Gross Out

In a company town like Los Angeles, you forget that most America don't live or die over the movie release schedule. Most people hardly go to movies, and those that do are hardly aware of what's coming until it opens.

That's why nothing opens better than a sequel. The best advertisement is a blockbuster. Yet, even the experts were shocked at the amazing $70 million opening weekend of the computer animated feature Ice Age: The Meltdown. The numbers are comparable to Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Of course, the downside of sequels is the audience is front-loaded thus the numbers drop pretty fast, so I can safely predict the lastest Ice Age film won't make anything like Nemo money.

Also of interest is ATL, a relatively unheralded film that grossed over $12 million in only 1602 theatres. This shows, yet again, that there's a solid, if limited, audience for films that appeal particularly to the African-American audience.

Performing abominably with only $3.6 million was James Gunn's Slither, a horror film that promised to be, if nothing else, pretty disgusting. It actually got good reviews, but the horror audience doesn't read reviews. Horror is a tricky genre--there are numerous cases of relatively low-budget films opening big, but then you get a film like Slither that seems perfctly positioned and it flops.

But the flop of the week, perhaps year, is Basic Instinct 2. True, it's a sequel to an international blockbuster, but the original came out 14 years ago--almost an entire generation of filmgoers has grown up since Sharon Stone first crossed her legs. Furthermore, Stone hasn't had a hit in a while, and while the original also had Michael Douglas, this films features David Morrisey (I don't know who he is either). It also doesn't help that the critics hated it. Finally, as unfair as this may be, the first film featured an incredibly hot blonde at the height of her allure, while in the latest she's...past her prime. Since much of the appeal of the film is based on the heat generated by the leads, is it that big a surprise the film made no more than the second weekend of Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector?