Weekend Box Office (10-07-12): Taken 2 scores $50m while Frankenweenie stumbles and Pitch Perfect stays on-note.

As always, check out John Gosling's insanely informative 'preview' of this weekend's new releases HERE.

Taken 2 basically pulled a Bourne this weekend, as a prime example where a well-liked and leggy original film capitalized on said goodwill with a massive opening weekend for the second installment.  Taken 2: The Takening earned a massive $50 million this weekend, which is more than double the $24 million debut of the first Taken over Super Bowl weekend 2009.  If the numbers hold, it will be the third-biggest opening in October, behind only last year's $52 million debut of Paranormal Activity 3 and $50.4 million debut of Jackass 3D.  The trajectory is most similar to the Bourne series and yes the last two 007 films.  The Bourne Identity had a $27 million debut in June 2002, which was followed by a leggy run to $121 million and a sterling performance on DVD as a top-rented title.  Two summers later, The Bourne Supremacy debuted to $52 million and ended its US run with $176 million.  While Casino Royale was technically the 22nd 007 film, it played like a reboot/fresh start to the franchise and it too parlayed a solid $40 million opening into a leggy $167 million run and massive critical and audience approval.  Two years later, Quantum of Solace opened with $67 million and quick-killed its way to a $168 million domestic gross.

Review: Bachlerorette (2012) successfully mixes vulgar comedy and low-key pathos.

Bachlerorette

2012
87 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

There is going to come a point, hopefully in the very near future, where we'll see enough female-centric comedies that each one doesn't feel like some kind of major moment in cinema.  We're not quite there yet, so one could arguably discuss Leslye Headland's Bachlerorette in terms of what it does or does not represent in the ever-quickening trail to gender parity in big-screen comedy. For the record, the film is based on Headland's own play, so anyone accusing the film of being a rip-off of Bridesmaids and/or The Hangover should be smacked on the head right here and now.  If the film serves as any kind of benchmark, it will be as a big-screen that will test the ever-present double-standard in terms of how we respond to female characters.  The film's star trio (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher) are notable in that they are presented as every bit as vulgar, cruel, and socially-clueless as any number of male comedy trios over the last many years.  Will audiences hold them to a higher standard of sympathy and moral purity, or will audiences realize that they are no better or worse than any given Wolfpack?