How many Jerry Bruckheimer misfires before it's a trend?

By Sarah Sluis

Jerry Bruckheimer is having a rough time. The Sorcerer's Apprentice opened to just $17 million, and cost over $200 million, including marketing. The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time didn't do much better, opening to $30 million and finishing at $90 million, despite a much bigger budget. Last year's G-Force and

Confessions of a Shopaholic are also cited as underperformers, but they don't fall exactly into the Bruckheimer action movie formula. THR just posted an article speculating that this might dampen Bruckheimer's power as a producer, though it's unlikely his production deal with Disney is in jeopardy.

The last Bruckheimer action movie I enjoyed was Pirates of the Caribbean. A fact almost universally acknowledged is that Johnny Depp made that movie. Everyone else was playing it straight in the pirate romp, but Depp was in his own league, acting more like the spooky CG dead pirates than an action lead. His eccentric behavior

seemed like a wink to the audience. So my problem with the most recent Bruckheimer movies is this: they don't seem like they're making fun of themselves at all. They're just typical overstuffed action movies with fantastical premises that seem interchangeable with each other.

These movies have also had problems targeting their audience. The Sorcerer's Apprentice drew half its audience from date-night couples, when it was planned to be more of a family movie. The only thing that made it seem like a kids' movie was its PG rating. All the fire and brimstone in the trailer, for example, seemed directed randomly, enough so that when the kid (Jay Baruchel) says of the sorcerer, Nicolas Cage, "Are you insane?" at the very end, we're inclined to say, "Yes, I still don't know what the plot is." Morphing cars and robotic gargoyles and shooting fire into a building just aren't entertaining if there isn't a story behind the actions.

It's possible that part of the problem for Bruckheimer's films is marketing. There are plenty of movies I want to see that are followed by bad reviews, but his movies I didn't want to see, a feeling confirmed by their poor reception at the box office. Disney has a new marketing chief, MT Carney, who has the potential to change how these movies are perceived pre-release.

Bruckheimer's next movie is a bit of a fail-safe. The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean coming next May should draw audiences, and if it doesn't, it's simply a matter of franchise fatigue. What would be worse for Bruckheimer, however, would be fatigue with his very idea of a spectacle--replaced by the geeky approach of J.J. Abrams, 3D animation and comic book movies.

Midsummer weekend's dream for 'Inception'

By Sarah Sluis

This week, original films, not franchises, won out at the box office.

Leading the pack, Inception finished up the weekend with $60.4 million, on the high side of expectations.

Midnight screenings drew in $3 million, and both Friday and Saturday brought in similarly-sized crowds before dropping slightly on Sunday. Now that the secret is out about the movie's dream-within-a-dream structure, the blogosphere is diving in and dissecting the movie. The most exhaustive analysis to date comes from a New York Magazine interview with actor Dileep Rao (he plays the chemist). For those that have seen the movie [spoiler alert], his take is this: you can hear the top wobble at the end.

Earning double the amount of newbie release The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the original animation title Despicable Me dipped just 42% to finish in second place with $32.7 million, while Apprentice debuted to just $17.3 million. Poor reviews, a muddled

marketing campaign (in my opinion), and just a general confusion of how this Sorcerer's Apprentice related to a Mickey Mouse Fantasia sequence may have contributed to this family-friendly movie's lackluster performance. Despicable Me has the advantage of being fresh and original, and in the land of so many remakes, it's nice to see an original movie open strongly and hold its ground.

That came-out-of-nowhere kid-driven musical Standing Ovation drew in minuscule audiences, ending up with just $361,000 and a pitiful per-screen average of $361. This movie will likely screen much better on DVD at preteen sleepovers.

Among returning movies in the top ten, Predators suffered the worst fate. The reboot of the action/horror franchise plummeted 72% to $6.8 million. Toy Story 3 continued its slow float downward, losing 44% of last week's gross but still finishing with $11.7 million. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse slid down a steep slope, dropping 57% to $13.5 million. Grown Ups held the strongest, with just a 36 % dip for a total of $10 million.

After four weeks of increases at the box office, Cyrus fell 16% in its fifth week to grab the eleventh-place spot and $1.07 million, bringing its total to $5 million. The new indie on the block, The Kids Are All Right, is moving in the opposite direction. The family-centered comedy-drama went from seven to 38 locations, doubled its gross, and finished with $1.02 million, and a standout $27,000 per-screen average.

This Friday, kids' literary adaptation Ramona & Beezus will draw in the young crowd, while the rogue spy movie Salt will lure in audiences with headliner Angelina Jolie.

'Inception' gears up for a dream weekend

By Sarah Sluis

One of the most anticipated movies of the summer, Inception, rolls into 3,792 theatres today. Many in the industry are pegging the movie's opening at $50-60 million, though I think Inception's long-term box

office potential is much higher. It's one of the few wholly original movies coming out this summer, but also has a level of built-in appeal due to the popularity of its director, The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan. If it plays its cards right, I think it could be one of those pictures that brings in people who only go to the theatre for "big" movies. Reviews have been largely positive, with Film Journal's critic Maitland McDonagh declaring Inception "a superior summer movie, one with heart and brains and loads of razzle-dazzle." Some have faulted the movie for being overly complex in terms of plot, but not enough in terms of emotions. Dana Stevens at Slate summed it up by saying, "At the end of Inception, I hadn't lived through the grueling emotional journey Nolan seemed to think I had, but I'd seen a bunch of cool images and admired some technically ambitious feats of filmmaking." For a summer movie, that's pretty much all you can ask for.

After opening on Wednesday to $3.8 million, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (3,504 theatres) is expected to end up in the $30 million range for the weekend. Our critic Ethan Alter suspected that producer Jerry

Bruckheimer was trying to give Nicolas Cage a Jack Sparrow-worthy role as an "extended apology to [his] frequent collaborator." Cage isn't in the best financial situation, and a career reboot a la Depp would be welcome. Too bad Cage's performance wasn't up to snuff. "Handed the golden opportunity to create his own Jack Sparrow, Cage whiffs and gives us one of the least memorable personalities in his gallery of eccentrics," Alter laments.

An under-the-radar release (though perhaps not among preteen girls), Standing Ovation will open in 623 theatres, most of them outside of the biggest cities. Just one theatre will carry the

movie in New York City, for example, compared to over eight in Houston. The singing & dance sequences in the trailer are impressive, especially given the ages of the performers. What kid will care about the clunky dialogue when there's an advertised "20 original songs and 14 original dance numbers"?

Returning release Despicable Me has been playing strongly through the week, thanks to the summer holidays, and should continue to do well at the box office. Platform releases Cyrus and The Kids Are All Right should continue to increase their revenue, with Cyrus likely to keep its spot in the top ten, while The Kids Are All Right will be unlikely to do so until it expands further.

On Monday, we'll circle back to analyze the first weekend of Inception, gauging the word-of-mouth on the action/sci-fi hybrid. And we won't forget about The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is a strong pick for the second-place spot.