this one for Harrison Ford if nothing else. He might surprise you. It's the best he's been on film in YEARS!
Amir, another stellar piece. I watched The Killing Fields again, and it still holds up. A movie that really earns its emotional payoff. Terrific directing and acting. And Oldfield's score still packs a punch.
Saw "The Company You Keep," which had a very compelling first hour and a very dull, predictable, unsatisfying second hour. It was nice to see Redford interacting with Julie Christie and Nick Nolte, though - and Sarandon, though separated from the others, gets in one very strong scene. The younger actors - Shia LaBeef, Anna Kendrick, Terrence Howard - all have mostly thankless roles, but Shia I thought did exactly what his role required and was quite solid as the film's second lead.
I saw "42" which is well crafted traditional Hollywood sports bio - Harrison Ford is terrific . (For those of you who might not be interested in the subject matter there is a lot of jock beef cake on display ...of course serious cinema lovers are not interested in that.)
tom cruise is some thing else. no need to tell good about him , he doesnt need. he is good forever. We find that some of Tom’s newer, younger fans are shocked to learn that he’s had a 30+ year career!
Tom's daughter Suri Cruisehas his eyes