Is it a sign of the end of the world, or simply an effect of the economic crisis and the presidential election? Beverly Hills Chihuahua has won the hearts of an America that apparently doesn’t want anymore serious content to think about. The talking dog movie came out on top for the second weekend in a row with $17.5 million (for a total of more than $50 mil.), easily defeating Leo, Russell and Ridley, and especially Bill Murray, whose City of Ember barely beat out the Christian hit Fireproof to make it into the top 10. An announcement about Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 is expected by the end of the week.
At least specialty division films are doing well enough, with The Duchess expansion bringing the period piece into the top 10 and both RocknRolla and Happy-Go-Lucky debuting in limited markets with per screen averages around $20,000. Rachel Getting Married is also still seeing success with its old-fashioned slow rollout, now grossing about $17,000 on each of its 27 screens. And Religulous continues its path towards surpassing Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed as the top grossing doc of 2008.
Ridley Scott will finally direct the epic sci-fi adaptation The Forever War, which he describes as “a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner” and which he’s been attempting to make for 25 years. Is it terribly cynical of me to think that it will be a major disappointment? Certainly the expectations are going to be extremely high since Scott’s other efforts in the genre are two of the most influential sci-fi films of all time.
Back to signs of the end of the world: Variety posted this ludicrous sentence, which fits with audiences favoring dumb, happy fare during hard times, late last Friday: “So if Oscar voters rebel against the pervasive darkness, does this mean “Mamma Mia!” and “High School Musical 3″ could become front-runners?”
Despite the rule that audiences prefer comedies during tough financial times, the box office winner over the weekend was the thriller Lakeview Terrace with $15.6 million. Director Neil LaBute had his best opening ever with the film, and it’s certain to be his highest grossing film overall, so business-wise he’s making up for Wicker Man. Meanwhile, of the new comedies, My Best Friend’s Girl debuted well below expectations (#3 with $8.3 mil.) and Ghost Town seems to have described its auditoriums (#8 with $5.3 mil.). My theory is that audiences were for some reason craving period pieces this past weekend (see the excellent per-screen averages for new limited releases The Duchess and Appaloosa) and went into Lakeview Terrace thinking it was something else entirely.
Speaking of English period pieces, Nicolas Cage is set to star in one. But don’t suddenly think he’s back to Oscar territory, as the 14th century-set film reunites him with his Gone in 60 Seconds director, Dominic Sena. Titled Season of the Witch, it sounds like a cross between 3:10 to Yuma and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be nothing of the sort.
And finally, just because it also has to do with a period drama, and there’s not much else to get excited about in today’s trades, Miramax acquired the rights to Muchas Gracias, Bob Oppenheimer, which is set in Spain in the ’60s and deals with a miltary appeasement mission and a love affair. And yet somehow it’s likened to Saving Private Ryan.
I don’t want to imply that I find all corset movies to be boring — though I’ve never been a big fan of that stuffy period-piece genre — but after watching the new trailer for The Duchess(courtesy of Moviefone), I’ve bookmarked the film as potentially the most effective sleeping aid of 2008. The main problem is that Keira Knightley in a corset is one of the most tired things in filmmaking these days. In fact, Knightley in any type of period piece (even Dominowas set in the past, remember) is apt to make me drowsy. Too bad, considering I’d like to give The Duchess a chance, what with it originally being adapted by the excellent Danish scripter Anders Thomas Jansen (the current screenplay appears to be reworked by period piece scribe Jeff Hatcher – yawn).
To me, The Duchess seems like a means for the true period-piece fans to take back what’s rightfully theirs. It’s like a more traditional take on themes we saw in the wonderfully fresh Marie Antoinette. After all, Georgiana Spencer (Knightley) was another 18th-century It Girl, fashionably innovative and something of a party animal. You might have figured this out from the beginning of the trailer, which clearly points her out as “the Empress of Fashion,” though you might have been confused or doubtful since the reveal of Knightley’s appearance is pretty underwhelming, considering both that the fashion to us is 300 years old and that on Knigthley it looks so commonplace. At least we get to see the actress with her “father” Jonathan Pryce’s wig from Pirates of the Caribbean and later a perm that would make Elsa Lanchester laugh with superiority.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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