BAM reveals Steinberg Screen in their 'state-of-the-art ruin' Harvey Theater

In its 109-year history, the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn (originally the Majestic) has cycled between being a venue for live performances and a movie palace. Over two decades after it was restored as a showcase for live productions, BAM recently added a retractable 35-foot by 19-foot movie screen, which will allow the venue to show both movies and live performances. The renovation also included the addition of Dolby Digital 7.1 sound, as well as special acoustic panels that make the space more acoustically versatile. Before modifying the acoustics, the theatre was very reverberant, which is  great for hearing live voices but horrible for movie sound. Tonight, the theatre will break in its new screen with the opening night selection of BAMcinemafest, the Sundance-approved western Ain't Them Bodies Saints.

Just as stunning as the large, seamless Steinberg Screen is the theatre itself, especially for those who have grown up seeing movies in modern multiplexes. The 1904 vaudeville theatre, which fell on hard times in the 1960s and was closed for two decades, was stumbled upon in its decrepit state by BAM staff in the 1980s. They were enchanted by the rundown space, and a restoration completed in 1987 preserved the sense of the theatre as a grand ruin. Corinthian columns in the lobby are half-chipped away, bricks are uneven, and paint has a hundred-year patina. In her opening remarks for a preview event on Monday, BAM president Karen Brooks Hopkins said the staff refers to the Harvey as a "state-of-the art ruin," an apt description that encapsulates its combination of modern amenities and romantic dilapidated look. With 745 seats, it hearkens back to the great movie palaces and will have enough seating for BAM's larger events. The theatre is just a few blocks away from the BAM Rose Cinemas, where the theatre held all of its movie screenings before the renovation of the BAM Harvey.

Any new theatre with boast-worthy screen and sound has certain films on their must list, and the Steinberg Screen will show them in the "Big Screen Epics" series from July 3-23, which will include runs of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and The Godfather I & II. Besides these special series, the Harvey Theater will also book theatrical runs of indies like Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, which play there starting July 26. New York City is known for its plentiful arthouse movie theatres, but the Harvey Theater's Steinberg Screen is truly a one-of-a-kind New York City moviegoing experience, one that will surely be showing up on the "best theatres" lists in months to come.

 

Theatre, Netflix, or TV? Netflix price hike brings to light moviegoer habits

By Sarah Sluis

Yesterday, I mentioned my occupation as a writer for a film magazine to my hair stylist. "Yeah, between cable and Netflix I don't really go to the movies anymore," he said. He's not alone. 30% of Americans don't see a single movie in a year. The remaining 70% includes two groups. A minority sees movies regularly, once a week or a few times a month. The majority sees a select few movies a year that seem worth the expense for the experience. Movies like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Avatar make the cut for these people. Others prefer to see action-filled flicks in theatres and save talky ones for home. I recently recommended Midnight in Paris to a friend. "No, I don't see those kinds of movies in theatres," he said. He prefers seeing movies like X-Men: First Class, which benefit most from monster screens and surround sound, on the big screen. Movies lost their monopoly long ago, back when television first made its way into American homes. How much of a threat is Netflix really to movie theatres? Nada.

The only company to go out of business since Netflix has been Blockbuster. That's the clearest indicator that consumers consider Netflix a replacement for movie rentals, not going to the movies or catching them on TV. Netflix has also increased the "pie," opening up entirely different patterns of viewing. Never has it been so easy to sit down and watch an entire series of a television show. It's also the subscription method of choice for young adults, many of whom can't be bothered to set up a cable connection, much less pay $100 a month for the privilege, in their transient lives. Everyone I know who doesn't have a television watches programs online with Hulu or Netflix. So much for reducing screen time by not having a TV.

What will be most interesting about Netflix is to see how consumers react to the 60% price hike announced last week. Before, streaming was just an add-on to the DVD delivery service, which could be had for $9.99 a month (one DVD + streaming). Now consumers will have to purchase a $7.99 streaming plan and/or a $7.99 DVD rental plan, a big increase for Netflix's budget-minded customers. That makes the calculus of choosing a plan a bit more difficult. Personally, I've enjoyed streaming now and then when nothing else looks good, but the content and selection isn't strong enough to justify that cost, given how little the content I stream is worth (we're talking the movies that used to be in the 99 cents rental section). Perhaps that's why Netflix decided to outbid HBO for an original series back in March. I bet the $7.99 streaming fee will soon have an added bonus: original content.

