'Think Like a Man' sails to first place

Scoring a number of bests for its distributor, Screen Gems, Think Like a Man exceeded expectations with a $33 million opening, made all the more impressive by the romantic comedy's limited, 2,015-screen count. This is Screen Gems' best opening for a release targeted to black audiences. It also bested the opening of all but one of Lionsgate's Tyler Perry movies. The ensemble comedy, based on a book by Steve Harvey, earned raves from its audiences, too, who marked off the "A" rating in CinemaScore exit polls.

In second place, The Lucky One opened to $22.8 million, in line with previous Nicholas Sparks adaptations. This romantic drama will restore Zac Efron's star power, which had come into question after he followed up "High School Musical" and 17 Again with the disappointing $12 million opening of Charlie St. Cloud.  Three-quarters of the audience was female, and half were under 25.

The Hunger Games finally fell from its top spot to third with $10.2 million. Playing in just over 1,000 locations, the hit dipped just 31%, an impressive hold that brought the box-office success past the $350 million mark.

The loveable apes in Chimpanzee scored the Disneynature release its best three-day opening yet. With $10.2 million, the family- targeted nature documentary did well over its Earth Day release. Even with strong marks from moviegoers, which gave it an "A" CinemaScore rating, the doc's novelty may wear off, especially with plenty of nature-themed material readily available on television.

The Bob Marley documentary Marley earned $260,000. That gave the release, which opened on the stoner holiday of 4/20, a per-screen average of $6,000. The movie was simultaneously available on Facebook and on-demand, though figures for those outlets are kept under wraps.

Darling Companion, which targeted older independent moviegoers with its canine-centered tale, earned $11,000 per screen in four locations. The drama, which stars Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline, did so-so for a specialty film, especially given the stature of its two stars and the woof factor, which is usually a sure-fire way to bring in animal lovers.

This Friday, the romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement will go up against the action-filled Safe, the thriller The Raven, and the stop-motion animated family film The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

 

'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.

'Inception' overpowers 'Salt'

By Sarah Sluis

Remaining in star form, Inception dropped a scant 30% in its second weekend to grab the first-place spot and another $43.5 million. Strong weekday grosses took the movie over $100 million just as the weekend started, bringing its cumulative total to $143.6 million. While the first weekend received the support of younger moviegoers, audiences over the age of 35 helped keep ticket sales brisk through its second weekend.

Salt was not far behind, debuting to $36.5 million. Because of the star power of Angelina Jolie, as well as its action premise, the movie is expected to perform strongly overseas. Producers are still throwing around the idea of a sequel, but the bigger news here is that yet another original story (Despicable Me, Inception, Salt) opened strongly. Pre-sold titles are not always the answer--here's hoping at least one of those board game adaptations Hollywood's been courting is dead in the water.

Kicking off in sixth place, Ramona and Beezus couldn't rise past the single-digit millions, and finished the weekend with $8 million coming from a largely female, family audience. Fox pegged the budget at just $15 million, however, so this movie

should turn a profit, especially once post-theatrical markets are factored in.

After expanding into over 200 theatres, The Kids Are All Right landed just outside of the top ten, bringing in a total of $2.6 million. The strong showing effectively doubled its cumulative gross, which is now just under $5 million. Next week, Focus plans to raise the number of theatres in its release to 500, which could bring the movie over $10 million if it can maintain its pace.

Returning films in the top ten were a mixed bunch, with about half posting drops in the 20% range, and the other half posting drops in the 40% range. CG animation titles posted minimal drops, with Despicable Me dipping 26% to $24.1 million and Toy Story 3 sliding 24% to $9 million. In a market light on adult comedies, Grown Ups maintained with just a 23% fall to $7.6 million. The remaining movies, all adaptations of some kind, fell more heavily: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse tumbled another 47% to $7 million, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice plunged 45% in its second weekend to $9.8 million. M. Night Shyamalan now has a confirmed miss, with The Last Airbender dropping 46% to $4.1 million. Predators fell the furthest, 59% to $2.8 million--just two weeks after it opened to a healthy $24.7 million.

This Friday, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore will introduce a new 3D animated title to the summer mix. Charlie St. Cloud will give High School Musical fans Zac Efron in a mature, heart-wrenching role, and Dinner for Schmucks will fill the gap in adult comedies.

DGA nominations foreshadowing Oscar nods?

By Sarah Sluis

Oscar detectives have a new lead: the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild announced their

nominations for Best Picture. They matched, five for five. Both guilds nominated The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for their top films. My editor Kevin Lally, for one, thinks they're right on, and that these films represent the likely Academy selections this year. But will Oscar voters agree?

Those in the Academy still have four days to cast their ballot for the nominees--January 12th. Will they be influenced by the recognition these five films have already received, and add a dark horse (Slumdog Millionaire) to their nominations? Will those reluctant to cast a ballot for a comic book film change their mind?

The DGA is known for correctly predicting the Best Director award, and the Risky Business Blog points out that the demographics, and tastes, of the DGA closely align with that of the Academy, making the rest of their nominations (including Best Picture) harbingers of the Academy's top five. From a budget/release pattern perspective, the five films are preternaturally balanced: two are big-budgeted, wide releases, one (Slumdog) has followed a specialty-to-moderate release pattern, with Milk coming up just behind. Frost/Nixon, with the smallest theatrical release, is holding up last place. Not having seen it myself, its small scope (what better place to watch a film about a TV interview than a TV, right?) makes it seem like the kind of film that will receive heavy DVD rentals after generating some awards publicity.

Aside from The Dark Knight, all five of these films have a historical and/or lifespan focus--perhaps appealing to older voters? While I appreciate grand and historical films as much as the next person, the 70's era settings of Milk and Frost/Nixon relive events many Academy voters were there to experience. This is also why Doubt, set the year after JFK's assassination (1964), might still have a chance.

The Academy will release its nominations in two weeks--until then, we'll continue to speculate.