Nothing opened wide this weekend besides Couples Retreat and your mom’s legs, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that Couples Retreat was number one at the box office, earning $35 million. It played on a measly 3,800 screens, so kudos to that plucky underdog. It still has a way to go to earn back its $70 million budget. People have been wondering how a basic rom-com could’ve cost that much, but the answer is simple when you imagine Vince Vaughn, Faizon Love, and Jon Favreau at the same buffet.
Distributor Universal Pictures’ exit polling indicated that the “humor” and “Vince Vaughn” were the top reasons people saw Couples Retreat. [BoxOfficeMojo]
Reasons three and four were “(unintelligible Chewbacca groans)” and “I thought this was the Dairy Queen”, respectively. The other big story was Paranormal Activity grossing $44,000+ per location, meaning it nearly tripled its budget on each screen it played. It also broke Platoon’s record for highest-grossing film playing on less than 200 screens, all while getting pretty good reviews. Analysts have been quick to hail its marketing campaign as a runaway success. But don’t think for a second that this means I’m giving Steven Spielberg a pass for his “my DVD was haunted” story. Only when it’s Steven Spielberg in Hollywood could a grown man get away with saying he owned a haunted DVD without rightly getting fired, shunned, pantsed, and wedgied.
(”Film of the century!” declared Retard Pig)
The Oscar vote is a little more complicated this year now with 10 choices for Best Picture instead of five, so I can understand how an academy member might be overwhelmed. But that’s no excuse for doing what one did, which was apparently to ask Pete effing Hammond for advice. Hammond writes:
The other day I got a call from an academy member who had just received a list of October entries in the official academy member weekend screening series. She asked if I thought particular titles she had never even heard of were worth checking out. Those included “We Live in Public,” a documentary about the Internet; “Disgrace,” a barely released post-apartheid drama; “Good Hair,” a Chris Rock riff on African American hairstyles; “Bronson,” a violent prison drama about a guy whose altar-ego is the actor Charles Bronson; “Gentlemen Broncos,” a teen comedy; “Astro Boy,” an animated film based on an old TV cartoon series; the multi-segmented ”New York I Love You” and a horror film, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.” None of these movies are likely to be found on any pundits list of potential Oscar contenders. [LaTimes via MovieLine]
No arguments there, at least if he’s only talking about Best Picture. But keep in mind, Pete Hammond is eFilmcritic’s 2008 Whore of the Year, one of those sham critics whose quotes you see in horrible movie trailers and think, “Who the hell would’ve had the balls to admit liking that out loud, let alone in print?” Pete Hammond is that guy.
(Whoa, hold on, you mean to tell me there’s a “World Dwarf Games” and no one told me about it?)
Seems fitting that we start with Roman Polanski comments, since I rode that news pony like it was your mom last week. From A BUNCH OF IDIOTS SIGN ROMAN POLANSKI petition:
Stone Soup says: To honor Polanski’s legendary artistry, the group has announced that the next three film festivals will feature bottomless popcorn boxes.
From ROMAN POLANSKI ARRESTED IN SWITZERLAND (which Sienna Miller recently derided as “Shitzerland”):
Evil Taco says: Leave it to the swiss to find a way to make him stop . . .
*puts on sunglasses*
Roman.
YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