As you can see by reading through the comments on Netflix's blog, a lot of their customers are very unhappy about the price hike. People are mentioning Red Box, Blockbuster, Amazon Prime, and Hulu as competitors who can provide them movies for a lower price. Not one person said, "Well, I might as well go to the movies now." Maybe that's because a month of Netflix is still less than the price of a night at the movies for two.

Netflix is part of the changing landscape of the post-movie theatre market. But so many of these changes are just variations on existing ways Americans already find and watch movies. Netflix is like a video rental store. Streaming is like on demand or even selecting what's best from the TV guide. Movie downloads are just buying a digital DVD. And going to the movies is always going to be a more immersive experience than watching a movie at home.

Cool prospects for 'Season of the Witch'

By Sarah Sluis

In the second post-Christmas weekend at the box office, the holiday releases are expected to reign supreme. True Grit closed the gap between itself and Little Fockers last weekend, and this weekend the Coen Brothers' Western remake could rise to first place, especially since it recently started beating Fockers at the weekday box office.

The only new wide release this weekend is Season of the Witch (2,816 theatres), Relativity Media's first outing as a distributor. Well, they can only go up from here. Nicolas Cage stars in this 14th century witch-hunting, witch-saving "jocular bromance," as described by critic Maitland McDonagh. The historical adventure "can by no stretch of the imagination be called a good movie," McDonagh concedes, before noting the movie is "weirdly entertaining." The guess for this film is somewhere north of $10 million.

Country Strong debuted two weeks ago for an awards-qualifying run in a couple of theatres, but this week it expands to 1,424. The awards release may have been in vain, however, considering the film's received scathing reviews (The NY Post dubbed it a "Twang Wreck") and a mere 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. According to critic Rex Roberts, the blame should rest on writer and director Shana Feste, who "smothers [Paltrow's] perfectly fine performance with so much red-eyed gravy we can't take her or any of the characters seriously."

After an opening weekend that ended with a $48,000 per-screen average, Blue Valentine expands to ten times as many locations (40 theatres). If it can hold on to half its opening average, the drama of a fading romance will be in excellent shape. Black Swan, The Fighter, and The King's Speech, which were rounding out the top ten, have risen to spots in the top six during the week. They may have difficulty holding onto that improvement over the weekend, when more families will return to the theatres.

On Monday, I'll determine if Season of the Witch was more of a flop than Cage's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, if audiences liked Country Strong more than the critics did, and if the Oscar-seeking elite held onto their top ten positions.

'Secretariat' races against 'Life as We Know It,' 'My Soul to Take'

By Sarah Sluis

As The Social Network heads into its second week, it will receive tough competition from Life As We Know It, Secretariat, and My Soul to Take.

Life as We Know It (3,150 theatres) is a pretty typical romantic comedy, with such tepid reactions as "formulaic but intermittently charming" (Maitland McDonagh, FJI) and "well made for its corporate type" (Stephen Holden, New York Times). Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel star as antagonists forced to live with each other after they are named parents to a deceased couple's child. I'll bet a hundred bucks they fall in love! Despite the so-called image problem of Katherine Heigl, this comedy is the frontrunner of the weekend, if it can best the high teen millions number expected for second-weeker The Social Network.

Secretariat (3,072 theatres) may just be the dark horse this weekend. Though it's not tracking as well as Life as We Know It, its expected audience of Christians, older viewers, and families are not the kind of people that check out movies every weekend. Diane Lane stars as a housewife who leads a racehorse to the Triple Crown. Both Secretariat and Life as We Know It held sneak previews last Saturday, which could help boost the word-of-mouth buzz for opening weekend.

Wes Craven returns with My Soul to Take (2,572 theatres), a 3D serial killer film centering on a group of teenagers. Though the story rarely deviates from horror-movie expectations, it's well-made, suspenseful, and will offer particular appeal to younger viewers--if they can get past the R rating. Though two horror movies opened last weekend (Case 39 and Let Me In), each grossed just $5 million and shouldn't threaten the debut of My Soul to Take, which is projected to clear the $10 million mark.

The kid-in-a-mental-hospital comedy It's Kind of a Funny Story will open in 742 theatres, a number Focus chose due to positive responses among test audiences. I've been fearing this movie would flop like Charlie Bartlett, which opened to just $1.8 million after audiences failed to spark to its tale of a prescription drug-selling prepster trying to fit in. However, the popularity of stars Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts could make this move a more mainstream pick.

