Skyfall has crossed $300 million domestic! A closer look sees James Bond near the top of the action-film record books.

Sony is reporting that Skyfall grossed $260,000 yesterday, which was just enough to put its domestic total over the magic $300 million mark.  Putting that in perspective, this means that Skyfall has nearly doubled the previous domestic-best gross of the 007 series, the $168 million grossing Quantum of Solace and the $167 million-grossing Casino Royale.  Now that it's theatrical run is pretty much finished (it's got $5 million left in the tank, at the absolutely most), let's look at how it did in the grand scheme of things.  Even when adjusted for inflation, the film is the third-biggest domestic earner in the series, surpassing the adjusted-$279 million gross of You Only Live Twice ($43 million in real 1967 dollars) and hanging out below only the $515 million-grossing Goldfinger ($51 million in 1964) and the $585 million-grossing Thunderball ($65 million in 1965). It's the biggest-grossing spy film of all time and the highest-grossing non-fantasy action film of all-time.  Even when playing the inflation card, it's the sixth biggest spy movie ever, behind the aforementioned 60's 007 films, Mission: Impossible II ($310 million adjusted gross/$215 million actual gross) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me ($315m/$205m), and the first Mission: Impossible ($318m/$181m).  If you factor in pretty much every remotely recent non-fantastical/non superhero action franchise, it still ends up with more tickets sold than all but the likes of Beverly Hills Cop ($522m/$234m), Rambo: First Blood Part II ($329m/$150m),  Rush Hour 2 ($310m/$226m), and Beverly Hills Cop II ($305m/$153m).  

Um, so there's going go be a new Star Wars movie...

I'm sure you've read the news by now (Forbes).  If you haven't, Disney just spent $4 billion to acquire Lucasfilm and plans on releasing the first of three new Star Wars films in 2015 (press release after this essay).  George Lucas himself had been slowly lessening his role in the company he founded and Kathleen Kennedy will be the president and operate under Disney head Alan Horn. So first of all, Disney just paid another $4 billion to acquire another gigantic company and bring it under the Disney umbrella.  Second of all, we're getting Star Wars Episode 7 in 2.5 years (I'm  presuming it will open Thursday May 21st, 2015).  George Lucas will not be directly involved in these new films behind a consulting role.  And no, Paramount still holds the rights to the Indiana Jones series.  So what are my thoughts on this?  I almost didn't comment, because I'm wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to say.  Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this...

Why I almost cancelled my Indiana Jones blu-ray order...

As with most of the geeks here and elsewhere, Amazon will be dropping off my pre-ordered set of the Indiana Jones series on Blu Ray this afternoon.  I ordered it a few months ago, despite misgivings about it.  Misgivings, you say?  Well, here's the rub: My wife and I just watched all four films just last year.  So, and I hinted at this in last week's essay about multiple theatrical viewings, the life of an adult (job, family, etc.) leaves little time for watching movies, even favorite movies, multiple times.  My wife and I just watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  What is the likelihood we are going to watch them again anytime in the next few years?  I almost didn't buy the Jaws blu ray for just this reason, as my wife isn't a Jaws fanatic and I can't imagine showing the film to my kids anytime terribly soon (my wife being my wife, she actually prefers Jaws 3 and Jaws the Revenge).  But in the end I eventually spent the $20 on Jaws and the $65 on the Indiana Jones set because I figured my wife would enjoy watch the copious new extras on the sets.  Well, I was half-right.

Why Warner Bros' Lego: The Piece of Resistance may end up being the greatest movie ever made by humans...

Much of this is speculation, so bare with me.  Jeff Snyder over at Variety reported today that Channing Tatum and Will Arnett have been cast as voices in Warner Bros' new Lego movie. The bad news is that yes there is a Lego movie coming, but the good news is that it's being directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, they of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street (so they are two for two so far).  The even better and more curious news is that the live-action/animation hybrid Lego: The Piece of Resistance is casting Tatum as Superman and Arnett as Batman.  Yup, Justice League may or may not ever happen and Wolfgang Peterson's Superman Vs. Batman project is a distant memory, but we will indeed be seeing an big-screen team-up of the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel in some form.  That's certainly amusing and perhaps noteworthy, but a little imagination leads to an even more insane possibility.  In short, what if Warner Bros. gets the rights to use all or most of the various properties that Lego currently has? 

