Hollywood went 0-for-3 on Labor Day weekend, as a trio of new releases underperformed and last weekend's top films, "The Final Destination" and "Inglourious Basterds," ruled the box office once again.
The latter picture proved particularly strong, as the Quentin Tarantino-directed World War II drama declined only 40% on its third weekend, selling a studio-estimated $15 million in tickets from Friday through the holiday Monday. Its domestic total is now an impressive $95.2 million.
Weinstein Co. and Universal's co-production also continues to do well in foreign countries, where it collected $14.3 million, boosting its cumulative international take through Sunday to $83.3 million. In an interesting twist, given its focus on a group of Jewish American commandos seeking to kill top Nazi officers, the movie is proving particularly strong in Germany, where it dropped only 2% on its third weekend.
"The Final Destination" landed at No. 1 more through weak starts for new films than its own strong performance. The New Line Cinema-branded horror flick dropped 55% on its second weekend, standard for the genre, and grossed $15.4 million from Friday through Monday.
That's far better than last weekend's other new horror film, "Halloween II," which plummeted 65% and landed at No. 6.
"All About Steve" grossed $13.9 million for the four-day weekend. On a three-day basis, it recorded the lowest opening for a Sandra Bullock romantic comedy since 2000's "Miss Congeniality," which went on to sell $106.8 million of tickets domestically. That's an unlikely outcome for "Steve," as audiences gave it an average grade of only C+, according to a person with access to data from market research firm CinemaScore.
Lionsgate's "Gamer" was also a mild disappointment. Its $11.2-million opening weekend total is lower than that of "Crank," a similar high-energy action comedy that the studio opened on Labor Day weekend three years ago. Its CinemaScore was C+, indicating that it will likely have a big second weekend drop as well.
Despite a hefty marketing push to give the cult favorite director his first big opening, Miramax got the Mike Judge comedy "Extract" to only $5.3 million. On a comparable three-day basis, that's barely more than "Office Space" debuted to in 1999, indicating a significant drop in attendance given 10 years of ticket price inflation.
It's a decent performance for Miramax, however, since the art house division of Walt Disney Studios paid only $3 million for domestic distribution rights and the total production budget was $7 million.
Total domestic box office receipts were up 2.8% from last year's Labor Day weekend, according to Hollywood.com, essentially keeping pace with rising prices.
Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office, according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com. All grosses are Friday through Monday, but percentage declines include only Friday through Sunday ticket sales in order to make for a fair comparison to last weekend, which didn't include a holiday.
1. "The Final Destination" (Warner Bros./New Line): $15.4 million on its second weekend, down 55%. Domestic total: $50.6 million.
2. "Inglourious Basterds" (Weinstein Co./Universal): $15 million, down only 40% on its third weekend. It has now sold $95.2 million of tickets in the U.S. and Canada.
3. "All About Steve" (Fox): Opened to $13.9 million.
4. "Gamer" (Lionsgate): $11.2 million on its debut weekend.
5. "District 9" (Sony/QED): $9 million on its fourth weekend, a drop of just 31%. Domestic total: $103.3 million.
6. "Halloween II" (Weinstein Co.): Plunged 65% on its second weekend, collecting $7.1 million through Monday. Eleven-day total is $27.1 million.
7. "Julie & Julia" (Sony): Continuing its very strong run, dropped just 25% on its fifth weekend. $7 million for the weekend, $80.6 million domestic total.
8. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" (Paramount/Spyglass): Down only 33% on its fifth weekend, collecting $6.7 million. Domestic ticket sales now stand at $141 million.
9. "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Warner Bros./New Line): Declined 33% on its fourth weekend. Grossed $5.4 million, bringing its total to $55.8 million.
10. "Extract" (Miramax): Sold $5.3 million worth of tickets on its opening weekend.
-- Ben Fritz
Photos, from top: Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper in "All About Steve"; Ben Affleck and Jason Batemen in "Extract." Credits, from top: Suzanne Tenner / Twentieth Century Fox; Sam Urdank / Miramax.
'Mad Men,' 'The Arrangements': Let's talk about the episode
The following post discusses Sunday's episode of "Mad Men," "The Arrangements."
Poor Sally Draper.
It's only appropriate that an episode that revolves around familial approval -- or the lack thereof -- left us with a heartbreaking image of a child alone, tears staining her face.
She'd lost one of the few people in the world who not only noticed her, but truly loved her. But her mother was so consumed by her own grief that she could not comfort her devastated child.
And so Sally, who's too young to know how to deal with her own pain, curls up with a pillow, and takes in the image of a monk setting himself on fire.
What a terrifying gap will haunt Betty and Sally, as the years go by. So much of "Mad Men" makes us realize that some of these people will be left behind by societal forces that they can't begin to comprehend. As we saw last week, Roger doesn't get it, he doesn't understand what a dinosaur he is. He'll probably be swamped by cultural trends he'll be unable to navigate.