Tomorrow is John Lennon's birthday, and today audiences can catch Nowhere Boy (4 theatres), the story of Lennon as a teen. Critic Maitland McDonagh praised the coming-of-age story, but noted that "fans stand to be disappointed by the absence of band lore," with a few notable exceptions (e.g. a gate marked "Strawberry Fields")

Also in the mix is Stone (6 theatres), a cerebral thriller centering on a parole officer (Robert De Niro), a prisoner (Edward Norton), and the two's mutual relationship with the prisoner's wife (Milla Jovovich). The drama will be Overture's last release. Finally, the financial documentary The Inside Job (2 theatres) uncovers dirt on traders and their risky, thrill-seeking behavior inside and outside the office.

On Monday, the weekend race is over and the results will be in for the movie debuts featuring the following subjects: a prizewinning horse, teenagers in psych wards, couples bonding over baby poop and teenagers at the mercy of a serial killer.

Labor Day audiences turn out for 'The American'

By Sarah Sluis

Machete and The American were neck-and-neck throughout the four-day Labor Day weekend. Machete led during its debut Friday, earning $3.9 million to The American's $3.84 million. After Friday, the George

Clooney thinking man/spy film pulled ahead, rising Saturday and Sunday and finishing the four-day weekend with $16.3 million. Machete, the Mexploitation picture from Robert Rodriguez, never matched its Friday night debut and finished with $14 million. Labor Day weekend is notoriously slow, however, so both of these films performed well in terms of their time slots and genres.

Debuting in fourth place, Going the Distance brought in a lackluster $8.9 million over the weekend. This makes the movie a loser even among romantic comedy bedfellows like Love Happens and The Switch (both of which were probably worse than this one, starring Drew

Barrymore and Justin Long). The movie's release date was changed from August 27th to September 3rd at the last minute, which could have affected grosses. The American and Going the Distance also drew large portions of their audience from the 25+ and 35+ crowd. For a movie like The American, that's fine, but a romantic comedy needs support from younger audiences, who didn't seem to show up in enough force.

As the summer movie season wraps up, several movies actually increased from their previous week. Family movies and word-of-mouth hits were the biggest beneficiaries. Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and The Sorcerer's Apprentice increased from last week, even without taking the holiday into account. With the extra day added in, the special effects movie of the summer, Inception, boosted its take 20% along with cop comedy The Other Guys, which went up 5.8%.

Among limited releases, a Chinese remake of the Coen Brothers movie Blood Simple, A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop, opened to a $7,000 per-screen average playing on five screens. Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 yielded a $3,000 per-screen average playing on over thirty screens. The prior film, Mesrine: Death Instinct, opened in late August to a $5,000 per-screen average, so the second film may be a tougher sell.

This Friday will be slow at the box office, with Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D) leading releases and teen sex comedy The Virginity Hit opening under the radar in a limited release.

Top spot goes to 'The Other Guys'

By Sarah Sluis

The Other Guys led the weekend with $35.6 million, easily unseating Inception, which finished second with $18.6 million. The opening was 50% higher than last week's debut of the comedy Dinner for Schmucks. Younger males turned out in force, and their eagerness to see the movie opening weekend

helped drive up the first-week gross. The robust debut also affirms Will Ferrell's standing at the box office after last year's flop Land of the Lost. Ferrell will likely be lining up his next big-budget, starring role in the near future. Within the next 12 months, however, we'll see Ferrell wearing a smartly arranged set of hats designed to expand his star persona beyond that of a studio comedy headliner: he's starring in the indie movie Everything Must Go, which is debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival, he's doing voicework in DreamWorks Animation's Megamind, and producing the low-budget teen sex comedy The Virginity Hit. That's what I'd call a diversified portfolio.

In third place, Step Up 3D brought in $15.5 million. 75% of the theatres were 3D, and they brought in 81% of the total revenue. Higher ticket prices should have brought the total from the 3D theatres at least

25% higher, since most 3D surcharges add that much to the ticket price, so this suggests that 3D theatres underperformed. Variety points out that there are currently four 3D movies out right now, however, and that smaller venues may have scheduled 3D showings of the movie at less opportune times. Since Step Up opened to $20.6 million and Step Up 2 The Streets opened to $18.9 million, this further dip in the opening weekend gross likely spells the end of the franchise.

The Kids Are All Right broke into the top ten, earning $2.6 million in its latest expansion into 147 more locations for a total of 994 theatres. Oddly enough, the movie did a million dollars more last weekend but only eked out a twelfth-place finish. The story of a lesbian-led household and their teens' quest to seek out their sperm donor father has earned $14 million to date, testament both to the movie's good reviews and the subject's appeal in the marketplace.

