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Wag The Film - August 2009

Michael Myers vs. Hippies: The Final Results

August 30th 2009 17:28


The weekend, The Final Destination was triumphant while Halloween 2 floundered at the box office.

Top 10 (thanks to the good folks at IMDb)
1.) The Final Destination - $28,000,000
2.) Inglourious Basterds - $20,000,000
3.) Halloween II - $17,400,000
4.) Disctrict 9 - $10,700,000
5.) G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra - $8,000,000
6.) Julie & Julia - $7,400,000
7.) The Time Traveller's Wife - $6,750,000
8.) Shorts - $4,870,000
9.) Taking Woodstock - $3,750,000
10.) G-Force - $2,850,000

The obvious winner the week was The Final Destination, the fourth installment in the franchise, proving it still has a strong, committed fanbase with 28 million. Also going strong is Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which continues to go strong at second place with 20 million.

A dissapoinment this week was Rob Zombie's Halloween II, which landed at the third spot with 17 million. While many would consider this a strong opening weekend for a hard-R gorefest, compared to Zombie's first Halloween flick two years ago in 2007, which opened at 27 million, one can notice a sizable drop. With a poor critical notices and bad word or mouth, fans shouldn't be expecting a Halloween III anytime soon.

Also opening in a much smaller release was Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, which took in an unimpressive 3 million this weekend.
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Michael Myers vs. Hippies: Box Office Predictions for 8/28/'09

August 26th 2009 01:35
A brand new batch of films, ranging from horror to indie flicks, go up against Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the unexpected smash hit, in the final week of the Summer season.

Halloween II

When's the last time there's been a decent Halloween flick? Seriously? For the past few decades its been nothing but crap after crap, so much so that it's hard to remember how influential John Carpenter's original was to the horror genre back in the late '70s. After the last crapfest, it was decided to reboot the franchise (which the "cool" thing to do nowadays). This time around it was put into the hands of musician-turned-director Rob Zombie, whose work behind the camera ranges from dreadfully mediocre (House of a 1000 Corpses) to just plain mediocre (Devil's Rejects). Like all his films, Zombie's reimagining was shot down by most, if not all, critics, but the box office receipts were decent to warrant a sequal, creatively titles Halloween 2

Zombie basically copies the exact storyline of the first film, with (judging from the trailer) the same results: Myers goes around killing people in the most gruesome ways possible during Halloween for two hours. If you enjoyed it the first time around, enjoy. If you didn't, avoid this bitch like the plague.

With most of the original cast returning (including Malcolm McDowell, who deserves a lot better than the crap he's been in for the past few years), fans of the first well probably flock, but rest will probably stay away, thanks to tasteless amount of gore and a confusing release schedeule (why they're not releasing this in October and/or the Halloween season is beyond me). Still, it should still round up a strong $25,000,000 opening weekend.

Taking Woodstock

When you think about, director Ang Lee sure has had a rollercoaster carreer this decade. After critical hits like [I[Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm, Lee found box office gold with the foreign language, martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, making Hollywood's next big blockbuster director. The result was 2003's Hulk, which was derided by critics as an indulgent, talky mess, and underperfomed vastly at the box office. However, Lee rebounded with Brokeback Mountain, which became a critical darling and made stars Heath Ledgar and Jack Gyllenhaal into household names. It even won Lee an Oscar for best director, even though the film lost to Paul Haggis' Crash (which most consider to be the greatest blunder the Academy has ever made in its existence). Lee then went back to China with the erotic thriller Lust, Cuation, but thanks to lukewarm reviews, racy subject matter, plus an NC-17 rating, the film was overlooked by the general public.

Now Ang Lee returns with something he's never done before: comedy. This time around he tackles the true story behind the infamous Woodstock concert, which marks its 40th anniversary this year. The film, with a cast including newcomer Demetri Martin, Liev Schriber, and Emile Hirsch (who was supposed to be the "next big thing" a fews years back but never panned out thanks to flops like Speed Racer), the film was met with much hype and anticipation by critics when it arrived Cannes earlier this years. Unfortunately, like many films that year, it was met with only so-so reviews. I can't say I blame them, considering the trailers make look like a bland indie comedy that lacks any of the Oscar-winning director's charm.

Will people go see this? I pretty sure they'll rather shell out money for theawesome boxset of the great documentary than this movie. Expect a gross of around $10,000,000 this week.

The Final Destination

Boy, studios really are getting lazy when it comes to naming their sequels. First this year was The Fast & The Furious and now its The Final Destination, the forth film in the horror franchise. The film, directed by Final Destination 2's David R. Ellis (hot off the success of his magnum opus, Snakes on a Plane), is pretty much a copy and paste of the previous three: a group of annoying teenagers manage to avoid death, only to be killed in the most gruesome ways possible. It also helps that the film will be presented in 3D, the "it" thing when it comes to unnessecary sequels (Ice Age 3).

Will it reienvent the wheel? Hell no. But enough teens will flock to see this lite-weight horrorfest, making around a cool $20,000,000.
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The Jew Hunter vs. The Wishing Rock: The Final Results!

