Information taken from Brandon Gray's
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
1 Beowulf $27,515,871 3,153
$8,726 $27,515,871
2 1 Bee Movie $14,008,444 -45.2% 3,984 +40
$3,516 $93,570,695
32 30 Ratatouille $135,458 -38.2% 237 -24
$571 $206,114,243
39 19 The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D $55,506 -93.7% 18 -455
$3,083 $14,468,466
47 45 The Simpsons Movie $32,015 -44.1% 61 -35
$524 $183,049,643
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I saw "Bee Movie" that weekend. I think what kids do are completely
tune
out the plot and just concentrate on the kitchy pretty background artwork
( Barry's hive looks like a theme park pavillion. ) and the action
sequences
( Scenes like Barry's separation from the pollen collectors are kinetic,
but
I wasn't as involved in them as I was in similar scenes in Brad Bird
movies. )
The movie is well crafted, and I liked the animation of the CGI humans
this
time around ( The animators had a lot of fun animating that fat lawyer. ).
But the movie had one of the most unfocused plots I've recently scene.
The
first third is a standard "I want" cartoon plot. The second third is an
evil
cor****ation plot. And the third is an ecology plot. When Barry first
talks,
it's supposed the be a break of a sacred law, and it's a shock to his
human
pseudo-girlfriend ( Yuck. In the past I've actually praised human-furry
romances in animation, but this time inexplicably I just went yuck. ).
Yet a
couple of scenes later humans seem at ease with talking bees and the bees
are
going along with Barry's lawsuit. Patric Warburton plays a character
that's
completely superfluous. They threw in a plane crisis near the end,
apparently
just for the heck of it. The plot just didn't add up, leaving only
brightly
colored eye candy for little kids.
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Anyway, so "Beowulf" did pretty well with critics.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beowulf/
"Beowulf" also had a respectable first weekend debut. But not as
strong
as the $38M debut of "Bee Movie". I'm doubtful that the movie will be
able
to cover its $150M production budget on domestic boxoffice alone.
Actually, "Bee Movie" itself is starting to lose some steam. with a
45%
drop last weekend. That movie also has a $150M production budget to
cover. I
don't think it'll quite reach that, but there's always overseas boxoffice
and
DVD sales.
Last weekend we said godspeed to "The 10 Commandments". The Lord was
with
this misguided direct to DVD release for only $952,820.
And this weekend, let's see how well "Enchanted" will do.
- Juan F. Lara
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