Rob Reiner's kid-oriented comedy Flipped debuted in 45 theatres with a $5,200 per-screen average, a decent opening figure. This movie is set for expansion in coming weeks so it will need strong

word-of-mouth from initial viewers to propel it forward. The glamorous-teens-gone-bad film Twelve couldn't find its viewers and played to nearly empty theatres, posting just a $460 per-screen average for a total of $107,000. Middle Men, which stars Luke Wilson, also had a disappointing opening weekend, with a light $1,200 per-screen average for a total of $305,000. With a reported budget of $20 million, it looks like Paramount just dumped this movie and hoped for the best.

Lebanon's two-screen debut averaged $8,300 per screen, slightly smaller than another Sony Pictures Classics release about the Lebanon War. Waltz with Bashir averaged $10,000 per screen during its debut weekend in the 2008 holiday season. The Wildest Dream averaged $5,300 per screen on a dozen screens, a respectable amount for the National Geographic release.

This Friday, uber-female picture Eat Pray Love will go up against uber-male action movie The Expendables. The teen-oriented, comic-inspired Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will round out the bunch.

'Karate Kid' and 'A-Team' offer action-driven entertainment

By Sarah Sluis

A new Hollywood legacy could be in the works with The Karate Kid (3,663 theatres). Jaden Smith, who starred with his father Will in The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006, has his first lead role in the kiddie action

movie, which also stars Jackie Chan. The remake of the 1984 movie takes the Detroit-bred kid (Smith) to China, where he is beaten up by bullies and must turn to his building's janitor (Chan) to learn a way to fight back. Reviews have been fairly positive, and parents who feel sentimental toward the original movie could augment its performance. Our critic Frank Lovece called the movie "formulaic but not in a bad way" and praised the "naturalness" of Smith's performance, who seems "like a genuinely irritating 12-year-old and not a ham-fisted, obnoxious movie 12-year-old."

Another remake, this time of an 80's television show, The A-Team hits 3,534 theatres and will be duking it out at the box office with The Karate Kid. This remake, however, is "almost comically nonsensical"

according to critic Ethan Alter. The filmmakers "spend two hours covering the exact same ground that the show handily summarized in the voiceover narration that played over the opening credits." Iraq serves as the backdrop to much of the action, in contrast to the more serious, reality-driven movies that have set the action in the country.

The two new releases will have to go up against Shrek Forever After, which has been in first place for four weeks, as well as Get Him to the Greek, which has held strong in second place during the weekdays. Last week's release Killers, in contrast, has fallen down rather sharply, despite opening in the same range as Greek.

A number of specialty releases round out the weekend mix. Winter's Bone, the winner of the

Sundance Grand Jury Prize, will open in four theatres in N.Y. and L.A. Reviewing this "grim story of persistence," critic John DeFore predicted that the "grit and the tenacity of its young heroine will resonate with some viewers," and I count myself as one of them. I also agree with his warning that the movie is "slow to get going and uningratiating," but it's worth it for the look at Appalachia culture.

Documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work will entertain audiences in seven theatres. It's an overwhelmingly positive portrait of the comedian, but critic Doris Toumarkine enjoyed the insights into "what fuels her ineffable drive and what keeps her up at night."

On Monday, results of The A-Team vs. The Karate Kid will be in, and we'll see which specialty film opened high enough to dominate in weeks ahead.

'Shutter Island' poised to shut down the competition

By Sarah Sluis

The only new wide offering on the market, Shutter Island (2,991 theatres), should go straight to the top this weekend, pushed along by equal interest among male and female moviegoers. The longer President's Day weekend is usually followed by larger-than-average drops among returning films, so despite three movies grossing $30 million plus last weekend, only Valentine's Day has an off-chance of besting the latest (but not greatest) work from director Martin Scorsese.

A "Gothic-style psychological thriller," according to Executive Editor Kevin Lally, Shutter Island suffers from "a surfeit of plot ingredients." Leonardo DiCaprio plays a guy investigating a disappearance in an insane asylum, and creepy things are happening. Two options pop up pretty quickly, perhaps even before the lights go down to start the show: Is it possible that the staff is conspiring to make him insane--or is he already insane, and everything is a delusion? It's a ruse that's sustained the whole way through, but grows wearying towards the end. As critic A.O. Scott of the New York Times aptly puts, "...just when the puzzle should accelerate, the picture slows down...[and gives viewers] painstaking exposition of matters that the audience already suspects are completely irrelevant." Still, the movie is beautiful to look at and draws inspiration from great filmmakers, including 40's suspense great Val Lewton.

