'Max Payne' shoots down the competition, but 'Bees' has sting

By Sarah Sluis

Surprising those who predicted yet another videogame adaptation flop, Max Payne topped the box office with a respectable take of $18 million.  I still maintain that the number will drop precipitously next week, when the videogame fans dying the see the adaptation dry up, but the low-budget action film is well on its way to profitability.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua continued its dominance in the family-friendly market, pulling in $11.2 million. 
The big surprise, though, was The Secret Life of Bees, which came in at #3 with an $11.05 million while playing on less than 2,000 screens.  The film made more per screen (and thus played to more packed houses) than #1 release Max Payne.  The semi-limited release strategy will positively impact their returns in weeks to come.  I predict lower-than-average drops in their box-office take.

Below Bees, W. took in $10.5 million, an assertive amount that gives the film's naysayers little ammunition against the film.  The film attracted young, pro-Obama voters.  By debuting while our President is still in office, the biopic has broken from the norm.  Its success at the box office may encourage more biographies to be made while a figure still holds a position of influence and prominence.

Sex Drive debuted at #9 with $3.5 million, coming slightly under the $3.56 million take of competing (and sweeter) teen film Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.  The film's take was disappointing, making me believe the marketing department's release of the first ten minutes of the film may have been an act of desperation--or led teens already online to search for a torrent to illegally download the film.

Returning films Eagle Eye ($7.3 million), Body of Lies ($6.8 million), and Nights in Rodanthe ($2.6 million) all managed to post box-office drops below 50%, with Eagle Eye over $80 million and looking hopefully at $100 million.  Horror picture Quarantine, which debuted at #2 last week, dropped 55% to $6.3 million.

Next week will bring some big changes in the box office lineup.  Six wide releases, including teen draw High School Musical 3 and adult picture Changeling, will pack the box office, opting for the crowded October 24th weekend over October 31st, when the Friday Halloween holiday will undoubtedly draw audiences away from the box office as they seek their trick-or-treats elsewhere.

Full box office results here.

'Max' is painful, 'Bees' has too much honey

By Sarah Sluis

Safely clear of the September dumping ground, this week has four wide releases--with only one, Max Payne, a phone-it-in stinker.  Our critic Ethan Alter wrote this of Max Payne: "a profound feeling of
laziness hovers over the entire picture, suggesting that it was as
joyless to make as it is to watch."

Poor Mark Wahlberg.  While 3,376 theatres will be out of commission screening this video game
adaptation, hopefully teen and twentysomething guys who bought the video game will instead choose to see Sex Drive, a Summit Entertainment release opening on 2,421 screens.  In a vote of confidence on its quality, the marketing campaign released the first ten minutes of Sex Drive (warning: this is R-rated material), and the film carries a brisk momentum out of the gate.  Director/writer Sean Anders does an understated, cinematic representation of an IM conversation that's worth checking out, projecting the conversation to the side in a way that feels natural and real.  The L.A. Times review also spoke to the integration of social technology in the movie, noting that "teen comedies that are remembered tap into something fundamental
about their time, and here Anders smartly finds a way for many of the
characters' most embarrassing moments to be somehow caught on tape" and end up on YouTube.

"Honey-glazed," "too much honey," "not the bees knees," The Secret Life of Bees also opens today on
1,591 screens--a strategic move that will pack or sell out theatres and encourage word-of-mouth reviews.  Critics haven't been able to resist using "honey" to describe this film, though some find the film exceeding their tolerance for glucose.  As a book club pick for groups across the country, the movie adaptation will undoubtedly attract women who've read the novel.  If they hold true to marketers' perceptions of female audiences, they won't make it a priority to see the film opening weekend, but will likely see it once the reviews from the friends start trickling in.  What is too sweet for reviewers is often just right for the Milk Duds crowd, so I predict this film will look better in its third week than its first.

Fewer Americans may have tuned in for the third presidential debate, but W., opening on 2,030 screens, plans to capture their attention at the box office.  In a surprising consensus, reviewers of W. have noted that the film goes out of its way to come off as--let me borrow a catchphrase from Fox News--fair and balanced.  Wisely limiting the scope of the film to origins, Stone portrays Bush's ascent to the White House as a bumbling and at times tragic accident.

The diversity of this week's lineup makes predictions a tough call.  I predict a pleasantly surprising take from Sex Drive, a top three finish for W. (this is pushing it), and for Max Payne to burn brightly this week before falling sharply.  As an action picture opening on over 3,000 screens, a number one finish seems probable, but I would like nothing better than for another one of these three pictures to make a statement by coming in at number one.