But "Mad Men" is grounded in even deeper -- and sadder -- truths. The most resonant moments aren't about characters failing to connect to the times, it's about characters failing to connect with each other. Sometimes the show is about the chances for true intimacy that are lost, and those aren't problems unique to the '60s, those are problems universal to the human condition. That's why the rare moments of true connection on this show can be so profound.
Truth be told, I was angry after I first watched "The Arrangements." I was so angry at Betty for the way she treated poor Sally. Lots of TV shows depict narcissists who do terrible things, but a lot of those shows (most of them, in fact) temper those characters' worst flaws by showing them at least attempting to be good parents. As Jon Hamm noted in this interview, that's why people give Don "a pass" for a lot of the bad things he does -- at least Don tries to be a good dad when he's around.
But Betty's not much of a parent if she can't comfort her own child when that child is in pain. And what offsetting good quality does Betty have to make up for that lack of compassion? I couldn't think of any. After that first viewing, my thought was, "Whatever her past, whatever she's been through, I don't care. I'm done caring about Betty's fate."
This might sound like an odd digression, but I first watched this episode while I was on a treadmill in my garage, so I wasn't watching "The Arrangements" under ideal conditions. I couldn't quite see every facial expression perfectly, which is very necessary for this show (so no more treadmill viewing of "Mad Men" for me).
Watching it a second time, I saw how red Betty's own eyes were in her final scene with Sally. She was eating that overripe peach, trying to hang on to the last vestige of her father. And Sally, in her rage and grief, was unwittingly twisting the knife in her mother, reminding her again and again that Gene was gone forever.
So I could see why she just wanted Sally out of the room. Having just seen a parent go through a fairly terrifying health crisis, I know that parental mortality dredges up emotional issues you didn't know you had and kicks you around in ways you never thought possible (and luckily, my father is still alive and much better now). As much as we may wish or hope that terror and grief will make us noble and magnanimous, well, sometimes those things can just make us hard to be around.
I could see, just about, why Betty acted the way she did (she also shut down her own father abruptly when he tried to prepare her for his death; she just can't handle hard truths being shoved in her face).
But I fear for that baby inside her, and the children already in that house. Both Don and Betty have many flaws, but Betty's indifference to her children -- she treats them like furniture even on the best of days -- is hard to forgive. We saw some emotional growth in her in Season 2, but she's clearly still extremely stunted in that department (and again, even on second viewing, I was thinking, what mitigating qualities does Betty possess that will make me truly care about what happens to her? I still don't know the answer to that question). Even if she somehow learns to be compassionate, it could well be too late for her kids.
No matter what, I think the Drapers needs to start saving for Sally's stints in rehab now.
That poor kid is going to be such a lost soul as an adult. Maybe that will be due, in part, to the wrenching changes society is about to unleash. A much bigger part of Sally's undoing will be the sense of alienation that her parents -- both of whom are lost in different ways -- instilled in her. Her parents left her alone on the floor when she needed them most, and that's on both of them.
You have to wonder if, way back when Betty was Sally's age, Betty was Gene's partner in crime. Ruth sounded like she was a fairly terrible mother, but Gene, to his credit, enjoyed the company of both girls (and who knows, given his mental state just before the end, maybe he thought Sally and Betty were the same girl). Both Sally and Betty felt loved and cared for by this man, but the difference is, Betty had him around for her whole life. Who will Sally have now?
I have to point out what a wonderful performance Kiernan Shipka gave in this episode. We saw Sally basking in Gene's approval and heartbroken when he died. I don't often expect much out of actors that young, but Shipka really did fine work.
My husband pointed out that both Betty and Horace, the rich guy who wanted to invest in jai alai, were similar cases. Both had been sheltered and protected by well-meaning fathers, but both were essentially unprepared for the real world. Horace's reaction to Don's smart advice was to set his jaw and tell him that any failures would be the fault of Sterling Cooper, and that was just that. Betty just wanted to block out Sally's pain, because her own was too overwhelming. Both just want everything that goes wrong or feels bad to be other people's fault.
That's the very definition of immaturity. Both will find that no matter how much you insulate yourself from what you don't want to deal with, reality has a way of making itself known.
One more thing before I get to a hail of bullets. There's been a fair amount of chatter recently about the pace of this third season of "Mad Men." Too slow? Some say so.
Well, hmm. I'm not sure "slow" is the right word. Episodes seem to be far more self-contained, a little more contrived on occasion and more likely to have a fairly confined theme, like "The Arrangements'" meditations on characters seeking approval from the previous generation(s). As such, there are interesting and funny and poignant moments in each episode. It's "Mad Men." Of course there are.
But is there an overall mystery that we're wondering about, a driving tension, a shocker? Have we had a moment like Betty shooting the birds in "Shoot" or Don opening up to Rachel Menken at the end of Season 1 or even something like the hallway moment with Bobbi Barrett from Season 2? Not yet.
It's too early to be fully worried, in my view, but I am a bit concerned.
