Box Office Results Feb. 25-27, 2011 + The Oscars 2011 Results

Update: Hall Pass wins against Gnomeo and Juliet by $135K as the actual results came in. I guess I’m not 0 for 7 after all! Yipee!

 

It seemed like no one was interested to watch new films this week as a Gnome took the number 1 spot for the weekend. Overall box office was $25M below the same weekend last year ($97M vs $122M) and 2011 continues to lag behind the last 4 years in terms of overall attendance. The worst news this week is that Nicolas Cage’s Summit Film “Drive Angry” failed to deliver and finished 9th with only $5.1M. Still, I guess nothing’s worse than having “The King’s Speech” winning Best Pic and Best Director at the 2011 Oscars. I need to watch that film soon so that I won’t have any more bias around Black Swan and The Social Network!

Anyway, here are the top 7 films for the weekend!

Number One Movie Predicted Correctly: 1 wees in a row

Number of Times I nailed the Top 7: 0

2.) Gnomeo And Juliet – And the award for most surprising #1 film is the kiddie adaptation of Shakespeare’s Classic! In it’s third weekend, G&J grabs the top spot, forcing a new entry to second place. Gnomeo is set to rule the 2011 box-office tally for about a week before Johnny Depp’s Rango, rules the theaters this March. At least I nailed it with my $14.2M prediction

Predicted Outcome: Rank 2, $14.2M

Actual Gross: $14.2M

Total Gross: $75.1M

1.) Hall Pass – No one was excited for Owen Wilson’s return. Critics panned it, and the audiences watched The King’s Speech once again. I was bullish once again (but I really wasn’t, studios predicted a $20M opening).

Predicted Outcome: Rank 1, $17.0M

Actual Gross: $13.4M

Total Gross: $13.4M

3.) Unknown – 0 for 3 for me. Since Drive Angry fell to 9th, I guess I’ll be getting a perfect 0/7 this week! Thanks a lot, Nicolas Cage! I guess 3D really will die soon. I was right off the bat claiming this movie won’t repeat the second weekend success of Taken.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 4, $13.9M

Actual Gross: $12.4M

Total Gross: $42.8M

4.) Just Go With It – 0 for 4. This pic has a $4M lead over Gnomeo, but it will all change by next week. I was too bullish this week, I based my predictions with the 4-day holiday rather than the regular 3-day weekend! Good thing I also got my numbers right with this one.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 5, $11.2M

Actual Gross: $11.1M

Total Gross: $79.4M

5.) I Am Number Four – Hey! I guess it did remain in the Top 5 in its second week! Still, $37M on a budget of $60M is unacceptable, which is why this movie won’t have a sequel. (Just Like Percy Jackson)

Predicted Outcome: Rank 6, $10.3M

Actual Gross: $11.0M

Total Gross: $37.7M

6.) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – I forgot that Sony released a one-week only Director’s Cut for this movie. As a result, a drop of less than 31% occurred. Good news for them, as it has already topped the Hannah Montana 3D Concert. Like I said, 3D will die soon. Why? 4D

Predicted Outcome: Rank 8, $6.2M

Actual Gross: $9.2M

Total Gross: $62.8M

7.) The King’s Speech – This film never reached number one. However, it has grossed more than $100M, it’s on its 14th week of release, it’s still in the Top 7, and most of all, it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and pretty much the hearts of veteran and young critics alike. Good job, man. Good job. (But the Poster is still awful)

Predicted Outcome: Rank 9, $5.9M

Actual Gross: $7.6M

Total Gross: $114.5M

And there you go! For the first time ever, I went 0 for 7 with my predictions. But hey, no one’s perfect, and I promise you that I’ll get the number 1 spot right next week. Or else, I become a loser.

With that, here are the winners of the 2011 Oscars brought to you by the Internet Movie Database!

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Winner: The King’s Speech (2010) – Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Winner: Colin Firth for The King’s Speech (2010)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Winner: Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010)

Best Achievement in Directing

Winner: Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech (2010)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Winner: Toy Story 3 (2010) – Randy Newman(“We Belong Together”)

Best Achievement in Editing

Winner: The Social Network (2010) – Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Winner: Inception (2010) – Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin

Best Documentary, Features

Winner: Inside Job (2010) – Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs

Best Short Film, Live Action

Winner: God of Love (2010) – Luke Matheny

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Winner: Strangers No More (2010) – Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Winner: Alice in Wonderland (2010) – Colleen Atwood