Four theatres will unveil The Ghost Writer, which will expand over the next two weekends. Director Roman Polanski creates a professional, "well-made thriller that delivers two hours of slick entertainment" according to critic Rex Roberts, but "the movie feels as though it's been plotted by numbers," and the filmmakers include a number of slick contrivances to "coax their story along." With all the publicity from Polanski's imprisonment, as well as a general thumbs-up in the critical community (it's tracking at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes), this movie's opening numbers will be one to watch.

Rounding out the offerings, several small releases will make their way into theatres. The Good Guy, starring Alexis Bledel in a pre-recession love triangle involving Wall Streeters, opens in nine theatres. Happy Tears, about a man (Rip Torn) taking up with a crackhead hussy, much to his daughters' (Demi Moore and Parker Posey) chagrin, opens in 15 theatres. Maybe Torn's drunken bank robbery ("I thought I was in my home") can generate some dollars from people curious to see if he looks soused on-screen? Finally, newbie distributor Paladin releases Blood Done Sign My Name (95 theatres), a civil-rights era drama about violence sparked by the racially motivated murder of a black Vietnam veteran.

On Monday, the mystery of Shutter Island's performance will be solved, The Ghost Writer will have an idea of its prospects in the weeks ahead, and we'll see how Valentine's Day, Percy Jackson, and The Wolfman held on through their second week.

'Sherlock Holmes' no match for 'Avatar'

By Sarah Sluis

A record-breaking $278 million week at the box office was led by Avatar, with the rest of the top ten following closely behind with strong debut and holdover performances. The sci-fi spectacle's second week was just as strong as its first, dropping a minuscule 2% from its opening weekend to earn $75 million. The movie posted its highest one-day gross the day after Christmas, when it earned $28.5 million, compared to the smaller $26.7 million sum it brought in its opening day. Unlike most other tentpoles, which are adaptations of successful books, series, or comic books, Avatar had to tough through a lower opening and wait for word-of-mouth to build up. In light of Avatar's success, perhaps other filmmakers besides James Cameron will be able to follow in his wake and develop tentpoles based on original ideas. Fox, however, won't have to take on much risk if it moves forward with a sequel or two: Cameron has mentioned that he has already mapped out a multi-movie arc for his characters.

Coming in second place for the weekend, action-detective movie Sherlock Holmes beat Avatar its opening day, Christmas, but dropped off over the weekend. The movie earned $65.3 million, about $10 million under Avatar's gross. While the movie's hero and his iconic pipe-smoking habit is more familiar to audiences, Avatar delivers on its premise much more than Sherlock Holmes, which lost points with me for its overuse of action movie conventions.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel came in third with $50.2 million. Because it opened on Wednesday, its total gross is already $77 million, which is far outpacing the first movie in the series, which opened to $44 million.

Writer/director Nancy Meyers' latest installment in the romantic comedy department, It's Complicated, opened fourth with $22.1 million. Her last two films, The Holiday and Something's Gotta Give, both opened in the teens, so this marks her best opening since 2000's What Women Want, which debuted at $33 million.

Of the films placing fifth to tenth, all were returning films, and three of the five increased their grosses from the previous week. Up in the Air went from 175 to 1,895 theatres and earned $11.75 million, a 266% increase from the previous week. The Blind Side rose 17% to $11.73 million even as it shed over 600 theatres, further cementing its status as a surprise word-of-mouth hit. Nine, in eighth place, increased 2000% to $5.5 million as it went from four theatres to 1,412 theatres. In tenth place, Invictus, which only added 35 theatres to its 2,160-theatre release, inched up 4% from the previous week. The remaining two films in the top ten, The Princess and the Frog and Did You Hear About the Morgans?, dropped in the 20-30% range. In particular, The Princess and the Frog may be hurting from competition with the Chipmunks and Chipettes.

Now that all the big films of 2009 have been released, the first month of 2010 will measure their longevity. Competition from new releases will be minimal, but for awards films, it's a long haul to the Oscar ceremony, which was moved from February to March this year.

'Couples Retreat' has no company at the box office

By Sarah Sluis

Couples Retreat (3,000 theatres) has the benefit of being the only wide release of the weekend. Date-night audiences are expected to bring the weekend total to $20 million. Because it's applying the ensemble premise that worked so well for He's Just Not That Into You, I think the movie could go over that number, especially since those that are "kinda" interested in seeing the movie will have no other material to choose from. On the other hand, Universal just replaced its chairmen, so maybe it's another film on their slate that hasn't been tracking so well. Critic Kirk Honeycutt lamented that "the script...gets pulled in opposite directions" by trying to cover the gamut from potty to sexual humor. He also noted that "the best sections of the film deal with [Vince] Vaughn and [Malin] Akerman, since they represent a critique of the relationship industry that is determined to justify its existence in finding problems even if none exists. The most problematic in comedic terms involves [Jon] Favreau and [Kristin] Davis. No week at a couples retreat is going to solve their myriad problems." The latter observation, according to speculation by Movieline, must have been echoed by focus groups. Favreau and Davis' acts of adultery depicted in the trailer are absent from the film--and Favreau was pulled away from Iron Man 2 for reshoots.

