I Served The King Of England

10 Movies to Watch When Feeling a Financial Crunch

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

I’m probably the least financial-minded person there is, and I’ve never owned a stock, bond or whatever else people invest in. But I am an expert on being broke, being poor, being frugal and, most importantly, putting things into perspective. What I mean is, whenever I feel like things just can’t get any worse for me money-wise, I think of the people who are or were actually worse off than I am. And by people, I mostly mean characters from the movies.

So, as you may be worrying about your finances after Black Monday, consider dropping by the video store on your way home from the office (or job interview) today. Invest a few bucks into your own sanity and happiness by renting one of the following movies. Don’t worry, I’ve tried to make the selections rather common and accessible. If you’re like any of the financial guys and girls I know, you’re not likely the sort to go for obscure or difficult cinema. And if you are of the sort, then you probably don’t need this list anyway.

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Sing Off the Summer. Trade Roughage 09/02/08g

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

Earning $14.3 million in its third weekend, Tropic Thunder retained its top placement on the box office chart over the holiday, yet it’s total gross still hasn’t reached the movie’s reported $90 million budget. Meanwhile, five new wide releases (Babylon A.D., Traitor, Disaster Movie, College and Hamlet 2, which expanded this week) performed badly enough to place this year’s Labor Day total at 17% below last year’s. In the end, the slow four-day weekend may have contributed to Summer 2008’s inability to top the box office of Summer 2007, despite The Dark Knight’s now more than $500 mill. take.
The most interesting box office news from the weekend is Mamma Mia!’s 34% increase over its previous weekend take — despite having lost more than 350 screens — due to Universal’s releasing a special sing-a-long version of the musical to 299 locations. I’d say something about the film being on its way to Rocky Horror-like cult hit status, but at $132.9 million and climbing, it’s already earned more than Rocky Horror has in 35 years and should anyway be considered an actual hit.
As for limited releases, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter failed to mention that Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django earned $13,106 on a single screen in NYC this past weekend. Meanwhile, one of my favorite films of the year, Jirí Menzel’s I Served the King of England, earned a terrific per-screen average of $8,488 to gross almost $68,000.
I’ve always thought Nastassja Kinski was one of the most boring actresses in the world, but at least she would have given Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards that usual casting from the ’70s cred. Unfortunately, Diane Kruger, who’s just plain boring, has instead been cast in the part originally offered to Kinski.