Best Achievement in Makeup

Winner: The Wolfman (2010) – Rick Baker, Dave Elsey

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Winner: Inception (2010) – Richard King

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Winner: Inception (2010) – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Winner: The Social Network (2010) – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner: Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Winner: In a Better World (2010) – Susanne Bier(Denmark)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Winner: The King’s Speech (2010) – David Seidler

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Winner: The Social Network (2010) – Aaron Sorkin

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Winner: Toy Story 3 (2010) – Lee Unkrich

Best Short Film, Animated

Winner: The Lost Thing (2010) – Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Winner: Melissa Leo for The Fighter (2010)

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Winner: Inception (2010) – Wally Pfister

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Winner: Alice in Wonderland (2010) – Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara

209th Movie Review: The Real Eve (2002)

A cool and well-documented film that is a tad long and went a little out-of-course by the end

BY: CHRISTOPHER GABRIEL D. DAJAY

Note: This is my reaction paper for a Biology 1 requirement, and I uploaded it for you to be informed about this movie, not to let others copy my work. You can use this a reference, but DO NOT COPY MY WORK.

Where did we come from? Who were the first modern humans? How and why did the humans spread throughout the world? These are just some of the troubling questions that have been remarkably answered in The Real Eve, a documentary that offers an engaging and informative look at the real face of human evolution. And it could all be traced through one single person, our genetic mother, Eve.

Eve is the mother of mankind; she is the genetic eve from whom we all descend. She lived 150,000 years ago in East Africa and everyone on Earth is related to her. Her daughters and granddaughters would take modern humans out of Africa, and would populate the rest of the world. It was the most important journey in the history of mankind.

Genetic eve was not the only woman living at the time, or even the most fertile. However, her mitochondrial genes were the most successful, and were the only ones to survive. Everyone in the world today can trace a common ancestral line back to her, through a unique part of our DNA called mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondrial DNA is separate from the normal chromosomal DNA that determines our height or eye color. Men inherit that DNA from their mother, but they can’t pass it. In women, it carries on from mother to daughter almost unchanged, and this is how we can trace our way back to our genetic eve, and her daughters. Therefore, ridden in it is the history of the world’s women, and therefore the human race.

In the film, it showed how scientists were able to create a route map of the journey of the first humans through genetic tracking. With it, we could follow the families of eve as they travel through an empty world, overcome hardships, and go in different paths to discover new land, to find a better and more hospitable environment to live in. Genetic tracking tells us for the first time who we are and where we come from, the most profound question that has troubled mankind since we raised our heads and looked at the stars.

In my opinion, Eve’s role in human evolution is the most important one. Her ability to survive has allowed her descendants (most importantly, her daughters) to travel across the globe and secure the future of the human race.

The possibility of having a genetic Adam though, is uncertain. Through the documentary, we have learned that Mitochondrial DNA can’t be passed on to the younger generation by the males, so it could be possible that we don’t have a genetic Adam, a man who had a significant role in human evolution.

For the first time, we were able to tell conclusively the story of where, when and how the human race came about and then populated the world. An unbroken chain links us to our past, and to each other, all sharing the same genetic inheritance, from our ancestral Eve. By the end of the movie, the narrator tells us that perhaps, that is the most important message we should carry into the future. And that’s exactly what I believe.

Topy’s Top 7 US and K-Pop Songs (Feb. 25, 2011)

Woah! GD&TOP grabs their 3rd (and fourth) number 1 hit for 2011 in my countdown! David Archuleta remains at a distant number 1 while OPM Songs are starting to make its presence felt. Here are my favorite songs for the week!

 

Top 4 OPM Songs

1.) Tanya Markova – Linda Blair

2.) Franco – Song For The Suspect

3.) Gloc 9 ft. Sheng Belmonte – Walang Natira

4.) Meron Akong Ano – Kamikazee, Chito Miranda and other OPM Artists

 

Top 7 US Songs

1.) David Archuleta – Elevator

Previous Position: 2 Wks at #1

2.) Bruno Mars – Grenade

Previous Position: 2 Wks at #2

3.) Nelly ft. T-Pain and Akon – Move That Body

Previous Position: 2 Wks at #3

4.) Chris Brown ft. Busta Rhymes and Lil’ Wayne – Look At Me Now

Previous Position: #6

5.) Panic at The Disco – The Ballad of Mona Lisa

Previous Position: #4

6.) Katy Perry ft. Kanye West – E.T.

