Black Sheep @ The Box Office

For the second week in a row, the Will Ferrell led animated film, MEGAMIND, leads the box office. And for the second year in a row, Denzel Washington makes a train movie that misses out on coming in on the first track.

UNSTOPPABLE is apparently a bit of an exaggeration. The Tony Scott film pulled in a solid $23.5 million, pretty much on par with the first weekend take of last summer's THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, also directed by Scott. Washington however saw a much stronger debut with Janurary's THE BOOK OF ELI, which opened with about $10 million more in a month known for low grosses. UNSTOPPABLE opened at number one on Friday but with the built-in family audience waiting for the actual weekend, MEGAMIND was easily able to pull ahead to take the crown.

The week's two other wide releases both opened to disappointing results. The Rachel McAdams vehicle, MORNING GLORY, was clearly hoping to capture some of the same love that was bestowed on similar demo skewed picture, IT'S COMPLICATED. A $12 million five-day start is about $14 million shy there. Still, a tepid reaction to a romantic comedy is not as tragic as a heavily uninterested reaction to a sci-fi thriller with high hopes. SKYLINE was unable to tap into the geek market that makes so many a film successful these days with it's $11.7 million start. Fortunately, its reported budget is just about $10 million so everything from here is space gravy, assuming such a thing exists.

Two well received platform releases continued strong expansions. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn reteam to see FAIR GAME increase over 65%, hitting $1.1 million on 175 screens. Danny Boyle could be poised to see another hit, as 127 HOURS added 18 screens for a grand total of 22 and saw a 77% increase and a $20K+ per screen average. I don't see the film finding as much Oscar love as his Best Picture winner, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, but James Franco's personal buzz and the intrigue created by more people requiring medical attention at intense screenings should guarantee continued interest for some time to come.

NEXT WEEK: Russell Crowe hopes recent attention in adult fare will spoil over to his latest excursion, THE NEXT THREE DAYS on 2500+ screens. Look for the Black Sheep interview with director, Paul Haggis, to follow next weekend as well. Crowe might get lucky considering all the kids will be elsewhere, with HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (PART ONE) opening on over 4000+ screens.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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MORNING GLORY

Written by Aline Brosh McKenna

Directed by Roger Michell

Starring Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson and Harrison Ford

Mike Pomeroy: Half the people who watch your show lost the remote. The other half is just waiting for their nurse to turn them over.

In MORNING GLORY, the darling Rachel McAdams plays Becky. We all know Becky. We don’t necessarily know her in real life because I’m not convinced she actually exists anywhere other than in Hollywood films. Becky is married to her job as the executive producer of fourth place network morning show, “Daybreak”. As queen worker bee, she has no time for a life, let alone any time for love. We all know from the moment we meet her that she will inevitably find the balance in her life to live happily ever after, simultaneously providing a ripple effect of equilibrium to the people that surround her. In real life, Becky works around the clock, has meaningless sex if she’s lucky, and probably has to take a multitude of medications to keep up the pace necessary to maintain her “life”. That would be way too depressing for a romantic comedy though.

MORNING GLORY may not be grounded in anything other than a clichéd perspective on life, but director, Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL) still manages to pull enough genuine emotion from his cast to make the experience pretty pleasant and often pretty funny. McAdams is the center, a 28-year-old who must choose between her dreams and reality (28 is apparently the cut off age for chasing dreams). Her effortless charm propels her through countless difficult situations but you can tell she can feel the sting of failure catching up behind her and pushing her forward at the same time. Her morning show anchors are played by legends, Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford. Keaton is sadly underused but looks to be having a blast whenever on screen. As for Ford, it was refreshing to see him look like he’s trying for a change. As former trusted news anchor and current unemployed curmudgeon, Mike Pomeroy, Ford’s cold exterior and antagonizing delivery could not be better suited. By the time he has to show a little heart (c’mon, you knew he would!), it practically feels like it could change the world.

I would like someone to answer this question for me. When is Patrick Wilson going to just waltz into my empty elevator on one of the worst days of my life like he does for Becky on hers? I would settle for someone who isn’t Wilson but is as equally attractive. The truth is though that, while life doesn’t work this way necessarily, people do still find happiness by searching, hoping and never giving up. It’s just a lot easier for them to find it when there is a director behind a camera making sure that all the missing pieces are waiting to be found in plain sight.

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