A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the imminent release of three-quel Public Enemy Returns. Hopes were high that the Korean-made crime action comedy would enjoy a measure of success and thus buoy local filmmakers; Korean audiences have been avoiding local product for months.
Public Enemy Returns did indeed have a bountiful opening, grossing more than $7.2 million in its premiere weekend and smashing Get Smart, according to Box Office Mojo. In its second weekend, though, it fell victim to international action powerhouse Wanted, demonstrating that curving bullets and the even more curvaceous Angelina Jolie need fear no borders. Still, Public Enemy Returns has nothing to be ashamed of -- it made $4.7 million to Wanted's $5.4 million -- and provides hope that upcoming Korean movies such as The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Sunny, and Eye for an Eye will find favor locally in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Kung Fu Panda has been warmly embraced by China, in the words of The Hollywood Reporter. With $14 million in box office receipts in its first ten days, the animated animal adventure has already been declared "the most successful foreign animated film in China," as claimed by a government news agency. If accurate, that gross would place the film practically neck and neck with Iron Man and the Chinese-made Kung Fu Dunk for the #3 box office position for the year so far. I haven't seen Panda yet; is this is a good thing or a bad thing from a cultural and/or cinematic standpoint?
Notwithstanding the best attempts of some to smear Wall-E as being somehow hypocritical or disdainful of consumers, the little robot gave Pixar the third-best opening weekend in its history, behind The Incredibles and Finding Nemo (and roughly tied with Monsters, Inc.). Its $62.5 million take was on par with expectations, though the lack of the usual family film Saturday and Sunday bump suggests that Wall-E attracted an impressive number of kidless Friday night moviegoers. And that bodes well for the weeks to come: the movie is quite sophisticated and not all that toddler-friendly, so word-of-mouth among adults will be key.
Given Wall-E's apparent cross-demographic appeal, one might have expected Wanted to struggle a bit as the weekend's "adult counterprogramming," but nothing doing: at $51.1 million and a strong second place, we may have a new franchise on our hands. The two combined to make this the strongest three-day weekend of the summer at the box-office overall; in fact, to find a higher combined top 12 gross, we have to go back to Memorial Day 2007 and the debut of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The rest of the chart looks unremarkable. The Love Guru dropped almost 61% to 6th place, prompting the unsurprising conclusion that the Guru Pitka didn't connect with summer audiences. The Incredible Hulk continues to run behind Hulk, ruling out the possibility that it will have the staying power to do appreciably better than the embattled 2004 film. Wall-E gave Kung Fu Panda its first significant hit, dropping it to 4th place. Indiana Jones will break $300 million by the end of Monday, if Sunday's final numbers don't push it past the milestone. And The Happening looks like it will top out around $70 million.
But is it really fair for Paramount to be bragging so much? On her Variety blog, Anne Thompson weighs in on the news, pointing out that all three of the studio's summer blockbusters were produced outside the main studio. Indiana Jones was Lucasfilm; Iron Man was Marvel; Panda was DreamWorks Animation. Of course, Paramount deserves a lot of credit for the marketing of these films, but Thompson wonders what it will be like if DreamWorks really does break away soon. Fortunately it has a good looking slate for the next few years, thanks to next year's toy-based titles Transformers: Revenge of the Fallenand G.I. Joe, and then the next four or five Marvel Studios releases in 2010 and 2011.
Welcome to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game we've heard actually gets you smarter-er! Last week, we asked you to whip up a little somethin' somethin' for a photo from the new flick Kung Fu Panda. And that you did! Congrats to Tommy L. for reminding us that the game Duck Duck Goose amongst a group of animated Kung Fu fanatics might not be the best idea.
1. "I don't think we should play Duck Duck Goose. It just ... doesn't feel right." -- Tommy L.
2. "So ... these pants do make me look fat, then." -- Mike Z.
3. "Panda, this is an intervention. You're killing yourself with food!" -- Brian
This week, we're calling in all our best agents for a very special Insert Caption for the movie Get Smart (in theaters June 20). Dun dun dun! Starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, we're looking at a big-screen remake of the popular '60s television series about two agents (one clumsy, one competent) who must battle the evil forces of KAOS in order to save the world. And for your part, three winners will take home one fingerprint kit, one globe beach ball, one Get Smart mug, one pair of binoculars, one spinner key ring, one Get Smart baseball cap, one Get Smart journal and one push button. Think you have what it takes make us laugh? Well then, Agent Caption-er, sound off below ...