Previous Position: NEW

7.) Britney Spears – Hold It Against Me

Previous Position: 4 Wks at #7

 

Top 7 K-Pop Songs

1.) GD&TOP – Baby Good Night & Don’t Go Home

Previous Position: #4

2.) Dal Shabet – Supa Dupa Diva

Previous Position: #3

3.) GD&TOP – Knock Out

Previous Position: #1

4.) TVXQ – Keep Your Head Down

Previous Position: #2

5.) Seungri – VVIP & What Can I Do?

Previous Position: #6

6.) Dalmatian – Lover Cop

Previous Position: NEW-ENTRY

7.) Orange Caramel – A~ing!<3

Previous Position: #5

Box Office Predictions for Feb. 25-27, 2011

We’re about 1/6 into the year and we have yet to see a $40M weekend for a major Hollywood film. Last year, Avatar dominated the first 5 weeks while Valentine’s Day exploited it’s release date on its way to a $50M+ showing. This year’s grosses are constantly declining, giving studios a sign that it’s about damn time they make more quality films.

For this week, we have six films earning more than $10M, but not a single one will crack $20M, that would be reserved for March premieres. Here are my predictions.

Last Week’s World Box-Office Mojo Derby Rank: 57th

Hall Pass

1.) Hall Pass – $17.0M – Let’s analyze the movie poster for a while. Good news is that Owen Wilson is a huge draw. The bad news is, well, pretty much everything else. The “from the directors of There’s Something About Mary” ad is kind of irrelevant because it dates back to the early 90’s, unless they intended the flick to be seen by the same demographic as that movie. The lady at the bottom of the poster signifies the movie as a raunchy R-rated movie, while Jason Sudeikis is pretty much unknown. I don’t think this movie will bomb, but after my devastating prediction for #1 last week, I won’t be making any bullish expectations anytime soon.

2.) Gnomeo And Juliet – $14.3M – Last week, it was $40K away from claiming the #1 spot from Unknown, which would have been an upset. Good news for Disney, though, they’ve raked a lot of cash with this average film, and is set to reach $100M unless March arrives early with Rio, Mars Needs Moms and Rango.

3.) Drive Angry 3D – $14.0M – Nicolas Cage + Amber Heard + Sex + 3D, this movie is beyond weird. I would’ve never expected this movie. I mean, the Nic and Amber pairing is out of this world (and she’s out of his league), however, less than a couple of million interested people will catch this. If I watch this, it would be because Amber’s here. Oh, and Nic of course, regardless of how many movies he’s been in.

4.) Unknown – $13.9M – Last week’s number one movie is dethroned this week. However, it appears that I could also fail all top seven positions as I’m predicting the top 2 to 4 movies to be within 400K from each other. 2 years ago, Taken dropped only 8% in its second weekend, this one won’t, but I don’t have a clear explanation as to why. I just think it’s less interesting.

5.) Just Go With It – $11.2M – Now that it only went down by 40% last week, this movie is leaning towards Grown Ups rather than Funny People in terms of box office success. Now, let’s predict who’ll be the first to crack $100M this week, this movie, Gnomeo, or The Green Hornet (which is only $5M away from that mark, although it’s losing traction fast)?

6.) I Am Number Four – $10.3M – Disappointing numbers for I Am Number Four. Not only will it end it’s run below $75M, it will also be forgotten as early as summer. Too bad, I wanted the three main cast members to flourish even more. Tsk Tsk.

7.) Big Momma’s: Like Father, Like Son – $8.1M Rounding up the top 7 is Big Momma, which just edges out Oscar favorite The King’s Speech. Big Momma will end up being the lowest grossing movie in the deteriorating franchise. Therefore, don’t expect Big Momma to return any time soon.

Box Office Results Feb. 18-20, 2011 [updated]

Update #1: It seems that my prediction was correct. I am Number Four slipped to third place as Gnomeo and Juliet dominated on Monday and moved to second for the 4-day weekend.

———————-

Although this weekend beat last year’s, three new movies underperformed. Plus, they destroyed my predictions, damn! The whole weekend was a mess, as the positions are still interchangeable if you count Monday’s gross. To avoid the confusion, I’ll just follow the 3-day predictions, but I’ll still give you the Monday numbers by tomorrow, and give you the list of the top 7 for the 4-day President’s weekend. Here’s the lucky 7!