August 23rd 2009 17:11


Tarantino's Basterds made it big opening weekend, crushing expectations and the competition.

Top 10 (from the good folks over at Box Office Mojo)
1.) Inglourious Basterds -- $37,602,000
2.) District 9 -- $18,900,000
3.) G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra -- $12,500,000
4.) The Time Traveler's Wife -- $10,025,000
5.) Julie & Julia -- $9,000,000
6.) Shorts -- $6,600,000
7.) G-Force -- $4,205,000
8.) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- $3,515,000
9.) The Ugly Truth -- $2,850,000
10.) Post Grad -- $2,800,000

The big winner this week was Inglourious Basterds, which made 37 million at the box office, above all of the expects anaysis for this week. Along with strong critical reviews, this film seems destined to become a late-summer hit (so much for naysayers commenting on how Tarantino was both irrelevent and out-of-style), and the last thing could save the near-bankrupt Weinstien Company.

Also going strong in second place is District 9, which dropped around 49% from last week but still made decent 19 million. It's overall gross is around 70 million, twice its original budget.

The rest of the new releases this week were nowhere near the success of Basterds. The kiddie flick, Shorts, only made to the number 6 spot with 6 million, which is surprising considering that Robert Rodriguez' films usually pull in a helluva lot more. The tween flick, Post Grad, did even worse at the number 10 spot with a not-so-surprisingly bad intake of around less than 3 million.

Also opening this week was X-Games: The Movie. Despite its one-week only engagement plus its 3D presentation, it pulled in a measly 800k its opening week.

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District 9 - Wag the Film Review

August 22nd 2009 17:31


After winning the hearts of critics and audiences around the country to become the sleeper hit of 2009, I was skeptical when I sat down in the dark theater. Was it really that good or was it simply over-hyped? Thankfully my fears were washed away within the first few seconds. District 9, produced by Peter Jackson, is both an intelligent and fun thriller


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The Jew Hunter vs. The Wishing Rock: Box Office Predictions for 8/21/'09

August 18th 2009 20:31
After Peter Jackson's District 9 won the hearts of the both critics and audiences around the country, it will now go up against the laster WWII epic from Quentin Tarantino, and the lastest kiddies flick from Robert Rodriguez this week. Who will beat it or will it reign supreme for a second week in a row.

Inglourious Basterds
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Big Ass Aliens vs. Hayao Miyazaki: The Final Results

August 16th 2009 17:23


The lastest sci-fi thriller, District 9, was triumphant this weekend dominanting both the box office and the critics


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Big Ass Aliens vs. Hayao Miyazaki: Box Office Predictions for 8/14/'09

August 11th 2009 17:07
Last week, the box office was spruced up a bit thanks to the blockbuster G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, making 100 million worldwide, which is more than enough for Paramount to all ready confirm that a sequel is in development. There's little doubt that this flick will continue to reign supreme at the top of the box office, however several films coming out this week are battling for second place.

Disctrict 9
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Cobra Commander vs. Julia Childs: The Final Results!

August 9th 2009 21:44


After a lackluster weekend last time, the box office was spruced up with the next summer blockbuster, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. The top ten for this weekend is as followed (thanks to the good folks from Box Office Mojo
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A Tribute to John Hughes

August 7th 2009 11:17


Adding to ayear all ready filled with both shocking celebrity passings, famed '80s director/writer/producer John Hughes has passed away at the age of 59. Some probably won't regonize the name, but Hughes created dozens of '80s classic, at the same time creating a new breed of teenege comedy films


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Should the Wachowski Brothers Take On Superman?

August 6th 2009 13:24

Superman is in trouble. After Bryan Singer's Superman Returns was met with less-than-expected box office receipts and much backlash from the fanboy community (including this blogger). As such, the good folks at Warner Bros. were quick to stop all plans for a sequel, got rid of Singer (as well as Brandon Routh, the actor who player Superman/Clark Kent) and then decided to work on a reboot, in the same vein as Batman Begins and Casino Royale. They weren't exactly rushing the property into production (there was an attempt by writer Mark Millar/director Matthew Vaughn to make a trilogy which went nowhere). This all changed when in came a lawsuit by the estate of the man of steel's creators, Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster. The final verdict: if WB don't have a new superman movie in production by 2011, then they could lose the rights to the property. With sobering news like that, it makes sense that WB would now fast track the reboot.

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Cobra Commander vs. Julia Childs: Box-Office Predictions for 8/7/'09

August 4th 2009 16:42
Last weekend proved to be something of a dissapointment at the box office, with Judd Apatow's lastest flick, Funny People, proving to be underwhelming with both critics and audiences, grossing $22.6 million, far below Apatow's previous flick, Knocked Up, intake of 30 million a few years back. The whole weekend proved to be just as underwhelming, with the total box office intake decreasing 18% from last week. Hopefully, this weekend will prove to change the dry spill with the latest summer blockbuster film and chick flick coming to theaters.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
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