That's a bit misleading there, in the title; Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan wasn't able to claim the weekend's top spot over Dreamworks Animation's Kung Fu Panda, but a) no one was really expecting it to do that, and b) Zohan's $40 million opening weekend is at least par for Sandler, roughly tying Click's opening weekend, and beating I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry by a handy $6 million. Sandler has only done measurably better with The Longest Yard, Anger Management and Big Daddy.
Panda, meanwhile, is an unadulterated victory. Its $60 million weekend beats everything in the Dreamworks Animation canon except the two Shrek sequels, and wouldn't have been a disappointment for any Pixar film. Good reviews and a witty, appealing ad campaign certainly helped, though I was kind of hoping that airing that insufferable Jack Black "silence is golden" intro in AMC theaters for the past, oh, eight months, would have backfired.
The 62% drop for Sex and the City shouldn't surprise anyone, though the folks at New Line/Warners probably had a reasonable hope of a bit more staying power. The 55% drop for The Strangers isn't too horrendous, and the $38 million cume on the micro-budgeted horror flick is a big win for Rogue regardless. Cinematical darling The Promotion debuted on 6 screens to a respectable but unspectacular $28,900 ($4,816 per screen).
Check out the top 10, and a look forward to next week, after the jump.
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the online game that karate chops all its competition in half. Last week, we asked you to give us captions for a photo from the new creepy flick The Strangers. Serious props go out to Kristi S. for cracking us up with one of my personal favorite winning captions of 2008 so far. (And so what if I wound up Netflix-ing Armageddon the other night because of Kristi? Is that so wrong?)
1. "Hurry up!!! Armageddon is on TBS tonight and I don't wanna miss a thing!!!" -- Kristi S.
2. "Liv: Take The Deal! Scott: No Deal! No. Deal." -- Sam S.
3. "Mr. Tyler, put down the ax and allow me to explain. SHE was the one hitting on ME." -- Dodd A.
I don't know if you're aware, but this week everybody (including we here at Cinematical) was kung fu fighting. Oh yes, those cats were fast as lightening. In fact, it was a little bit frightening. And ... I'll stop now. Kung Fu Panda has finally arrived in theaters, and we're celebrating by handing one grand prize winner one cast-signed Kung Fu Panda movie poster, one Kung Fu Panda "I Can Find It" book, one stuffed "Po" plush, one pack of Kung Fu Panda Hubba Bubba gum, one Kung Fu Panda McDonalds Happy Meal toy, one Kung Fu Panda "Tigress" pez dispenser and one HP/Kung Fu Panda activity CD. Phew. Get all that? Additionally, two runners-up will get the cast-signed movie poster. Sound off below kung fu caption-ers!
Jack Black, whose Kung Fu Panda opens this week, seemed to move awfully quickly from rising star to overexposed. His always-moving, rock 'n' roll persona seems to be everywhere, turning up in several movies a year, always pitched at the same high level. It's all too easy to concentrate on his most annoying performances, as lazy fast-talkers, or selfish schemers in films like Saving Silverman, Shallow Hal, Envy and The Holiday. But a closer look at his filmography shows more than a few samples of the Jack Black that we initially liked and elevated to stardom.
1. High Fidelity (2000) This was the first time Black came onto my radar, although he had previously been in at least 30 other movies and TV shows. It's arguably the first time he tapped into the Jack Black persona for the length of an entire movie, and he was nicely fitted in the mix between cool, confused John Cusack and Todd Louiso (as the withdrawn music nerd). His was a supporting role, rather than a lead, which is the best place for a character actor of his caliber. Moreover, Black played a nerd with a wide-ranging knowledge of music, implying that he was at least using his brain for something (as opposed to many of his other films). As for his performance, he showed enough natural, unhinged exuberance (especially in his surprise rendition of "Let's Get It On") that, frankly, he deserved an Oscar nomination.
Sex and the City surprised a lot of people, not by doing well, but by doing extremely well, pushing Indiana Jones back to the number two spot for its second week of release. Last week's other new release, The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler, scared the American public out of a respectable amount of cash as well. Here are the numbers: 1. Sex and the City: $56.8 million 2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: $44.7 million 3. The Strangers: $20.9 million 4. Iron Man: $13.5 million 5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: $12.7 million
We've got two more new releases this week, both of which are going for the laughs.