Number One Movie Predicted Correctly: 0 weeks in a row

Number of Times I nailed the Top 7: 0

 

Liam Neeson in Unknown

1.) Unknown – Here we go. First off, this movie sneaked into the top spot. It was a bit surprising, but not as much as it grossed a little lower than Neeson’s last movie, TAKEN, even though they have similar attributes. It did perform better than I expected though. Oh well, at least five other movies grossed more than $13M each.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 2, $21.2M (3-Day)/ $25.0M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $21.8M (3-Day)/ $25.6M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $25.6M

2.) I Am Number Four – Disappointing numbers for this movie. It tried to gain similar numbers as Percy Jackson, tried to match the breakout success of Twilight, and showcased 3 young and upcoming stars. But the movie became uncool for the men and not romantic enough for the women. Even though it was released in 230 IMAX theaters, this movie still didn’t crack $20M. What’s worse, the 3rd and 4th top movie could actually out-gross this film by Monday! Ouch!

Update: I Am Number Four finished third if we include Monday showings.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 1, $25.5M (3-Day)/ $30M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $19.5M/ $22.6M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $22.6M

3.) Gnomeo And Juliet – This was the best news for the weekend. I expected this film to hold well, but not by this much. The animated film fell by only 23%, a good percentage considering that expectations weren’t too high, and it wasn’t marketed that much. This movie could still have a shot for $100M domestic, and it could even be the first one to do so this year if The Green Hornet can’t do it.

Update: Gnomeo and Juliet rose to number 2 because of first place showings on Monday.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 5, $15.9M (3-Day)/ $18.7M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $19.4M (3-Day)/ $24.8M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $55.8M

4.) Just Go With It – Surprisingly, this unequivocally panned movie managed to hold well this weekend even if it’s post-Valentines already. It may not be performing as good as Sandler’s previous movies, but it still brings out the crowd. Plus, I got this movie correct!

Predicted Outcome: Rank 4, $17M (3-Day)/ $20M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $18.2M (3-Day)/ $21.7M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $64.2M

5.) Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son – The first movie earned $27M in its 1st week, the second grabbed $24M, so it is expected that this Martin Lawrence movie will also fade. I guess people are starting to get tired of the big momma.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 3, $17.8M (3-Day)/ $21.0M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $17M (3-Day)/ $19M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $19M

6.) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – All right Bieber! I thought this would crash and burn big time, but I guess people still had enough enthusiasm to catch a second viewing! It only dropped 54%. Normally, that’s big, but considering that this is a concert movie, it actually did well. Plus, would you complain if you’ve grossed a lot of money from a $13M budget? I don’t think so.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 6, $11.1M (3-Day)/ $13M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $13.6M (3-Day)/ $16.5M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $64.2M

7.) The King’s Speech – rounding up the top 7 is none other than the Oscar-driven The King’s Speech, which once again posted the smallest drop among nationwide films, a fantastic 9%! This movie becomes the 5th Best Picture nominee to earn more than $100M domestically. Now that’s what you call ‘a good move’ by audiences.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 7, $5.5M (3-Day)/ $6.5M (4-Day)

Actual Gross: $6.6M (3-Day)/ $7.9M (4-Day)

Total Gross: $104.6M

Box Office Predictions for Feb. 18-20, 2011

Woohoo! It’s actually nice to see a weekend that could actually out-gross last year’s tally. Last year’s post-Valentine’s total was $122M. Only Shutter Island debuted at the time, and more than half of the holdover movies crashed by more than 50%. Here’s hoping that three movies (all under 50% at Rottentomatoes) will be able to propel the film industry.
Here’s the Lucky 7! (P.S. I’ll be posting my predictions for the 3-day and 4-day weekend)

Alex Pettyfer in I Am Number Four

 

1.) I Am Number Four – $25.5M (3-Day)/ $30.0M (4-Day)

This teen flick stars Alex Pettyfer, Diana Agron, Timothy Olyphant and Teresa Palmer and directed by D.J. Caruso. They may not seem like A-listers, but suffice to say they are RISING stars. I’m matching this with Percy Jackson’s success, since that movie also premiered at the same time last year. However, this could go waaaaaaay lower than what I expect.

2.) Unknown – $21.2M (3-Day)/ $25.0M (4-Day)

I was supposed to peg this lower, but merely a few seconds after I tried editing my entry at boxofficemojo, the site said the game was now closed for the week. I decided to stick to my previous bet of $25M for the 4-day weekend. 2 Years ago, Liam Neeson opened another movie at the same week, same genre and almost the same poster. I don’t think it’ll bomb, but I don’t think it’ll grab the number 1 spot either. Plus, it’s currently only 47% Fresh at RT (as compared to Taken’s 52%)

3.) Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son – $17.8M (3-Day)/ $21.0M (4-Day)

Oh, brother! The third firm for this deteriorating franchise should entice enough audiences to retain about 2/3 of it’s original audience. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Martin Lawrence, so I don’t know if this series is losing is touch or not.

