It feels like a very long time since a weekend opened two films that I was exceptionally excited to see. I went into Friday just hoping I was not setting myself up for a fall. I am happy to report that the weekend is a winner. The top film of the weekend was one of those highly anticipated releases, The Expendables. The Sylvester Stallone film proved to be the big money winner and was very entertaining. It had big action, plenty of violence, some humor, and even decent characters. I am curious to see if it will have any legs in the coming weeks. My gut reaction says no and it will drop pretty quickly, but there is always hope, right?
The other movie that was high on my antici-meter did not fare as well on the money front. It came in fifth place and barely crossed the $10.5 million mark. I cannot say I was surprised, but I am disappointed. The Edgar Wright helmed comic adaptation is a wonderfully visual film that's deeper than it seems; it appears to be destined to become a cult classic. Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead star in a romantic film steeped in indie rock and 8-bit video games. It really is a sight to behold and I hope it finds an audience.
The number two film of the weekend was the Julia Roberts-starring Eat Pray Love based on the memoirs of Elizabeth Gilbert. It is the story of a woman who goes through a bad divorce and discovers that she does not like anything that she thought she did and heads out to travel the world and find herself. It is not a movie I have much interest in seeing and have heard mixed word on. It seems like the sort of movie that could enjoy a pretty solid run; the next week or two will tell us if this is true.
The Other Guys comes in third place, dropping 51% from its debut weekend. The movie is quite funny, but it looks like it will be rather front-loaded and drop pretty quickly. Of course, the fact that I typed that likely means it will end up not being the case, it will level off and have a great run. I did enjoy it, so I guess it has that going for it.
Continuing its successful run is Christopher Nolan's latest, Inception, which slipped just 39% from last week. This is a fantastic film that offers intellectual and visceral thrills and is being well rewarded at the box office. I doubt it will make as much as Nolan's The Dark Knight, but that's alright.
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