What's It All About: A Kung Fu loving panda (voiced by Jack Black) must put work in the family noodle shop on hold when he is chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Now he studies alongside martial arts experts Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. Why It Might Do Well: With all the big releases lately, there haven't been many geared toward the little ones, so I can see this one filling a void and Rottentomatoes.com gives it a 92% fresh rating. Why It Might Not Do Well: Come on, he's a panda. What are you, some kind of panda hater? Heck, I suspect this will be next week's number one movie. Number of Theaters: 3,600 Prediction: $56 million
Whether it's the critic leaving the screening room, flabbergasted at another mess ... the producer baffled at how much time and treasure and good intentions got squandered into an immense dog's egg ... or the actor who had some sort of a hunch that a film could be work, only to find out that there wasn't enough of him to fight the dozens working against him ... all can console themselves with screenwriter William Goldman's rule: 'Nobody knows anything." This is the consolation when sure fire things go wrong. If nobody knows anything, there's still 7 things you ought to know if you're making movies ...
This week I'm feeling kind of fond of the fauna. Here are five trailers for films related to the animal kingdom. The Dark Knight Bats: nocturnal flying mammals who occasionally star in hotly anticipated summer blockbusters. I know I'm not the only one who's been waiting for this one ever since the end credits rolled on Batman Begins. Once again Christian Bale dons the cape and cowl of the tortured Batman, this time to do battle with Heath Ledger's sublimely psychotic Joker. This newest trailer gives us plenty of both hero and villain, as well as what appears to be the start of District Attorney Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) career as Two-Face. Michael Caine is also back as Alfred, and as much as I liked Michael Gough in the role, now I can't imagine anyone else polishing the silver at Wayne Manor. July 18 can't come fast enough. Here's Elisabeth's take. Eagle Eye You know that scene in The Matrix where Morpheus calls Neo on the cell phone and tries to instruct him on how to get out of the office before The Agents find him? That's exactly what this trailer plays like. Shia Labeouf plays a character who suddenly finds an extra three-quarters of a million dollars in his bank account and he comes home to find his apartment filled with a couple metric tons of terrorist accoutrement's like explosives and automatic weapons. A mysterious voice calls him and tells him that the FBI will be there in moments. Arrested and framed, he must go undercover with a terrorist organization to clear his name. I was intrigued until I found out this was from D.J. Caruso, the man behind the stunningly mediocre Disturbia. Still, the trailer is kind of cool and the cast also includes Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton. Eagle Eye starts playing U.S. theaters on September 26. Here's what Erik thought of the trailer.
When you hear journalists at Cannes bemoaning a lack of outlets, it turns out that, for once, they're not talking about firings and cutbacks in paying gigs; rather, they're talking about the crowded push of the Orange WiFi Press Cafe, where getting a socket to plug into between screenings is well-nigh impossible. That's the press room pictured above; not shown is the upper deck, to the right, crowded with couches and journalists sprawled on the floor with their laptops. At its busiest, the WiFi Cafe looks something like a Civil War hospital, if Gettysburg's fallen had carried laptops and cameras instead of rifles.
It seems hard to imagine it's only the second day of the Festival, but it is; journalists and filmmakers are still coming into town, and the tempo of buzz and anxiety is speeding up subtly under the stately glide of stars down the red carpet. I actually wound up, bizarrely enough, at the Kung Fu Panda press screening -- Kim had to cover the Blindness press luncheon -- and, as I said in my review, "Of course, I may be a little inclined to have liked Kung Fu Panda as it made for a bit of a break; my Cannes viewing before this morning's Kung Fu Panda screening included two stabbings, a riot, several acts of sexual aggression, a few beatings, assault with a deadly weapon, family tension, grinding poverty and child endangerment. (That's not the breakdown for the films before Kung Fu Panda, just to clarify; that's the breakdown for the film before Kung Fu Panda.)" Still, I was able to get out and about to take in the scene today; you'll find the gallery below, with more from the shore to come when I can find a place to plug in for my next Cannes dispatch.
Perhaps the best thing about Kung Fu Panda is that it's an action comedy that doesn't skimp on the action. Dreamworks Animation's latest effort may stick out a little on the Red Carpet at Cannes -- where it's screening out of competition -- but it's certainly a well-made kid's film that earns high points for how directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne clearly crafted and contemplated its look and feel with ambition and style. Anyone can make a computer-animated cartoon with fuzzy animals doing kung fu; you have to be at least a little inspired to make a computer-animated cartoon featuring fuzzy animals doing kung fu in widescreen Cinemascope. ...
