"Angels & Demons" is on track for a soft opening below $50 million domestically and the Starship Enterprise is chasing hot on its heels.
Sony Pictures' "Da Vinci Code" follow-up sold $16.6 million worth of tickets on Friday. That's 42% less than the first movie starring Tom Hanks, directed by Ron Howard and based on a Dan Brown novel, grossed on its opening day three years ago, despite higher ticket prices. If "Angels & Demons" follows the same pattern as its predecessor, it will reach about $45 million through Sunday, a weak start for a $150-million-budget thriller. "The Da Vinci Code," which cost $125 million, sold $77 million in tickets on its first weekend.
However, the U.S. and Canada ended up accounting for less than 30% of that movie's total worldwide box office, and the same could hold true for "Angels." So far, there isn't much information on how it is performing in the 97 foreign countries where it launched this week.
Domestically, though, "Angels" may end up in the awkward position of barely beating "Star Trek's" second weekend. Paramount's sci-fi reboot made $11.75 million on Friday. Its final weekend tally should be close to $40 million.
"Star Trek's" Friday gross is down 62% from last week, but that number is inflated by $3 million of midnight shows on its first full day at the box office. Accounting for that, as well as the impact of Mother's Day last Sunday, the film could end up dropping around 50% from its $75.2-million opening weekend, a relatively small sum for a big-budget summer action movie.
As of Friday, "Star Trek's" total domestic gross stands at $116.5 million.
-- Ben Fritz
Photo: Tom Hanks. Credit: Zade Rosenthal / Columbia Pictures
A good day for unconventional television: 'Dollhouse' renewed
If you want to gripe about mean networks yanking terrific shows with low ratings, don't direct your griping at Fox.
The network, in a surprise move, renewed "Dollhouse," the show that didn't get great overnight ratings but did very well when DVR use, iTunes and Internet viewing were added to the overall picture. For stories on the renewal, go here and here.
TV fans and critics have long beat up the networks for canceling low-rated shows without sufficiently taking other factors, such as audience passion, DVD sales and other revenue streams into account. It's becoming clear, as James Hibberd points out, that those other forms of viewership count more than ever.
Could the tyranny of the Nielsen overnight ratings be over? If a network like Fox, which is not known for its sentiment and softness, renews a show like "Dollhouse," the paradigm has surely shifted.
Fox didn't renew "Dollhouse" because the show's fans would have been sad about the Joss Whedon show's untimely death. Fox doesn't care about how viewers feel (you saw "Moment of Truth," right?). No, Fox renewed "Dollhouse" because it thinks it can make money off the project -- enough to keep the enterprise profitable.
Fans have always been passionate about their favorite shows, but now they have far more ways to show it. Viewer passion translates to increased viewing in all these different arenas, which ultimately translates into more money in the pockets of the media companies.
The lesson the networks should learn from this new paradigm: Take chances.
The campaign to renew "Dollhouse" probably wouldn't have caught fire had Whedon never been allowed to make the weird, unsettling, unexpectedly moving and complex show that he ultimately came up with in the second half of "Dollhouse's" season. When shows are given time to develop, when they're allowed to be different, when they're allowed to be ambitious and strange and challenging -- all that can lead to the kind of fan passion that we're talking about here.
Let's hope the campaign to renew "Chuck," another well-crafted show that's not easily summarized in a four-word sentence, succeeds as well. Things look good for that NBC show; the word from various media outlets is that the spy dramedy will come back for a third season of 13 episodes.
It sure can be fun, at times, to beat up on NBC for various things, but in all fairness, with its commitment to keep "Friday Night Lights" alive by any means necessary, the network has been at the forefront of this trend -- the push to keep brilliant, creative shows alive by finding many different ways to make money off them (or co-finance them, in the case of "FNL," which NBC shares with DirecTV).
If "Chuck" and "Dollhouse" both come back, it will be a very heartening trend. Every week, the dolls in Whedon's show have a new worldview downloaded into their brains. It looks as though TV executives' brains may be similarly pliable, as one reader suggested. Fox may have done terrible things to "Firefly," but consider the very different outcome for "Dollhouse."
I've begun to allow myself to think about a Friday night viewing lineup that could consist of both those shows, and I've grown lightheaded. So I'll sign off for now, but not before adding this:
In other renewal news, ABC is bringing back "Castle" and "Scrubs." Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke will come back for multiple episodes of the show's ninth season, and Donald Faison, John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn will all be back full-time, according to this story. UPDATE: Michael Ausiello reports that "Better Off Ted" has been renewed also.
This handy chart hasn't been updated with the renewals mentioned here, but it's a good way to find out the status of your favorite shows -- whether they're returning or not and all that.
For previous "Dollhouse" stories and interviews, go here. Finally, "Dollhouse" co-executive producers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain talk about where the show might go next season in this interview.
Four decades in music and counting
Not many Kenyan musicians can boast a four decades career in the music. But Gertrude Mwendo joined a band 44 years ago and has never looked back. In the course of her career, she has rubbed shoulders with male veteran musicians such as Isaya Mwinamo, Daudi Kabaka, Gabriel Omollo, Fanuel Amimo, Fundi Konde and John Nzenze.
Kaygetsu offers top Japanese cuisine, artfully presented in an oasis of calm
Hailed as one of the Bay Area's best Japanese restaurants, this understated Menlo Park spot has a well-earned reputation for serving art on a plate. It's a beloved bastion of classic Japanese cuisine, whose devotees insist it's the next best thing to hopping a jet to Tokyo.
Stuart Davis On 'Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll'
Is Stuart Davis is a musician who makes jokes — or a comedian who makes music? Or, is he a religious man who also appreciates the life of the flesh, and rock and roll? He says his three favorite things in life are sex, God, and rock and roll — so his new show is about just that. Host Scott Simon talks to Stuart Davis, who writes, directs, and stars in the show.
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