Well, as expected, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra easily won the weekend. While this was expected, it was not expected to do so by such a large margin. I had predicted it to finish in the $45 million range and thought I may be overestimating. It turns out I was short by nearly $10 million. On another note, I offered my pittance to the coffer and took my turn on the "Yo, Joe!" ride prepared to come out spitting venom, or at the least mild annoyance. I exited prepared to eat my words as the movie proved to be quite fun, it embraced the cheese of the source material and that proved to be beneficial and something Transformers probably should have done.
Coming in a distant second, but still with a respectable take is Julie & Julia, a dual biography of Julie Powell and Julia Child. The connection being Powell spent a year cooking through Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. We get a look at that year in Julie's life while we see the formative years Julia had in Paris learning to cook. It is a smile-inducing crowd pleaser that does not dig much beyond the surface, but still proves to be quite enjoyable. It doesn't hurt to have Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as your stars either.
Retaining its third place slot is Disney's talking guinea pig action film, G-Force. It has shown decent legs through its first three weeks of release, although I cannot say I have had much interest. It does have a good number of interesting names in the cast list, but I think I can wait for its budget theater appearance.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is on the verge of becoming the second biggest grossing film of the year, but its performance still strikes me as a being lackluster. The movie is entertaining for sure, but I would have thought it would have reached $300 million by now. I guess it doesn't much matter, it is still making bank and will make a killing again when it arrives on DVD.
Word of mouth has not been kind as Funny People has crashed nearly 65% in its second weekend. It is a shame as the film really is quite good, deftly blending drama and comedy and showing the next step in Judd Apatow's directorial evolution, not to mention it being one of Adam Sandler's best performances.
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