Among returning films, Zombieland is considered a top choice for #2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has been beating Toy Story/Toy Story 2 during the weekdays, but perhaps audiences with more time will seek out the double feature for a matinee this weekend. Whip It had a disappointing opening weekend despite positive word-of-mouth. I saw a TV spot last night that de-emphasized the roller derby aspect (apparently a tough sell), so perhaps Fox Searchlight will be able to re-position the movie to take only a small drop this weekend.

On the specialty front, the much-lauded An Education releases. Our critic Rex Roberts found the film "comes close to perfection: inspired casting and performances, exquisite design and photography, witty and well-crafted script, empathic yet nuanced direction." Carey Mulligan has turned more critics' heads than I can count, and Roberts dubbed her "the most interesting ingnue to grace the screen since Audrey Tautou delighted audiences in Amlie." The film will release in 4 theatres in New York and Los Angeles.

Also opening this weekend is The Damned United (6 theatres), a soccer drama that, according to critic Daniel Eagan, "almost brings to life a feud 35 years ago between two notable British sports figures," but is "ultimately too insular to attract many stateside viewers."

After making appearances on all the morning and female-skewing talk shows, including "Oprah" and "The View," Chris Rock releases the documentary Good Hair (185 theatres)--but did he give away all of the best parts already on the television shows? Frank Scheck found it "entertaining and substantive enough to be interesting even for those completely unfamiliar with weaves and relaxers." While Rock is best known as a comedian, his documentary achieves a "pointed sociological examination of its heretofore cinematically unexplored subject"

On Monday, we'll see how successful Couples Retreat was at the box office, which returning films held on, and mull over the opening weekend of An Education.

'Zombieland' to take over theatres

By Sarah Sluis

Zombieland (3,036 theatres) is the top pick for #1 this weekend, since its blanket release puts it in nearly twice as many theatres as the other wide releases. The horror comedy "has its tongue planted

firmly in its rancid cheek while still delivering the visceral

goodies," and its twist on the horror genre should attract die-hard and sometimes horror fans alike.

The other three wide releases of the week are each opening in around 1,700 theatres, smaller-scale releases that match each of the movie's strategies.

Roller derby tale Whip It, which is already benefiting from positive word-of-mouth, will open in 1,720 theatres after sneaking in half that number last week. Women seem to love the movie, and opening smaller will put emphasis on its subsequent weekends rather than its opening weekend. Those that love the film (myself included) are struck by how it breathes life into the familiar coming-of-age genre. Critic Peter Brunette called it "familiar yet simultaneously different...loaded with clichs...but somehow writer Shauna Cross...manages to continually inflect the story with fresh twists."

Prepping for the release of Toy Story 3 in June, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will be released as a 3D double feature in 1,745 theatres. The run is planned for two weeks, but will be extended based on performance. Industry insiders are pegging the film's opening in the $10 million range, but a re-release like this is so rare I wouldn't be surprised if normal tracking measures fail. The movie's biggest competitor is 3D animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is going into its third week. The re-release will undoubtedly bump Cloudy from some of its 3D venues, which could affect both of the films' standing.

Ricky Gervais-Jennifer Garner comedy The Invention of Lying is also opening small (1,707 theatres), but perhaps that's indicative of its quality: low. Critic Rex Roberts called it a "self-indulgent, ultimately unsatisfying skit-that-won't-quit." Ouch.

On the specialty circuit, Capitalism: A Love Story expands to 962 theatres, its first wide expansion. LeBron James documentary More Than a Game, a "superb, slam-dunk documentary " that follows a quartet of talented basketball players, including James, through high school and beyond will also open in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland.

The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, sure to appeal fans of the writer/director/producers, opens in New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis this weekend. Our critic Ethan Alter praised the "subtle, humorous way the film tackles such complex subjects as morality, faith and family," calling this personal, "darkly comic" film one of the Coens' best.

On Monday, we'll circle back to see how many viewers Zombieland infected, if audience members took the bait for The Invention of Lying, and how well word-of-mouth was built up for Whip It.