Let's face it, the Season 3 premiere promised a lot of tension to come. It was fairly action-packed, by "Mad Men" standards. I thought we'd be getting scads of office politics and that there would be shakeups and plotting and lots of juicy stuff like that. So far, not so much, despite the implication that the Brits were about to really shake things up. They did at first, but the action at SC has petered out a bit, if you'll excuse the expression.
And otherwise, there's no great overarching story coming into view (a la Don Draper/Dick Whitman in Season 1, or Betty's hunt for proof of Don's infidelity or the mystery of the fate of Peggy's baby in Season ). If something like that is being set up, it's being done quietly and pieces of that story are being put into motion very subtly. And that's OK, if there is some kind of payoff down the road in Season 3. If there isn't, and the rest of the season's episodes are self-contained like this, well, I can't lie. I'll be a little let down, even though "Mad Men" is still one of my favorite shows.
The thing is, I just keep thinking of that great scene in Season 1's "5G," when Don is walking down the hall to his brother's hotel room. I was on the edge of my seat -- is Don going to kill this guy? Give him whatever's in the suitcase? What will happen?
One of the great things about the show is the way it shocks me and surprises me and takes sudden turns and seemingly random events don't seem so random and new sequences of events come tumbling forward.
Not much has surprised me in the last couple of episodes. And if you're wondering if I like the small moments that are actually big moments -- such as Joan realizing her husband is no catch, Kitty (possibly) realizing that her husband is gay -- I do. "Mad Men" is always wonderfully performed and full of great individual moments.
But imagine that you go to your favorite restaurant and your favorite dish isn't on the menu that night, and you'd really been looking forward to having that meal. You'll still have a great time and eat a great meal and enjoy the ambiance and service, yet a little voice in the back of your mind will be saying, "I wonder when that dish will be back on the menu."
So, I'm wondering if one of my favorite dishes -- heightened dramatic stakes and ongoing tension that is threaded through multiple episodes -- will be back on "Mad Men's" menu soon. I'm not worried, per se, but I'm wondering if the second half of the season will amp things up a bit. Are you?
Hail of bullets (I'm going straight to that, because it's a holiday weekend, and I've already written too much):
So that look on Kitty's face meant that she realized Sal's gay, right? Or not? I don't know for sure what it meant. Why didn't Peggy realize sooner that she was being pranked by the "roommate" calling? Didn't she recognize the voice of one of her own co-workers? Anyway, it still was a pretty funny scene. Unguents? Tannery? Clearly Joan should be writing ad copy. She somehow managed to make Peggy's roommate ad sound far better than anything in the Patio campaign. Peggy's scene with Karen, her "roomie," was also pretty funny. "I love to have… fun!" Oh Pegs, no, you really don't, but we still love you. Classic line: "I have a couple of rules -- one of them is that I don't like sailors." All righty then. How perfect was Peggy's look of triumph when Pepsi hated the Patio ad? She was right, Don was wrong, and Don certainly noticed that she knew that. Pete's not a guy who is all that self-aware, but he at least knows his father was a complete idiot when it came to money. "This is his kind of investment," he told Horace, who of course mistakenly took Pete's mournful comment for a compliment. Peggy's mother laid on the full guilt trip to poor Peggy, who wanted to move to Manhattan. Yet she still kept the television. Mrs. Olson knows when she's defeated. Once again we see Don's personal code of morality in action in this episode. He's not necessarily a guy who follows society's rules, but he has his own set of rules. First of all, he knows the first rule of any workplace is, "Don't let your boss be surprised, because bosses hate surprises." So he kept Bert apprised of the idiot client that Pete had reeled in. But more importantly, he didn't want to fleece this guy without at least trying to tell Horace that he was being an idiot. With that duty done, Don was fine with taking all of Horace's unearned cash. Horace's moronic pitch about the future of jai alai -- that scene was well worth it just for the stunned reactions of the Sterling Cooper executives. Lane Pryce certainly has a talent for playing both sides of the street. He made Pete feel like a big man for bringing in Horace's jai alai account, but then he was sure to follow Don's advice about letting Bert know what was up. I'll end with something from the beginning of the episode: I literally gasped when I saw Sally at the wheel of Gene's car. Of course we know by now that "Mad Men" loves to play around with teasing certain possibilities, then resolving the situation in a different way. So of course I was expecting Gene to crash the car with the kids in it, which of course didn't happen.Review: 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' is 'best superhero game ever made'
'I'm Batman."I keep telling this to my girlfriend, who doesn't believe me. She just rolls her eyes and continues playing "Professor Layton and the Diabolic Box.
A West Bank Family, Making A Home In 'Amreeka'
Cherien Dabis' debut film tells a warm, funny story about a divorced Palestinian woman and her son, who move from the Middle East to the American Midwest to start their lives anew — just as the Iraq War is getting underway.
BRAZIL: Changing Lives Through the Power of Dance
FORTALEZA, Brazil, Sep 7 (IPS)"My family’s lives changed," said Maria Erilma da Silva, a mother of three girls and a teenage boy, listing a whole series of transformations, from changes in eating and personal hygiene habits to "the security of knowing where my daughters are" and even an end to her husband’s frequent drinking binges.
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