'Shutter Island' bests 'Cop Out' and 'The Crazies'

By Sarah Sluis

Despite the arrival of fresh competition, Shutter Island dropped less than 50% in its second weekend to hold onto the top spot for the second week in a row, earning $22.2 million. Director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio are enjoying some of the best box office they've had in awhile, along with a $75 million cumulative gross.

Cop Out debuted in second with $18.5 million. The Kevin Smith-directed, humorous tale of two misfit cops opened higher than star Bruce Willis' previous movie, September's Surrogates. For Tracy Morgan of "30 Rock," this was his first headlining role. Unfortunately, our critic Ethan Alter found Morgan's "unpredictability," his "comic energy...at odds with the movie he's been cast in...it's hard to escape the feeling that he's been advised to keep himself in check." As a big fan of his character on "30 Rock," I only hope his next feature, the ensemble piece Death at a Funeral, will fix the problem.

Horror movie remake The Crazies had been building slowly in awareness, and ended up just $2 million short of Cop Out with a $16.5 million total. While many horror movies do the biggest business on Friday, this movie, like many others, peaked on Saturday with a 6% bump from Friday. The poor weather on the East Coast, which had largely cleared up by Saturday (at least in the New York area), may account for the unusually large Saturday bumps across the board. Shutter Island went up 55%, Cop Out 29%, and Avatar 114%.

Avatar astounded for yet another week with a minuscule 13% drop and another $14 million. After months of prodding, including one attempt thwarted by a sold-out show, my own parents finally saw the movie and pronounced the film "stunning." My scientist father was in awe of the 3D technology and apparently sat on the edge of his seat the whole time. Their reception matches the general word-of-mouth that exists for the movie, which has had astounding longevity at the box office. With the Academy Awards next Sunday, the movie will likely see another bump two weeks from now, once the awards tally is in.

The Ghost Writer added 39 locations this weekend and came away with a $20,000 per-location gross, which tipped the movie's cumulative gross over the $1 million mark. A 50% plus drop in per-location earnings is about standard for specialty films, and a $10,000 per location gross next week, combined with an expansion, would rack up millions of dollars for the film.

Sony Picture Classics' A Prophet debuted one week ahead of the Academy Awards, where it is nominated for Best Foreign Film. At nine locations, the prison drama brought in $18,800 per-location for a total of $170,000, a number that will increase in weeks ahead, especially if the movie, regarded as a frontrunner for the win, ends up with an Oscar.

This Friday, Alice in Wonderland will make its 3D and IMAX debut along with a decidedly different cop movie, Brooklyn's Finest.

'Cop Out' looking to steal the box office, with 'The Crazies' not too far behind

By Sarah Sluis

Coming into the weekend, the policing team of Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Cop Out (3,150 theatres) has the best chance of finishing highest. Seemingly made with the idea that 'Sure! everybody loves a buddy cop comedy!,' this is a "completely disposable picture" according to our critic Ethan Alter, who felt that everyone from the actors to the studio was phoning it in. As for those who see the movie, "it's a two-hour time-waster that barely lingers in the memory." Ouch. For director Kevin Smith, making his first commercial picture that he did not also write, the poor reviews must sting--with only a high opening weekend as an antidote.

By comparison, The Crazies (2,476 theatres) has garnered mainly positive reviews, currently tracking 71% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes to Cop Out's 17%. FJI critic Maitland McDonagh was thrilled to see this remake of the 1973 George Romero film soar above the so-so remakes of horror movies Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror. She credits excellent acting as a major source of suspense: "...escalating tension hinges on the fact that the line between abnormal behavior triggered by extreme stress and the warning signs of infection is blurred and constantly shifting." The subject matter doesn't hurt either. Small-town Iowans start going crazy after a government plane crash dumps a bioweapon into the town's water, an anxiety shared by our phthalate-fearing, toxins-causing-autism society.

Among holdovers, Shutter Island could make $20 million in its second weekend, which could be a tough number for Cop Out to match. The Ghost Writer, which debuted strong last weekend, will expand from four to 43 theatres in twelve cities. Sony Picture Classics' Oscar-nominated The Last Station will go from 116 to 359 theatres. Its Best Foreign Language film nominee A Prophet (Un Prophete) will also make its premiere. Our critic Alter makes the interesting observation that the drama depicting racially charged French prisons "probably won't seem as novel over here as it was in its homeland," where it won several high-profile awards. Americans are just too inured to the prison genre, spending an "inordinate amount of time following the exploits of people doing time."

On Monday, results will be in for Cop Out, we'll see if The Crazies was able to pick up audiences from strong word-of-mouth, and if Shutter Island was able to hold on to a second week at number one.