Box office forecast is 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'

By Sarah Sluis

Releasing in 3D and IMAX, to a welcoming audience that's settled into school and ready for some entertainment, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is considered the likely winner of the weekend box office. It's clever and fast-paced, with "breakneck humor and sparkling wordplay," according to our critic Frank Lovece. While the plot is much more embellished than Ron and Judi Barrett's illustrated classic, it stays true to its wish-fulfillment premise. It rains ice cream, cheeseburgers, spaghetti and more--every kid's dream. Its 3,119 screen release includes 1,828 3D screens and 127 IMAX screens, a new high that should significantly pad the returns of the animated movie.

A "campy pastiche of horror and high-school movie clichs" appealing to the 18-25 crowd, Jennifer's Body (2,701 screens) should woo male and female audiences alike. The critical consensus appears to be that Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody's hipster-quip dialogue isn't quite as charming the second time around, but moviegoers may be much more forgiving of the slick horror film. Plus, there's Megan Fox, whose candid interviews and sultry on-screen personality will sell more than a few tickets.

Love Happens, which is billed as a Jennifer Aniston-Aaron Eckhart romantic comedy but is actually more about Eckhart coming to term's with his wife's death in a car accident, opens on 1,898 screens. It's a genre picture straight down to its green-screen shots of Seattle, but executed just well enough to make your hour and forty minutes more diverting than plodding.

Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! (2,505 screens) also debuts. Soderbergh is another one of those prolific directors who cranks out film after film--I got a hint of why in the comedy/thriller, which has a few shots with sloppy cinematography (Soderbergh does it himself under the pseudonym Peter Andrews). Our Executive Editor Kevin Lally hated the "relentlessly jaunty music score." While that film device fails, there's also a clever voice-over narration that illustrates the "cognitive dissonance" of Matt Damon's character. The "manic stream filled with non-sequiturs" about corn and polar bears was one of my favorite parts of the film.

This week is a crowded one at the box office. We'll recap Monday to see how the weekend played out.

Top Ten Summer Movies by the numbers

By Sarah Sluis

Sure, it's not Labor Day yet, but all the movie moneymakers of the summer have already been released. So far, the top ten grossing movies of the summer (from May 1st on) are as follows:

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Up
4. The Hangover
5. Star Trek
6. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
8. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
9. The Proposal
10. Angels & Demons

By the numbers:

• 7 of the 10 are sequels or franchise relaunches



• 2 are animated



• 1 comedy and 1 romantic comedy made the list



• 9 have a rating of PG-13 or lower



• the #1 movie made 3 times as much as the #10 movie ($400 million vs. $133 million)



• 4 of the 10 have colons in the title



• 7 of the 10 involve creatures with human properties (talking animals, machines, aliens...)



• The average score on Rotten Tomatoes was 57.6%; 4 of the 10 had approval ratings above this number

I love this information. From one perspective, you could look at the statistics and decide that if you want to make the next blockbuster, you need to find a franchise with human-like creatures, include a lot of action but not enough that it reads as a comedy, make it PG-13 or under, and use a colon in the title if necessary. And don't really worry too much about the critics. Just your audience.

The other way involves looking at all the ways these titles don't fit into the mold. The Hangover is the biggest outcast of the bunch, an R-rated comedy that came out of nowhere, with no franchise, pre-sold title, or even A-list stars.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the #1 movie, but an absolute bomb (19% on Rotten Tomatoes) among critics. I know I still haven't fully figured that one out. Pixar's Up is an incredibly original movie, but it actually fits into the mold of a "top ten" film: it's rated PG, involves (ingeniously) talking creatures, and is an animated kid-to-adult movie. It's also part of a franchise, not one defined by repeating characters or plotlines, but by its studio, Pixar, which has cultivated a must-see reputation among its films.

There's still a chance for movies to rise into the ranks of the summer top ten, but right now the mix seems about right: a few CGI/animated movies that appeal to kids, action and action franchises, and at least one dark horse (in 2008, it was Mamma Mia!). The past few years, six of the movies in the top ten were released in the summer, three or so in the November-December holiday season, and a fourth in March, during the Spring Break holidays. At least six of these movies are going to hang around with Monsters vs. Aliens in the 2009 top ten. With summer movie season coming to a close, my eyes are on the three or so movies that will make their way into the top ten: New Moon? Avatar?

Three comedies vie for top spot

By Sarah Sluis

From the gate, The Proposal and Year One look as though they'll both hit $20 million this weekend. If The Hangover can handle the competition, and hold on to its below-average drop, it will also hit $20 million, making this week a close race between three comedies.