Indiana Jones blu-ray collection gets a trailer...

Not much to expound upon here, but Paramount will be releasing all four Indiana Jones films on blu-ray sometime this fall (probably in late September/early October, so they can do a secondary discount during the holidays).  All I can say is that the trailer above is unusual in that it outright hides most of the supporting cast of the last two pictures (no Sean Connery, no Shia LeBeouf, etc).  On the plus side, it doesn't skimp on footage from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull out of misplaced embarrassment.  Anyway, enjoy the above teaser. 

On the inherent darkness and pessimism of Steven Spielberg's body of work, and why he is more than just ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

This essay has been slightly updated since the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced.

In the aftermath of the Oscar nominations (analysis HERE), there has been much hand-wringing over the notion that the Academy has embraced 'feel-good' entertainment over darker and more introspective work.  The prime example of this false argument (which insists that you ignore the relatively downbeat finales of The Help and Moneyball, among others) is the Best Picture nomination for Steven Spielberg's War Horse (review).  Many of the reviews, especially the negative ones, for Steven Spielberg's War Horse have emphasized the melodramatic 'boy and his horse' narrative, accusing the film of wallowing in sentimentality.  Moreover, they basically accuse the picture of being 'conventional Spielberg', again citing the classic meme that Steven Spielberg isn't capable of truly playing in on the dark side.  Both arguments are hogwash.  For as long as I can remember (early-80s, natch), Steven Spielberg has had a reputation as the "Mr. Mass Audience", the guy who, film-making chops aside, was looked down upon because of his reputation as a purveyor of mainstream feel-good sentiment.  He was the guy who made general audiences tear-up on cue, but still walk out feeling good.  But looking over his filmography, not only are his 'dark and adult' pictures more frequent than you might realize, his entire reputation as a softy basically stems from one single incredibly popular (and critically-acclaimed) film that he made in 1982.  On a film-by-film basis, Spielberg is far more likely to scare you or deeply disturb you than leave you with a nasty case of the warm-and-fuzzies.  

Transformers: Dark of the Moon gets a poster. Plus a word about science fiction and holiday weekends.

Not much to add here, but it is a little unusual that Transformers is three films in and had yet to have a normal, stand-alone three-day weekend.  Even this picture, the first to open on a Friday, still has the Fourth of July for its holiday Monday.  It's not a complete separation, in fact it's actually a pretty common pattern for big sci-fi franchises.  The Matrix films opened on a Wednesday, a Thursday, and then on a Wednesday.  The Lord of the Rings pictures of course all opened on the same pre-Christmas Wednesday.  Raiders of the Lost Ark is the only Indiana Jones picture to open on a Friday (a non-Holiday no-less).  And the Star Wars franchise had three Wendesday openings (Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, and The Phantom Menace) and three Thursday openings (The Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith).  So hmm... maybe it's the Friday opening that's unusual after all. Although, out of nine Star Trek films, only Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home opened on a non-Friday (it was the Wednesday of Thanksgiving day weekend).  Anyway, enjoy the poster and the random trivia.

Scott Mendelson

Sex and the City 2 pulls in $14.2 million on opening Thursday.

With $3 million in midnight screenings, the opening day tally for Sex and the City 2 is $14.2 million. At first glance, it would appear that Warner Bros has again hurt themselves by splitting their proverbial opening day over Thursday and Friday, as opposed to getting one massive opening day total on Friday that can be bragged about. There really isn't much to compare this to, as there have only been a handful of movies that have chosen the 'worldwide all-at-once' Thursday release date. Films generally open on Thursdays in other parts of the world, so studios have occasionally tried simultaneous worldwide releases to combat international piracy. Nine films have previously chosen to open on Thursday in the last eight years. Four of them were on Christmas Day, 2008. They were Marley and Me ($14.3 million on Christmas Day), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($11.8 million), Bedtime Stories ($10.7 million), and Valkyrie ($8.4 million). Taking into account this anomaly, let's simply concentrate on the other five pictures that used the Thursday jump over Memorial Day weekend or pre-Memorial Day weekend.