- Another weekend, another easy win for Iron Man 2 in the box office race. In its second weekend of release, Robert Downey Jr.’s latest film racked up another $53 million at the box office, easily earning the top spot over top competitor “Robin Hood." On the strength of those two films’ performance, overall box office earnings were just above last year at this time when "Star Trek" and "Angels & Demons" were tops at the box office. "Iron Man 2" did drop off 59 percent from its opening weekend, but still broke the $200 million barrier and has made $212 million thus far, meaning it is likely to beat the original "Iron Man's" total domestic gross of $318 million. Of that $53 million tally, $4.2 million came from IMAX screenings. “Robin Hood” snared second with $37 million, making for another successful opening for the tandem of Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott. The one concern for “Robin Hood” is that Cinemascore ratings for the film weren’t good, meaning moviegoers didn’t think too highly of the film and won't be likely to recommend it to friends. Still, look for the international take to be good, as often tends to be the case with Russell Crowe movies. The film did gross $74 million around the world, which backs up that theory. Third place went to the disappointing "Letters to Juliet," which had to be a huge letdown for Summit Entertainment, which hoped that the PG-rated romance would cash in on the same chick-flick demographic that loved this February’s “Dear John” so much that it opened to $30 million and went on to gross $80 million. By contrast, “Letters” made a mere $13.8 million. In fourth place was the single worst movie in the top 10, the crap-tastic romantic comedy "Just Wright," from Fox Searchlight. This piece of garbage, starring Queen Latifah, only grossed $8.5 million on the strength of piss-poor writing, a lame plot, horrible acting and an overall ridiculous quality that should merit the immediate refund of the ticket price for anyone who went to see it. Rounding out the top five was “How to Train Your Dragon,” which earned an additional $5.1 million, putting its cumulative total at $207 million after eight weekends at the box office. With “Shrek Forever After” opening next weekend to take the DreamWorks Animation torch, “Dragon” is nearing the end of its run but is still hanging tough. The rest of the top 10 included: "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (sixth place with $4.7 million and down 48 percent since last weekend), "Date Night" (stunningly strong despite being…..well, mediocre and yet seventh with another $4 million for a cumulative tally of $86.7 million in six weeks, "The Back-Up Plan" (eighth in earnings, but a close second to “Just Wright” for the worst movie in the top 10, with $2.5 million),
- Maybe I’m a little fuzzy here on the idea of marking and promotions, but aren’t promotional offers supposed to entice you to buy a product and not want to boycott or destroy it? If so, the latest promo offer from Kentucky Whiskey maker Jim Beam is a colossal failure. Jim Bean has teamed up with Detroit “rocker” Kid Rock to offer exclusive music downloads of his music in a terribly misguided effort to promote both of their brands. Apparently blowing right past the fact that Kid Rock’s music sucks on many levels (or perhaps after consuming massive quantities of their own product), Jim Beam execs have green-lighted an offer that will give legal-age buyers of special edition gift cartons of Jim Beam instructions on how to download the Kid Rock’s new song, “Times Like These.” Yes, you can have a new tune by a dude who is a mangled mash-up of crappy pop, country, screaming, off-key vocals and who rocks a quasi-mullet, wife beater and stupid hats while holding the mic like a rapper and jumping around the stage in lieu of actual musical talent. What I’m wondering is whether Jim Beam intends for consumers to down an entire bottle of their product before downloading and listening to Kid Rock’s music, because that would be the only possible way for this crap to be at all palatable or listenable. I’m also wondering if Kid Rock is being paid in whiskey at part of the deal, because that sounds like the sort of agreement he would sign his name on. The Kid has released a statement about the partnership, saying, “After being one of Jim Beam's best consumers for years, I've gotten to know the people and the product very well, and I'm excited to continue and grow our relationship in such an innovative way.” You call it innovative, I call it an affront to good music. But just know that there are not enough fifths of whiskey or any other drink in this world to make me forget the fact that Kid Rock is one of the more absurdly awful musical acts of this or any other period in history……………
- I knew it was probably coming, I could see the light from the train at the end of the tunnel and I could hear the whistle a-blowin’, but that doesn’t mean that the cancellation of NBC’s drama Heroes didn’t hit me hard. I was one of the hardcore Heroes fans who had watched every episode live from the first one all the way through the end of the fourth season. The show’s primary problem was that while season one rocked and was a captivating ride from start to finish that left fans clamoring for more, the subsequent three seasons were……well, erratic. The show went in about 50 different directions all at once, spinning crazy story arcs spanning time and geography, confusing everyone while looping in dozens of new characters and failing to stay true to the sci-fi action core and storytelling that made Season 1 such a success. Even after the show’s powers that be ripped the element of time travel from the equation, it was still a massive struggle to find time for all of the relevant characters in the course of a season. The fourth season of the show wrapped on Feb. 8, when it only brought in a mere 4.4 million viewers. That number looks even worse when contrasted against the ratings from season one, when Heroes averaged a whopping 14.5 million viewers per episode. There are rumors that NBC will offer fans something of an olive branch/chance for closure by working with the show’s producers to create and air a movie that allows the producers to wrap up the story, but nothing is definite at this point - other than there not being a fifth season. Of course, any time a popular show is canceled, there are always crazy rumors about another network picking it up, but thus far I have heard no talk at all of that happening with Heroes. So aside from that possible TV movie to close things out, the run of Peter Petrelli, Hiro Nakamura, Claire Bennet and Co. has ended in unceremonious fashion. Farewell, Heroes one and all………
- While some may hail the crowning of Lebanese-American Rima Fakih Miss USA on Sunday night as proof that Americans are past their prejudices against Arab-Americans and views that all people from Arab nations are terrorists hell-bent on blowing up the United States, I prefer to take a different point of view on the matter. While Arab-Americans across the country were celebrating the moment as proof that their culture is finally being accepted mainstream in the U.S., I choose to label it as American culture being much as it has always been. In short, beauty trumps all. You take a hot chick, drop her in a bikini or evening gown and parade her around a stage and most Americans (the guys anyhow) are going to give her a big thumbs-up. Being hot allows women to act like total witches much of the time, it gives them favorable treatment from dudes who evaluate them largely on their looks and that’s especially true with someone as hot as Fakih. On top of that, Fakih was raised in a family that is reportedly very moderate in its beliefs and practiced both Islam and Christianity. She considers herself an American first and so the whole Arab-American issue is likely something the rest of that community will seize upon more than she will. Because the Miss USA pageant doesn’t keep records as to the race and nationality of constestants, officials are not certain that Fakih is the first Arab-American to win the crown, but it seems unlikely that no one would remember if it had happened before. So for all of the Arab-Americans out there who believe that her win is an indication that Americans are more tolerant and open-minded than before, I would caution all of you to look long and hard at this result and at the woman you are hailing as a breaker of glass ceilings before you get too excited. I’m not saying anything negative about Fakih, who certainly seems lovely, but more so I am saying negative things about an American culture that is still more concerned with how hot you are than about where you come from……….
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