4.) Just Go With It – $17M (3-Day)/ $20M (4-Day)

No competition in the romance genre equals more money for this movie. This respectable drop should be enough to make it Sandler and Aniston’s nth $100M+ movie.

5.) Gnomeo and Juliet – $15.9M (3-Day)/ $18.7M (4-Day)

This is one of the highest-grossing low-marketed animated movie in a while. I’m actually surprised to see it take more than $25M last week, and I’m even more shocked since I didn’t expect my prediction to be just below $16M, which is about the total gross of Alpha and Omega!

6.) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – $11.1M (3-Day)/ $13.0M (4-Day)

And the award for biggest loser goes to… Justin Bieber! After soaring to the number two spot, he’s expected to drop BIG this weekend. But don’t blame the movie, it’s only because audiences tend to flock concert movies on the first week, so expect this week’s viewers to be re-watchers, curious people or those who are just embarrassed to catch it in week 1.

7.) The King’s Speech – $5.5M (3-Day)/ $6.5M (4-Day)

The top 6 films are within $14M from each other, so don’t blame me if I don’t get even a single spot correct this week. The King’s Speech on the other hand will crack $100M domestically, being the 29th movie released in 2010 to do so and tying 2009’s record. The Black Swan just made it yesterday.

Topy’s Top Seven US and K-Pop Songs (Feb. 18, 2011)

Lots of changes this week! I wasn’t feeling Nelly anymore so let’s see if by the time I finish this entry he’ll still be at my list. G-Dragon and TOP on the other hand, grabs their second #1 hit for the year! Here’s the lucky 7!

 

Notable: Tanya Markova’s Linda Blair beats Franco’s Song For The Suspect this week in my OPM chart. Both artists were in the UP Fair. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the former and was disappointed with the latter.

Top 7 US Songs

David Archuleta – Elevator

1.) Elevator – David Archuleta

Previous Position: #2

2.) Grenade – Bruno Mars

Previous Position: #4

3.) Move That Body – Nelly ft. Akon and T-Pain

Previous Position: #1

4.) The Ballad of Mona Lisa – Panic at The Disco

Previous Position: #5

5.) Pray – Justin Bieber

Previous Position: #3

6.) Look At Me Now – Chris Brown

Previous Position: NEW-ENTRY

7.) Hold It Against Me – Britney Spears

Previous Position: 3 Weeks at #7

 

Top 7 K-Pop Songs

GD&TOP - Knock Out

1.) Knock Out – GD&TOP

Previous Position: #3

2.) Keep Your Head Down – TVXQ

Previous Position: #1

3.) Supa Dupa Diva – Dal Shabet

Previous Position:#4

4.) Baby Good Night & Don’t Go Home – GD&TOP

Previous Position: NEW-ENTRY

5.) A~ing!<3 – Orange Caramel

Previous Position: #2

6.) VVIP/What Can I Do – Seungri

Previous Position: #5

7.) My Snowy Wish & Visual Dreams

Previous Position: #7

 

208th Movie Review: The Notebook (Valentine’s Day Special)

Realistic, dull, and boring

There are lots of good and bad things about this movie. First off, Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling had the  chemistry (which turned out to be the same in real life). Next, most people who have read the book claim that it didn’t ruin the original story.

However, as I was watching this movie on Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t help but be bored. Maybe it’s because I’m not in love as of now, but I just wasn’t moved to tears. I didn’t care about what would happen to the both of them, even if the two main leads tried their best. The problem I had was that it was too slow. I had to do the usual x1.2 on my VLC Player to endure some gloomy parts.

I’ll give props to some great scenes, though. Whether it was Gosling jumping to one of the seats of the Ferris wheel or kissing in the rain, some parts where memorable enough to keep me watching the film.

As for other issues, I didn’t like the sequence of the storytelling. Unless you read the book, you wouldn’t have known that the old man and woman reading the book was them. When they made it obvious about 3/5 into the movie, I couldn’t help but scratch my head. Tskx3

Overall, The Notebook is a movie that people will either love, hate, hate to love, or love to hate. For me, it was disappointing. I can’t say it was bad, but I don’t know if it was good either. The only things I know, is that it had two solid leads and a great plot, but awful direction and screenplay dragged the movie down.

