Best Picture (if Oscar were like "People's Choice")01 The Dark Knight $505 and climbing
It's finally slowing down going into its 8th week but damn... now that is a zeitgeist picture. The term gets overused (I'm guilty too) but that's a real one. So many people responding to it. It's the only modern film that's ever turned itself into a threat to Titanic.
02 Iron Man $317
03 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull $315
I finally watched this. I thought 'Oh, Nat. Don't be such a stick in the mud just because you sometimes think franchises should die noble deaths rather than be exhumed.' But um... even as I found myself completely ready for F-U-N --I guarantee I was in the right mood -- I wasn't having much. Cate Blanchett was sort of a hoot even if her accent was both half baked and deliciously burnt...but that wasn't much of a character to play. I was happy in concept and sometimes in execution to see Marion and Indy reunited. But yikes, this movie is lame. CGI gophers?
04 Hancock $227
05 WALL•E $218
I heart this movie. Should probably see again. I still can't fathom how Cars was a bigger hit than this? Ah well, at least with Pixar, they're always hits and $200+ is nothing to complain about.
Runners Up
06 Kung Fu Panda $213
07 Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! $154
08 Sex & The City $152
09 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian $141
This is why everybody does and should make sequels: People will go to them dutifully even if they're not particularly enthused. Force of habit.
10 Mamma Mia! $ 133 and still singing
I haven't seen it which you must know is madness. I know it's supposed to be terrible (which wouldn't surprise me) but Nathaniel missing musicals and Meryl... [gasp]. Still, I can't bear to think of seeing that one alone and I don't have my movie going buddies around since I'm still a hotel dweller.
Technically, at the day of this writing, The Incredible Hulk holds that number ten spot, somehow eking out a teensy victory over Wanted which people seemed to like a whole lot more at the time but which didn't have any legs to speak of, barring Angelina's. Still: Streep Smash! Mamma Mia! (#12 as of right now) will outdistance them both this weekend since it's still in the top ten. That big green giant just can't catch a break. First he struggled all summer just to beat the original outing (by a narrow 2 million) and with that big monkey of a budget on his back, cutting into his profits.
If the (redundant) Mamma Mia! Sing-Along idea catches on, Streep will have an even bigger hit than she already has. What was that about female led films being box office poison? Remember that panic when Jodie Foster couldn't make her usual numbers with The Brave One? Never mind. If The Women tanks on September 12th you'll start hearing that tired meme all over again. "Women can't sell movies. Pay no attention to those many films behind the curtain (of your short term memory)!"
Films that should have been bigger hits...A Girl Cut in Two (France) $95,000 in the states / $7.6 million abroad
I think it would be fascinating if, for just one year, we who weren't present for the American craze for the foreign film (60s and 70s) could experience what it was like when hipsters, at least, flocked to them.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (US) $13.7 million
It's doing very well if you look at it on the Woody Allen curve... but given the solidity of its performance, shouldn't it be getting more than a couple of dozen new theaters in its fourth weekend?
In Bruges (UK) $7.8 million in the States / $18.5 million abroad.
I keep thinking this will become more widely loved on DVD
Reprise (Norway) $554,000 in the states / $647,000 abroad
It didn't cross that 1 million threshold that used to be the mark of a foreign hit here at the arthouses but the number of subtitled pictures that are able to do that per year has dwindled. Half a million is a very respectable gross these days once you cross the ocean. Still, one wishes it were more.
Will the Fall Film Season bring any real box office players or just golden hopefuls?
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