1. "District 9" ($37 million)
2. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" ($22.5 million)
3. "The Time Traveler's Wife" ($19.2 million)
4. "Julie & Julia" ($12.4 million)
5. "G-Force" ($6.9 million)
Given its strong opening day of $14.2 million and a Saturday take of $12.6 million, it's hardly surprising to hear that "District 9" finished its first weekend on top of the box office. What is surprising is that "District 9" is on track to make $37 million by Sunday's end, meaning that the alien-centric film has already surpassed its budget costs by $7 million. According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, the results surpassed rival studios' expectations of the film, thanks largely to good word of mouth and grassroots marketing from producer Peter Jackson, director Neill Blomkamp and the rest of the "District 9" team. Read more...
I don't get you people. Not at all. We've got the enormously hyped "District 9" dropping today. We've also got a shiny, new "New Moon" trailer, with the added bonus of a feature-length movie starring Vanessa Hudgens -- "Bandslam" -- playing right after. And yet the majority of you enjoyed those delectable morsels -- at 25% and 22% of your votes, respectively -- in favor of "The Time Traveler's Wife," which stole 40% of your votes and hearts. Wacky.
The rest of the weekend options, including "he Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard" -- which looks quite funny -- didn't turn out with numbers worth reporting; all of them in the sub-5% range. I've given plenty of coverage to both "District 9" and the "New Moon" trailer here. Since "The Time Traveler's Wife" doesn't seem to need any boost, I'm going to devote the rest of this space to pimping Jeremy Piven and his first-class sales team in "The Goods." Behold the funny...
One of the reasons to see “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” is for the cameo from Will Ferrell, who also produced the new movie through his company, Gary Sanchez Productions. Typically, uncredited appearances like this are also not promoted so they can be a surprise to the audience. Yet Ferrell’s scene, in which he falls to his death from an airplane while wearing an Abe Lincoln costume and fighting off sex toys, can currently be seen on FunnyorDie.com, where it’s been viewed more than 130,000 times.
Hilarious as it is on its own, you might rather skip the sneak peek and watch the scene in the context of the movie. That is, if you think such a cameo makes a movie better as a whole. There are certainly some people out there who find a sudden appearance from a big star to be an unnecessary distraction.
“The Goods” is Ferrell’s fourth film in which he has an uncredited cameo, so we decided to take a look at those past three appearances as well as two pre-fame bit parts -- that feel like cameos in retrospect -- in order to gauge if he can improve upon or distract from a story with just a few minutes of screen time. After looking at each cameo, let us know which is your favorite and whether or not it made the respective movie better. Read more...
This is not the same Ed Helms we saw earlier this summer in "The Hangover." Maybe it's close to what his character became by the end of that movie, but this guys looks much cleaner, much slicker. He looks like a shark. I'm fairly certain that's the point too, as Helms will play the son of a rival car dealer out to screw over the competition in this Friday's "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard."
I'll admit, "District 9" has kept this summer comedy more off my radar than it should be. As an avid "Entourage" watcher, I'm a big fan of Jeremy Piven. Helms joined Zach Galifianakis in stealing the show in "The Hangover," and the duo are joined by an excellent cast which includes Ving Rhames, David Koechner ("Anchorman"), James Brolin, Alan Thicke, Tony Hale and Kathryn Hahn. Check out the full poster after the jump. Read more...
See what I did up there? With the "New Moon" trailer? All due respect to "Bandslam," the release this week which will exclusively feature the latest trailer from the next adaptation in the "Twilight" series, but we've got a little bit of a "Meet Joe Black" situation going on here. For those who don't remember: "Meet Joe Black" hit theaters in 1998 along with the very first trailer for "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." People went nuts over it, with many freely admitting that they bought their ticket just for the trailer.
Granted, this is the second "New Moon" trailer. And according to all reports, "Bandslam" is a far better movie than "Meet Joe Black" was. But Twilighters rival "Star Wars" fans with their fervor. Before we dive in with the rest of the week's releases, why not take one more peek at that first "New Moon" trailer?
Read more...
Tags bandslam, district 9, Grace, It Might Get Loud, New Moon, paper heart, ponyo, Spread, Taxidermia, The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard, The Time Traveler's Wife