Kung Fu Panda opens with a rousing, stylish action sequence, as a narrator (Jack Black, in full-on Tenacious D exposition mode) explains how "Legend tells of a legendary kung fu warrior whose kung fu skills were legendary. ..." But then, the heroic panda we've seen unleashing paws of power on the big screen ... wakes up; it was just a dream. Then Po the panda (Black), whose dreams of kung fu glory are the counterpoint to his unsatisfying life, gets ready for his day of helping his father Mr. Ping (James Wong) sell noodles to the people of the Valley of Peace.
Imagine the above, with a round white boy (in, I hope, the same duds). Or one round furry dude panda.
It was inevitable, really. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Jack Black and Cee-Lo (of Gnarls Barkley) have covered Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting" for Black's upcoming Kung Fu Panda. At the very least, it should be a bit better than Chris Tucker's version for Rush Hour 3.
Cee-Lo says: "It was inspiring and an honor to have the opportunity to reintroduce the record to a brand new audience, sprinkled with a little of me on top." Meow! However, I really doubt that their cover will inspire young tykes unfamiliar with the song to find out that it's a Carl Douglas tune, and go out to hear more of his music. In reality, we can probably wait 10 years and then hear people say: "Hey, isn't 'Kung Fu Fighting' that Jack Black song?"
You can hear the track on May 27th by picking up the soundtrack or downloading it. As for the film, which also uses the voices of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, and Dustin Hoffman, it's coming out on June 6.
Both of the upcoming animated releases that aren't Wall-E or Space Chimps got new trailers yesterday. Here's one for Igor (and here's a link to the poster we premiered a few weeks ago), and here's one for Kung Fu Panda.
Kung Fu Panda looks like it'll be just a step or two above -- *shudder* -- Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Igor, on the other hand, looks like a charmer: the premise is inherently nerdy, requiring viewers to think back to the original Frankenstein films (or at least Young Frankenstein, or Van Helsing in a pinch) to get the joke, and the trailer has a few big laughs.
The biggest upside of Kung Fu Panda coming out on June 6th: those of us who frequent AMC Theaters will no longer have to endure the Kung Fu Panda-themed pre-movie interlude exhorting viewers to shut up. I'm not sure how many more times I can listen to Jack Black tell me that he can hear me texting before I have an aneurysm. But I guess I should be grateful AMC is no longer airing that horrid Three Doors Down "Citizen Soldier" video pimping the National Guard (because no one screams "role model" to teenagers like the lead singer of Three Doors Down). That thing gave me nightmares.
It would seem that Imagi Studios' big-screen version of the classic manga Astro Boy is really going to be a work in progress. ComingSoon is reporting that Timothy Harris has been hired to write the new script for the CGI flick. This is the second major switch-up for the film about the boy robot. Back in January, the studio decided to replace director Colin Brady with Flushed Away's David Bowers. The first script had been put together by Michael Lachance (Kung Fu Panda), but now Harris will be taking over full time.
For those of you not familiar with the classic manga story by Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy is the story of a boy-robot in search of his creator and struggling with his more 'human' qualities. Of course, in between the soul searching there are plenty of battles with mad scientists and master criminals. Brady had originally imagined the story as a 'dark Pinocchio' tale, but who knows what Harris may have planned now that he is in charge.
So just like the last time when there was a personnel change on the project, everyone seems really excited about the changes afoot (what else could they say?). Harris was quoted as saying, "'Astro Boy' is a dream animation project. It's a classic, as timeless as Oliver Twist, set in the most incredible futuristic world. It's one of those stories that moves you emotionally while being funny and entertaining at the same time." Too bad you can't say the same thing about some of Harris' other projects, including Kindergarten Cop and Space Jam. Astro Boy is set to arrive in theaters in 2009.
A couple of weeks back, I wrote about the imminent release of three-quel Public Enemy Returns. Hopes were high that the Korean-made crime action comedy would enjoy a measure of success and thus buoy local filmmakers; Korean audiences have been avoiding local product for months. 
Notwithstanding the best attempts of 
Over the weekend, Paramount Pictures International 
1. "I don't think we should play Duck Duck Goose. It just ... doesn't feel right." -- Tommy L.
That's a bit misleading there, in the title; Adam Sandler's 
1. "Hurry up!!! Armageddon is on TBS tonight and I don't wanna miss a thing!!!" -- Kristi S.
Both of the upcoming animated releases that aren't Wall-E or Space Chimps got new trailers yesterday. 
It would seem that Imagi Studios' big-screen version of the classic manga 