Judging by reviews, The Proposal (3,056 theatres) appears to be a typical romantic comedy, slick and well-acted, but hampered by its predictable format. Our executive editor Kevin Lally praised the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, saying, "The situations may be formulaic, but the teamwork of the two leads brings them to sparkling life." Manohla Dargis at the NY Times was not so kind, lamenting the repetition of stereotypical rom-com setups. However, even she noted that Bullock and Reynolds pulled off good performances, adding that Bullock's "no shrew in need of taming. She's just another female movie star in need of a vehicle that won't throw her overboard for sexist giggles and laughs."

Year One (3,022 theatres), which comes from writer/director Harold Ramis (read an interview with him here), has also been received with shrugs. Despite Ramis' pedigree (he's responsible for Groundhog Day, Caddyshack, and Analyze This), our Frank Scheck found that "the script�co-written by Ramis and the team of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (NBC's "The Office")�is strictly bargain-basement, offering a plethora of poop, sex and fart jokes and vulgarity without a smidgen of wit." EW's Owen Gleiberman found the comedy provoked only a "handful of chuckles," and pronounced it "silliness run mildly wild."

With these so-so reviews, I wouldn't be surprised if audiences again choose The Hangover, whose humor is neither stale nor ancient, but shocking to the point that at least some viewers will come away repulsed, not indifferent.

On the specialty side, another comedy opens this weekend: Whatever Works, the latest from Woody Allen. Dana Stevens from Slate opened her review of the film this way: "Imagine if Annie Hall had been forgotten in a Ziploc bag under your couch cushions and left there for 30 years." Needless to say, it did not play well for her. Whatever Works will compete with quirky comedy Away We Go, which will move into 134 theatres with hopes to cross the $1 million mark.

Next week, the machines are back with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which will be joined by weepie My Sister's Keeper.

'Angels & Demons' to usurp top spot from celestial 'Star Trek'?

By Sarah Sluis

Joining the fray of big releases, Angels & Demons opens this weekend (3,527 theatres), its main competition holdovers Star Trek, in its second week of release, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I saw the film this Wednesday and while I'll go along with the opinion that the follow-up is better than The Da Vinci Code, better is a relative term. I think The New York Times' A.O. Scott puts it best, saying director Ron Howard "combines the visual charm of mass-produced postcards with the mental stimulation of an easy Monday crossword puzzle." The intrigue seems paper-thin, and the ciphers are either incredibly easy to decode or require leaps of faith to pursue. Mr. Hanks, for example, simply looks at where statues are pointing and follows their direction, managing to find precision in casual hand gestures. The movie does have a nice twist towards the end, but for the first two-thirds you're actually watching a serial killer movie. Imagine Seven, but set in Rome, and you have the right idea. The Catholic Church, after objecting to the first film, seems to have deemed the second innocuous. Angels & Demons isn't expected to do the big business of Wolverine or Star Trek in its opening weekend, but say a prayer that it will cross $50 million in its opening weekend.

Most of the post-opening weekend Star Trek buzz has centered on one anecdote. Over the past week, I've heard from friends, family, and even eavesdropping, the same comment: "So-and-so [a female who would not be expected to like a sci-fi movie, especially one with such a strong geek following] really liked it." People seem to be interested in the fact that its appeal extends to the anti-fan, which is exactly the kind of word-of-mouth that will sustain a film beyond opening weekend. It's been killing it this week, earning five times as much as Wolverine each day and currently at $99 million.

The specialty market this weekend is packed, once again, though the less-crowded market at Cannes indicates that there will be fewer specialty films in the pipeline. With so many great indie films out there, and only a limited amount of time to see them, many are viewing the slowdown as a good thing. Summit's sneaking its oft-delayed The Brothers Bloom, which stars Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, into four theatres, with plans to expand the film over the next two weekends. Big Man Japan, a "goofy sci-fi satire aimed at a narrow audience," will release in NY and LA. Romantic comedy Management, which stars Jennifer Aniston as a corporate executive and Steve Zahn as the motel owner she trysts with, opens in 212 theatres. Jerichow, which our reviewer described as a "modern-day, Teutonic Postman Always Rings Twice," also opens in NY and LA, along with IFC's Summer Hours, a story about three children dividing up their mother's belongings after her death.

Angels & Demons should win the box office, though Star Trek 's spectacular weekday performance could make it a tight race. Wolverine should grab the third spot. From the specialty front, The Brothers Bloom will be looking for a strong per-screen average to set up the caper comedy for its expansion. All the wide releases will want to rack up grosses before next week, Memorial Day, which will see ticket sales siphon away towards R-Rated Terminator Salvation and PG-rated Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.