First-place 'Megamind' halts 'Unstoppable'

By Sarah Sluis

The family-friendly Megamind continued its run at number one for the second week, earning $30 million. The superhero/villain comedy dipped just 34%, as audiences eager for entertainment with family appeal turned out for the well-received movie. That puts the movie in the "average" range among other animated films. This week will be Megamind's last in the spotlight, however, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I will take away a large chunk of the movie's audience this Friday.

Denzel Washington's Unstoppable debuted to $23.5 million, drawing in slightly older audiences and equal amounts of males and females. Washington knows how to pick his movies, and this marks his eighth film in a row to open above $20 million. With the addition of Star Trek star Chris Pine, this movie had broad appeal, leading THR critic Todd McCarthy to anoint it "the best blue collar action movie in who knows how long."

The effects-heavy, story-light Skyline opened to $11.6 million. The sci-fi film came with a cheap price tag, around $10 million, so its opening figure should ensure the movie's profitability. Despite some catchy moments in the trailer and an interesting premise, the alien tale did not incorporate the complexity of last summer's much-buzzed-about District 9, which opened to an out-of-this-world $37 million.

Audiences slept through Morning Glory's opening weekend. which followed up its Wednesday opening with a $9.6 million weekend for a total of $12.2 million. Given the movie's all-star cast, including Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Patrick Wilson, and Jeff Goldblum, the workplace romantic comedy's lackluster performance is surprising. As the tagline states--"What's the story, Morning Glory?"

Among specialty releases, indie darling Tiny Furniture had the highest per-screen average of the week, netting $22,000 from the IFC Theatre in New York City. 127 Hours had an impressive second-week finish with a $20,000 per-screen average at 22 theatres. Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) appears to have a second hit-in-the-making. Fair Game, which expanded again in its second week, held on, averaging $6,000 per screen as it nearly quadrupled the amount of theatres in its release.

This Friday, the penultimate film in the Harry Potter series should deliver another one of its sold-out, hyped weekends. The adult-oriented action thriller The Next Three Days will offer complementary fare, going for an audience that's outgrown Hogwarts.

'Wolverine,' meet 'Star Trek'

By Sarah Sluis

Everyone seems to like Star Trek. Many people will see it this weekend. But how will it all add up at the box office? Currently running a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, the time-traveling origin story juxtaposes car chases in vintage roadsters in Iowa with galactic attempts to wrench ships out of black holes ("More warp!" There is no more warp! More warp!!!"). It's great fun, and includes J.J. Abrams' signature time-bending, a space vocabulary that heavily references Star Wars (When will they put up safety rails next to deep abysses in spaceships?), and a plotline accessible to those who have never even heard of the Enterprise fan club. In other words, Trek has all the makings of a summer popcorn movie.

Currently, the film's tracking way up, as the marketing blitz continues to raise awareness of the film. There are conflicting reports about whether Star Trek or Wolverine has better female support, which surprised me, given that for me it was pretty clear-cut. My interest in Wolverine hovered around zero, while I was enticed from day one by the Star Trek trailer that included the aforementioned Iowa car chase scene and promised me there wouldn't be hard-to-decipher techno-conversations on the flight deck.

Last week, headlines for Wolverine gave the film a range of $60-$100 million, and it came in at $75 million. This week, estimates for Trek seem to be in the $65-$100 million range, but the studio's low-balling, saying they would be happy with $50 million. In Trek's favor are 7pm screenings tonight which should jump-start its grosses, as well as data from Movietickets.com that shows that sellouts have already exceeded those of Wolverine. The space actioner will also be showing up on bigger IMAX screens, which carry a ticket premium and could push grosses higher.

Internationally, the film will open everywhere but Japan and Mexico, where the swine flu has made public gatherings impossible. Based on previous performances in the franchises, X-Men's Wolverine claws are supposed to read better than the Spock/Kirk interactions of Star Trek, but since the reboot is all about drawing in new, younger viewers, there's a chance the film can create new audiences. The fact that Trek avoids using its plot as a Cold War parable will undoubtedly make the film more universally appealing.

Among, say, your typical young male fan who missed Wolverine last week because of a soccer game, there will definitely be competition for the box-office dollar, and last week's $75 million open still leaves many viewers choosing between the two films, or opting to take a week off from moviegoing. From my standpoint, that hard-to-quantify buzz has always been higher for Star Trek, but, then again, I'm not hanging out in middle and high school hallways.