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Hancock’s High Expectations. Trade Roughage 07/02/08

Despite bad reviews, HANCOCK is expected to easily cash in on America’s inability to disassociate Will Smith from the concept of liberty. Also: forget about Alex Rodriguez––Guy Ritchie should really be worried about Borat.

SAG and Sleepers. Trade Roughage 07/01/08

Hey guys, Tom Cruise is making a movie!
[...]
[crickets]

Wall-E Weekend. Trade Roughage 06/30/08

Wanted opened to $51.1 million over the weekend, which is, you know, a fantastic boost for Angelina Jolie’s live-action bankability, but it wasn’t enough to beat Wall-E‘s $62.5 mil for first place. Speaking of boosts: The Last Mistress made $17,596 on each of its screens, which is roughly $17 for every time Asia Argento shows [...]

Smart All Around. Trade Roughage 06/23/08

As Variety commends audiences for their, um, smarts (oh, puns), the Weinsteins make an intelligent move of their own.

Not-Smart Competition. Trade Roughage 06/12/08

Questions: Why are both The Love Guru and Get Smart––broad comedies that should have mainstream appeal, if they actually appeal to anyone––opening on the same day, and how is the competition going to impact each film’s box office? Answers: either because Paramount locked in a bunch of promo deals for The Love Guru before realizing [...]

Sandler vs. Pandas. Trade Roughage 06/06/08

Ahhh! Between Adam Sandler pretending to be Israeli and Jack Black pretending to be cute, nobody knows who’s going to win the weekend box office! Will 8 year-olds be able to clear their schedules to see both?!?!?
Serial Andrew Lloyd Webber enabler Cameron Macintosh will co-produce a remake of My Fair Lady, starring Keira Knightley in [...]

Two Final Thoughts on Sex and the City

Notes on the SatC backlash, and What It All Means for the industry.

Sex Smash: Trade Roughage 06/02/08

Sex and the City made almost $56 million over the weekend––almost twice what tracking would have indicated as late as Friday morning. Pamela McClintock says the debut “mystified Hollywood and shattered the decades-old thinking that females — particularly older ones –can’t fuel the sort of big opening often enjoyed by a male-driven event pic or [...]

Sex, Steroids, Muppets. SpoutBlog Week in Review.

Cannes: complete coverage, plus Karina’s 5 favorites.
Sex and the City: Saving boyfriends, 5 Easy Ways To Dismiss It, is it Why They Hate Us
Also possibly about sex: War, Inc’s big opening weekend.
On FilmCouch: Bigger, Stronger, Faster (reviewed here), and gossip from Cannes.
Sydney Pollack died.
The Worst Film Ever Made is being remade.
Manhattan already has been…with Muppets.
Jean [...]

Bad Ideas in the Name of Box Office Equivalency. Trade Roughage 05/29/08

Two questionable projects, each inspired by something having something do with Shia LaBeouf.