'Super 8' exceeds modest expectations with $37 million

By Sarah Sluis

Super 8, with its throwback, Spielberg-influenced sci-fi, kept audiences in the dark about the premise. That's a good thing for preserving the surprise in the viewing experience but a bad thing for opening weekend. Despite a $37 million weekend, which exceeded expectations, Super 8's mission is not over. The real gauge of the J.J. Abrams film's success will be in coming weeks. Will the movie fade quietly or become this summer's popcorn movie of choice? Having seen the film, I feel firmly that it's destined to be the latter. Unlike last week's X-Men: First Class and other tentpoles, Super 8 performed better on Saturday than Friday. The audience members, largely over 25 and slightly skewing male, weren't driven to the theatre by a barrage of television ads giving away the plot, but mysterious ones. The hope is that they'll share their positive experience with friends and family, especially on social networking websites.

Bridesmaids had its lowest drop yet, 15%, keeping it in the eight digits with $10.1 million. Male buddy comedy The Hangover Part II tapered its fall with a 40% dip to $18.5 million. X-Men: First Class halved its gross, but the 53% drop is actually the best experienced by an X-Men film. Following the standard for animated movies, Kung Fu Panda 2 lost just 30% of its audience, finishing the weekend with $16.6 million.

The other new release of the week, Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, contributed a quiet $6.2 million. That's slightly less than last year's Ramona and Beezus, which also targeted tween girls. With a reported budget of $20 million, this movie will have to hope for a long life on DVD to make up its high cost.

Directly below Judy Moody, Woody Allen had his highest-grossing single weekend ever with Midnight in Paris. The light, comic film tallied up $6.1 million on less than a thousand screens. I've heard nothing but positive word-of-mouth for this film, which seems poised to surpass Allen's last big hit, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The Tree of Life also improved from its previous weekend, adding $875,000 to its coffers while playing on 47 screens.

No more specialty darlings will join Allen and Malick, at least this weekend. British comedy The Trip averaged a mediocre $14,100 per screen playing in six locations. Congo production Viva Riva! earned a low $3,400 per-screen. Dutch romance Bride Flight, casting a wide net with 18 locations, had a light catch of just $3,000 per screen.

This Friday, another comic book hero gets a movie in Green Lantern. Jim Carrey plays opposite Arctic birds in Mr. Popper's Penguins, and emo teens can get release in The Art of Getting By.

'Hangover Part II' set to flykick over 'Kung Fu Panda 2'

By Sarah Sluis

If the midnight screenings are any indication, The Hangover Part II (3,615 theatres) is going to bring in at least $100 million over the four-day Memorial Day Weekend. Late night patrons gave the comedy a $10.4 million head start, with an additional $30 million projected for Friday screenings. Critic Kevin Lally summed up the film as "less a sequel than a remake," but predicted that the R-rated flick will "[deliver] enough outrageousness to satisfy summer audiences who don't mind some dj vu in their debauchery." Like the original, The Hangover Part II has laugh-out-loud moments and its mysterious plotline helps preserve the sense of surprise that worked so well for the first movie.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (3,925 theatres) is the first 3D, CG animated movie since Rio came out six weeks ago. The long weekend should bring extra eyes to the movie, which critic Frank Lovece called "truly beautiful to behold." Lovece remarks that "each successive DreamWorks animated feature looks more beautiful than the one before," and Kung Fu Panda 2 is no exception, showing incredible range in its "watercolor-like landscapes, shadow puppet-inspired flashbacks, and jangly, hard-edged anime." That kind of attention to artistry is enough to please both kids and adults. Panda earned $6 million from screenings yesterday, and the animated sequel is expected to top out below $100 million.

While director Terrence Malick's films have always had a cinephile following, The Tree of Life (4 theatres) is truly an art film, valuing poetic images and meditations over an actual plotline. Critic A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave an optimistic, fitting description of the film, positioning Malick among the "visionary company of homegrown romantics like Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Hart Crane and James Agee. The definitive writings of these authors did not sit comfortably or find universal favor in their own time...This is precisely what makes them alive and exciting." Brad Pitt and Sean Penn add their star power to the film, but I remarked most upon Jessica Chastain's screen charisma. She is that newcomer who will make a smashing impact when all her films over the past few years, some delayed, will release in quick succession. This summer we'll also see her in The Debt and The Help. I find her to be a less annoying Bryce Dallas Howard (sorry, fans), and look forward to seeing more of her performances this year.

On Tuesday, we'll tally up The Hangover Part II's weekend spoils and see if Kung Fu Panda 2 brought in families and matinee crowds in force, and if audiences are willing to venture to see Malick's oddest film yet.