Today’s incentive image is of Eddie Murphy’s character from Up Yours taking a swig from a bottle. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics if you’d like to see it.
I was kind of at a loss for what to do about today’s comic. I feel like last week we were in some kind of weird holding pattern in terms of interesting movies. Between The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Imagine That, a great case of “Meh” washed over me.
I guess I wasn’t the only one. The Hangover and Up basically held their positions as the number 1 and number 2 movies at the box office this weekend. Most notable? The Hangover is the only movie so far this summer to hold on to the top spot two weekends in a row. That’s maybe not an indicator of quality as much as fantastic word of mouth, but it’s still a pretty amazing achievement – especially when you consider that there are no real “stars” in the movie. Familiar names, sure. But not an actor you would hang your movie off of.
I think what shocked me most is how far down the list Imagine That really was. 6th place. That’s pretty bad considering that it has an A-list star with Eddie Murphy, is a family movie (which generally do great when the kids are out of school), an it’s in it’s first weekend.
To give you some further perspective, Imagine That did $4 million less than Land of the Lost did in it’s second week. And Land of the Lost lost more than 50% of it’s audience.
Need further perspective? Imagine That is Murphy’s second worst performing film since The Adventures of Pluto Nash – a film SYNONYMOUS with Hollywood bombs. That movie earning roughly $1.3 million less despite inflation and the fact that The Hangover played on nearly 1,000 more screens.
$5.7 million is what Imagine That ended up taking home this weekend. Between the out and out failure of this movie and the robust success of The Hangover and it’s strong “R” rating, you have to wonder if Murphy is reconsidering that hissy fit he threw after he didn’t win Best Supporting Actor in Dreamgirls a few years ago.
Switching gears, I want to let people know that I think we’re making some headway on the malware error message Safari and Chrome users are seeing. I got a tip from Phil Chan over at Martriculated as to what the problem might be. I’m just doing a little cross-referencing at the moment to make sure I don’t delete something important by accident. But we’re close to getting this thing resolved.
It’s been tough for me to field e-mails and tweets the last few days from readers telling me about the malware errors. I feel like I’ve been letting people down by not addressing it sooner. It’s not out of laziness. Just a general lack of availability. I was at my cousin’s wedding in St. Paul over the weekend and that slowed things down a bit.
Not that I regret going to the wedding, of course! We had a blast! Oh, and if Paul and Jill are reading, congratulations again. You make a lovely couple and we can’t wait to see you again in August!
Not much more to talk about right now except for a few links I wanted to point you to.
First, be sure and check out the list of Top 10 Sci-Fi movies over at Movie Make-Out that I contributed to. In case you didn’t know, Movie Make-Out is a movie news and opinion site run by Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex. Gordon runs a tight ship and he has a few people writing for him as well, so you know he’s taking it seriously. Check it out.
Also don’t forget to listen to The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.com. Not sure what we’re going to talk about, but I’m sure The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 will be in the mix there somewhere. We might also be talking about our Top 10 Sci-Fi list, as well.
If not, I might be talking about Death Proof, which I plan on watching later today. We got a suggestion from someone over at The Triple Feature Facebook community that a DVD review from time to time might be a nice change of pace. I agree! So we might be adding that to the show soon!
By the way, we love answering listener questions on The Triple Feature. So if there’s something you’d like to ask the group, feel free to send it to us by e-mail at group@thetriplefeature.com.
Joining our Facebook group is also a great way to submit questions. Plus, you get the added benefit of a quick reminder just before we record the show. That way, if you’re at your computer, you can come and listen to us live!
If you’re a fan of the show, listening live only enhances the experience. There’s a chat field where you can interact with other listeners and ask the rest of us questions in real time! Give it a try and I know you’ll be hooked. We see a lot of the same people in the chat field from week to week and I know they enjoy it.
Anyway, that’s it for me. Have a great day!
If Eddie Murphy is going to rip off movies like Bedtime Stories, he'd be better off stealing from more popular movies to stay viable!
Eddie Murphy in UP YOURS!
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" MY @$$!
Christmas 2009
It’s not going to resonate with boys. They’re not going to be interested in “imaginary princesses”. It’s a little girls’ movie if anything.
i’m really proud of the Hangover and that it’s done so well. I love a good underdog. I hope I can get to it real soon.
I think the only movie I’m really waiting for that’s on my radar next is Moon.
I know, some of you are saying, “What?! What about Transformers!?”
I think I feel safe here saying this because Tom is a fellow Anti-Shia LaBoofer, but I thought the first movie sucked.
“Yea, well I grew up watching and playing with Transformers.”
Yea, so did I. Don’t get me wrong, the CG of seeing some of my favorite old school toys brought to life is pretty sweet, but that doesn’t forgive the stupid characterizations they gave to some of the characters, the crappy teenage humor (masturbation jokes, haha OMG!), and Shia.
Anyways, I’m always good for a Transformers rant… but that’s pretty much why I really don’t care if there’s a sequel coming out soon.
So Moon is the next thing I’m looking forward to. How about you Tom, that one on your radar much… or anyone else here? I saw one trailer that enticed me and I’m avoiding any other advertisement, because it seems like there will be some sweet plot twists that I don’t want any hint of. I want the full suspense/surprise.
Yeah, “meh” is the best way to describe Pelham 1 2 3. Which is slightly depressing (even if it was to be expected), since the original kicks a good amount of ass. Kudos to The Hangover for doing so well. I didn’t think it was quite as amazingly funny as everyone else did, but it was still fairly hilarious.
Hope you like Death Proof, Tom. It gets a bad rap in my opinion (though I am a Tarantino fanboy, so what do I know). And Steve gets a high five for the Moon love 😀
I agree with Steve. Moon looks really good. It has an actual story and an amzing actor leading it.
high fives all around for loving Moon. I’m looking forward to it. Transformers 2? meh. I still want to see Pelham 1 2 3 regardless of the reviews, and I need to see the original. That and about 1001 other movies I need to see.
Personally, Death Proof was only really good for the last hour, Planet Terror, the other film, I thought was awesome. but whats not to love about a zombie comedy?
avast! just blocked a “malicious” file on your site.
openstat.ws/sutra/in.cgi?default
I visit all the time but this is the first time it happened. Firefox didn’t do anything.
Funny comic today BTW.
You ought to try a few more of these “mashup” movies on T-shirts. The final panel would
look pretty good as a full blown movie poster as well.
Sweet! Glad to see some love for Moon going around. My wife and I are heading to Seattle tomorrow morning, and I loaded a couple movies onto my ipod to get more pumped up for Moon: Solaris and Sunshine. I haven’t seen either movie yet, and I’m sure Moon is going to be fairly different… but what would be more similar than these picks? I’m looking forward to watching them.
totalmoviefreak: When I was watching the trailer for Moon and realized that it’s going to have a great story, I was already wishing I hadn’t watched the trailer. I had a friend that took me to see Serenity when it came out in theaters, and I had never heard of Firefly and knew nothing about the movie I was about to see. It was the BEST surprise ever. I think this is a perfect movie to return the favor. I envy someone who can go in and see Moon completely clueless as they enter the theater. With Serenity, I never even saw the poster!
No problem anymore on Safari.