'Puss in Boots' enjoys back-to-back $30+ million weekends

By Sarah Sluis

Paramount's decision to release Puss in Boots one week early paid off. Last week, the CG-animated picture had a lower debut of $33 million thanks to Halloween celebrations and bad weather in the Northeast. This week, the Shrek spinoff dipped just 3%, the lowest drop for a non-holiday saturated release. Now Puss in Boots has over $75 million in the bank, and one more wide-open weekend before animated competitor Happy Feet 2 opens on Nov. 15.

In second place, Tower Heist came in with $25.1 million. Many in the industry expected more, and certainly the action comedy's $75 million budget hints at larger expectations. However, the comedy earned raves in exit polls, which puts the heist film in a strong place in coming weeks.

When your Christmas release opens well before most malls have decked out their stores in red-and-green cheer, it might be a problem. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas debuted on the low side of expectations, to $13 million, and I suspect its eight-week lead time on the holiday contributed to the lower take. The stoner comedy reportedly cost less than $20 million to make, so steady weekends through the holiday will definitely put the movie in the black.

In sixth place, Footloose showed a surprisingly strong hold, dipping just 17% from last week for a $4.5 million total. The dance remake has played strongly among heartland audiences. Moneyball, in the tenth spot, showed resilience in its seventh week, boasting just a 20% drop as it added another $1.9 million to its $70 million total.

On the specialty front, the documentary about punk rock dads, The Other F Word, opened to a respectable $7,000 per-screen average on two screens. Like Crazy went up 120% from its opening weekend to $270,000. The indie romance averaged $16,800 per screen in quadruple the locations (16 from 4). That puts the indie romance ahead of Martha Marcy May Marlene, which only earned $248,000 its second week, even as it played on double the number of screens. Still, the cult drama starring Elizabeth Olsen is also performing well for a specialty film, passing the $1 million mark as it earned another $471,000 on a run that now numbers 98 screens.

This Friday, the fantasy action drama Immortal will make a splash with a wide release opposite Adam Sandler cross-dressing comedy Jack & Jill. Director Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar will jump the gun, opening small on Wednesday and big on Friday.

'Tower Heist' and 'Harold & Kumar Christmas' bring comedy front-and-center

By Sarah Sluis

A comedy about huckstered ninety-nine percenters taking revenge on the one-percenter in their building? With Occupy Wall Street bringing income inequality back into the headlines, Tower Heist (3,367 theatres) appears perfectly poised to take advantage of its topicality. Some estimate the movie could pull in $30 million this weekend. Reviews have not been entirely unkind. Critic Daniel Eagan echoes the sentiments of many other critics when he calls it a "broad" comedy with "crowd-pleasing" elements. It's ultimately "undemanding," but that's the definition of escapist entertainment. The unlikely group of cast members includes Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, and "Precious" star Gabourey Sidibe. However, they don't gel together: "No one character truly takes control," Eagan complains, making the comedy a "downscale Ocean's Eleven."

Ring the sleigh bells! A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2,875 theatres) has found a positive perch with many critics, who as a rule are unlikely to root for a stoner comedy directed at teen boys. Critic Doris Toumarkine sparked to the comedy's liberal politics, which she says will appeal to anti-tea partiers. The 3D, too, features "clouds of pot smoke billowing towards audiences," which may be enough to fill the 2,943 3D screens and ensure the 1,000 midnight showings are packed. Toumarkine predicts this "comedy gift...assures more life for the franchise."

The Son of No One (10 theatres) is one of those movies with an all-star cast that ended up being not very good. Anchor Bay will give it just a blip release theatrically, then thousands of people will assume the "policier" with the cast list of "Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Channing Tatum..." is a big-name movie they just haven't heard about when they hit "play" on Netflix. How wrong they will be, especially given critic David Noh's negative review, which calls the movie "obvious and wholly unconvincing" as well as "an unintentional spoof of Reservoir Dogs."

Aging punk rockers discuss the difficulties of explaining their R-rated tattoos to their kids in The Other F Word (NYC), which Noh calls a "hilarious investigation" into punk dads. Another documentary, Charlotte Rampling: The Look (2 theatres), offers an "admiring" peek into the life of the legendary actress with plenty of "movie talk" for cinephiles, according to Noh.

On Monday, we'll see if Tower Heist enticed the ninety-nine percenters to the box office and if young male viewers were enticed to leave their couches and have some early Christmas cheer for Harold & Kumar.