Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Naturally, there was never any doubt that Pixar's TOY STORY 3 would open at number one.  Pixar's track record speaks for itself.  The question was always by how much it would open past their previous benchmark, THE INCREDIBLES, which opened to $70.4 million (and to be fair, FINDING NEMO is right behind with a $70.2 million opening).  When Woody and the gang opened to double what last year's UP opened to on its opening day, it became pretty clear, the lead would not be a narrow one.  Although not as high as the $120 million some were predicting, $109 million easily gives Pixar it's best opening weekend to date and also almost doubles the $57 million opening of 1999's TOY STORY 2.  If the total holds, TOY STORY 3 will also hold the record for the best June opening weekend of all time, scantily surpassing TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, which opened to $108.97 million in 2009.  I wasn't kidding when I said scant.

And while the people at Disney / Pixar are partying it up, the people at Warner Brothers are crying in their beers over the disastrous opening of JONAH HEX.  The Josh Brolin / Megan Fox graphic novel western hybrid pulled in a pathetic $5 million.  Following the disappointment of SPLICE, WB's last release, this summer has not been too kind.  May had MACGRUBER; now June has JONAH HEX.

The only title to pull in a higher average than the $27K TOY STORY 3 amassed is indie comedy, CYRUS, starring John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill.  At $45K per screen on just four screens, the film should easily generate some strong buzz for its expansion.  Expanding by 30+ screens helped WINTER'S BONE improve about 300% over last week.  I caught the film this weekend and will be reviewing it later this week.  If it can continue to get people talking, it could find its way into an awards season push.  The Italian film, I AM LOVE, starring Tilda Swinton also preemed on 8 screens this week and earned a healthy $15K per screen start.

NEXT WEEK: TOY STORY 3 should have no trouble fending off the big budget has been releases, KNIGHT AND DAY, with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz on Wednesday and 3000+ screens and GROWN UPS, with Adam Sandler et al, following of Friday on 3200+ screens.  I will be avoiding both and catching Alain Resnais's WILD GRASS.  Yes, I'll take French existentialism any day over those two jokes.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

When is $71.25 million not worth shaking a big, green stick at?  When the fourth Shrek installment makes more than $50 million less than the previous installment, that's when.  Studio expectations were already very conservative, expecting SHREK FOREVER AFTER to pull in approximately $100 million, $20 million less than the record SHREK THE THIRD holds for the highest animated opening weekend in history.  I'm certain that this last Shrek tale will earn back its budget globally but it seems that Dreamworks is getting out of the Shrek business just in time.  The green has been made.

Still, it could be worse ... much worse.  You could be MACGRUBER.  This "SNL" skit inspired film inspired very, very little interest at the box office this  week.  It's a shame really as it was pretty funny but people assume the worst when it comes to these kinds of films.  With a per screen average of $1.6K, MACGRUBER may go on to make back its relatively small $10 million budget.  At least things didn't go the route of IT'S PAT!  That "SNL" film pulled in $60K in its entire run.

Sneaking into the Top 10 at number 10 is the multilingual film, KITES, in which a mortally wounded man left for dead in the desert keeps himself alive by focusing on winning back the love of his life.  Filmmaker, Brett Rattner, threw his name behind the film to get more people to see it and they did, with a decent per screen average of just under $5K.

NEXT WEEK: There will be no box office review next week as I will be in Montreal for the weekend but there will still be movies coming out.  Opening to early previews on Wednesday and officially on Thursday is the hotly anticipated SEX AND THE CITY 2.  I am very curious to see if the girls can pull it off a second time on 3400 screens.  I am also very curious to see for how much of PRINCE OF PERSIA: SANDS OF TIME Jake Gyllenhaal is shirtless.  The video game inspired film opens on 3500 screens on Friday.  Art house films include MICMACS from the director of AMELIE, festival hit, AGORA, with Rachel Weisz and a re-issue of one of my favorite films, Jean-Luc Godard's A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (BREATHLESS).

Source: Box Office Mojo

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MACGRUBER

Written by Will Forte, John Soloman and Jorma Taccone

Directed by Jorma Taccone

Starring Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Philippe and Val Kilmer

MacGruber: There's a big difference between winging it and seeing what happens.

On “Saturday Night Live”, MACGRUBER, a throwback to the 1980’s television series, “MacGyver”, is played up every now and then as a skit where a hapless dope (played happily by Will Forte) has to diffuse some bomb in some dire scenario at the last second.  Of course, he never succeeds and is constantly blowing himself up but he still comes back kicking even harder the next time around.  Now that MACGRUBER is hitting the silver screen, he goes very big and I see no reason why he should have to go home again to that tiny little set.

Under the direction of “Saturday Night Live” regular director, Jorma Taccone, “MacGruber” is a film that is serious in its conviction to the complete buffoonery of its title character but not at all serious about anything else.  There is nothing believable about a failed explosives expert who hasn’t progressed in the least since the 80’s  but by taking his joke of a life seriously, MACGRUBER becomes real.  More importantly, MACGRUBER is really funny.  Forte is unflinching as MacGruber and that can’t be easy to do when you have to strut like a chicken with a piece of celery sticking out of your butt.  Honestly, doesn’t that one sentence alone make you want to run out and see this movie already?  What if told you Val Kilmer plays MacGruber’s arch nemesis, Dieter Von Cunth? It’s completely asinine, yes, but that’s what makes it funny.  Still not good enough?  Kristen Wiig!!  C'mon!

How long has it been since we last saw a “Saturday Night Live” inspired film that was actually watchable, let alone funny?  Like most "SNL" films, you would think MACGRUBER would blow up in its own face.   Just like the character himself though, MACGRUBER the movie has shown up at the last possible second to save the “SNL” films from oblivion and this time, he manages to make it out before the bomb blows everything in sight.

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