Comments on the Weekend Box Office

Family and other commitments kept me from the theater this weekend, but after checking in on the weekend estimates, I had to throw my meager two cents at the wall to see if any of it would stick. Obviously, what follows is only one man's opinion and your comments are welcome to spur conversation.


Here you see estimated ticket sales for Aug. 10-12 as published by MSNBC.com:

1. Rush Hour 3, $50.3 million
2. The Bourne Ultimatum, $33.7 million
3. The Simpsons Movie, $11.1 million
4. Stardust, $9 million
5. Underdog, $6.5 million
6. Hairspray, $6.4 million
7. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, $5.9 million
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $5.4 million
9. No Reservations, $3.9 million
10. Daddy Day Camp, which opened on Wednesday, $3.3 million

I use a couple of sites to help me decide what I'm going to see at the theater that week. Truth be told, I did not have any desire to Rush Hour 3, and after I checked the overall thoughts on the movie, I did not change my desire one bit. That said, I'm not entirely surprised this movie is #1, but I am surprised it didn't receive more of a threat from the other big release, Stardust or The Bourne Ultimatum (which I reviewed last week).

When Rush Hour came out in 1998 it was welcomed with open arms. Jackie Chan was just a martial arts actor from Hong Kong who a select few truly knew. That all changed as MTV and the Gen X population started to pick his name up in the mid 1990's and this movie really burst him onto the American stage. The movie was fun and Chris Tucker was coming off a string of movies all propagated by the under the radar hit Friday. People welcomed the team up and showed it in the numbers. As a side note, this movie helped bring about the entertaining team-up of Chan and Owen Wilson in the Shanghai movies (which was more tuned to this writer's humor).

In 2001 Rush Hour 2 hit the screens and the numbers for the opening weekend were up as Chan had been successful with Shanghai Noon and Tucker hadn't been seen in two years. Subsequently, Tucker disappeared from the world and after the equally funny, but belief suspending Shanghai Knights, Chan went on to do a couple of Disney roles (Around the World in 80 Days, ow) and more movies in China. Now, 6 years later we have Rush Hour 3. It was pointed out to me by my friend, Let's call him Radar, that in the last 9 years Chris Tucker has only done these 3 Rush Hour movies! I've moved on. I'm older, not really into the cop buddy comedies any more. And the target audience for these actors, I kind of figured they'd moved on too. Once again I find myself humbled by my self-involvement. People still want to see these movies, obviously, and perhaps these two actors are, HOPEFULLY, finding a new slightly younger target audience as well. These guys were funny and fun to watch once upon a time. If the numbers stay up next weekend, it may convince me to get back in the theater to see this horribly reviewed movie. There is some big competition coming next weekend for the younger males to consider, that may take Rush Hour 3 out of the equation: Superbad. The Hollywood man of the hour, Seth Rogen co-wrote and is acting in this high school comedy that may push the American Pie movies to the back of your shelf and Rush Hour 3 to the back of the theater.

On other subjects, I was very happy to see Bourne get to $100M in it's second week. Disappointed to see Stardust come in a distant fourth in it's debut. Behind The Simpsons. The Simpsons wasn't a bad movie; I actually laughed out loud at a few scenes. It really just felt to me as a longer episode, not an epic movie. How did the well reviewed, star-studded Stardust not make money? Who doesn't want to see the always good Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter O'Toole, Claire Danes, and a kilt wearing Robert De Niro? Perhaps it was the last bit about the kilt that kept people away. Perhaps most of those actors mentioned played supporting roles? My guess? The studio didn't market it well enough, and frankly didn't know how or who to market it to. I wasn't at Comic-Con this year to see if there was a big marketing push for this movie, but that would have been the place. The writer, Neil Gaiman, a hero to that world, could have pushed it big time. The studio could have pushed it by using his name, and perhaps they did, but it didn't work. I for one didn't hear anything from Comic-Con on the movie.

In closing, what the hell happened to Cuba Gooding Jr.? Daddy Day Camp? I hope we are just seeing a repeat of the Eddie Murphy phenomenon, werein you go off to do some movies for your kids and the world won't let you do anything else until you score some insanely one-off role that people go, "Who was that"? For God's sake, the world does not need Norbit 2.

E

Watching: Undeclared the Series...a woefully canceled Judd Apato t.v. series.

On-deck: Superbad! In the theater. Loving me some Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen.

Reading: His Dark Materials trilogy.