GRADE: C

Box Office Results Feb 11-13, 2011

Finally, we have a competitive weekend at the box office for 2011! Although the week still paled in comparison from last year (about 27% lower), this weekend’s top 12 managed to gross $135M in sales. The top two movies are within $1M from each other, so the winner could still change by tomorrow. Here’s the results:

Number One Movie Predicted Correctly: 1 Week in a row

Number of Times I nailed the Top 7: 0

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in Just Go With It

1.) Just Go With It – With a budget of $80M, I don’t think studios will be happy. Even so, Sandler’s number of $100M hits grow to 11, while Jennifer Aniston breaks the curse of her recent flops (The Bounty Hunter), proving that she still has enough star power to prevent a kid from reaching the top. And that kid is…

Predicted Outcome: Rank 1, $34.2M

Actual Gross: $31M

Total Gross: $31M

2.) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – Bieber fever propelled female audiences to give an “A+” Cinemascore, that’s even higher than The Social Network and Inception! Bieber crushes The Jonas Brothers but falls against the queen of 3D concerts, Miley Cyrus by $0.9M. Too bad.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 2, $30M

Actual Gross: $30.3M

Total Gross: $30.3M

3.) Gnomeo and Juliet – Apparently, kids wanted to see this movie. It’s gross doubled my prediction, so I’m starting to lose confidence after almost nailing the top 2 slots. Damn! The next animated movie is Rango, but that’s still in March, so I guess G&J has a shot to be the first movie to reach $100M this year. Yikes!

Predicted Outcome: Rank 3, $12.5M

Actual Gross: $25.5M

Total Gross: $25.5M

4.) The Eagle – Unlike the number three movie, this one underperformed. I knew I was bullish with my double-digit prediction, I just thought Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell had enough star quality to rake in the dollars. Too bad.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 4, $11M

Actual Gross: $8.6M

Total Gross: $8.6M

5.) The Roommate – 5 for 5 and still going strong! Actually, The Roommate dropped a little smaller than I expected. It’s not normal for a horror movie to fall by less than 50%, but I guess the flick was hot enough to ease by only 44%.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 5, $7.2M

Actual Gross: $8.4M

Total Gross: $26.1M

6.) The King’s Speech – Damn it! I was this close from nailing the top seven. This will reflect on my stats. Anyway, The King’s Speech is my bet for Best Picture, even though I think The Social Network or Inception deserves it more. But what can I do? I’m just a blogger sharing my opinions. Sigh… Oh, and it only dropped 3%, good job! It’s about to reach $100M too, along with Black Swan. The line-up of the Best Picture nominees are benefiting from the drought of good movies, about 5 films are set to crack $100M!

Predicted Outcome: Rank 7, $5.9M

Actual Gross: $7.4M

Total Gross: $93.9M

7.) No Strings Attached – If only more couples watched this movie…Oh man, I was so close. It only dropped by 30%, even so, it’s not enough to beat the King. With a $25M budget, I hope the studio’s happy with this one.

Predicted Outcome: Rank 6, $6M

Actual Gross: $5.6M

Total Gross: $59.9M

207th Movie Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Defying Gravity

First of all, I would like to apologize. This is actually my 207th review, not my 206th.

I believe I can fly! Filled with unbelievable high-flying, sword-slashing stunts, great cinematography, a wonderful script and beautiful art direction, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for me is one of the best foreign language film bar none. It may not be the best movie ever, nevertheless, it provides viewers with enough kicks to please the action crowd and at the same time, wow the critics with it’s deep dialogues.

It’s been 10 years since this movie was released, and suffice to say I couldn’t remember what happened in this film way back when I was about six years old. Good thing I had the urge to watch this again, or I could’ve missed watching a good action movie. This is the action movie of the century. There had been many sword-themed action films in the past 10 years, but I don’t think I can remember a film where the actors and stuntmen had more skills that in this one.

The actors, as you’d expect, are great. Zhang Ziyi is both eye-candy and the focal point of the movie. She takes the spotlight as her then-youthful appearance allured the hearts of many men, mine included. You could consider this as her breakout movie, as she was able to move on to Hollywood films over the next few years. Aside from Ziyi, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeo were also pretty good, although they didn’t shine enough as to be loved by many.

The stunts! They were amazing, albeit impossible. How could people balance in bamboo trees? How could they walk on the walls ala Prince of Persia? How could they jump (or fly) so high while defying gravity? After a few minutes, I decided to disregard its stupidity, sit back, and relax as the actors showcased their talents. In the end, it paid off.

GRADE: B