Despicable Me, Predators, Kids Are All Right open well as holdovers thrive. Weekend box office (07/11/10).

It was an 'everybody wins!' weekend at the box office, as the openers all performed at or above expectations and the holdovers didn't quite crash as badly as expected. First off, Universal scored its first probable domestic blockbuster since The Bourne Ultimatum three years ago, and its first animation smash since, I dunno, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, with Despicable Me. Opening with $56.3 million, the film had the sixteenth-largest opening weekend for an animated feature ever. It is the tenth-largest opening for a non-sequel cartoon, with six of those openings coming from Pixar alone. Say what you will about the 3-D price-bump, but this is nearly double the opening of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and about four times the opening weekend of Coraline. It is a case of almost instant profitability for the $69 million production.

So what was the point of that again? Marvel to not hire Edward Nortion as Bruce Banner in Joss Whedon's The Avengers.

Two summers ago, Marvel rebooted a franchise that grossed $245 million on a $130 million budget (funded by Universal). Said reboot, intended to be a more audience-pleasing (ie - dumbed down) variation on a the Incredible Hulk, ended up grossing just $263 million worldwide on a $160 million budget (this time funded by Marvel itself). But that was ok, because now we had a Hulk cast that could seamlessly blend into the new Marvel movie universe and could fit right in with the eventual Avengers film, right? Right? Oh... right.

"Mr. Feeny, did we die?"

"To me it seemed like that finale could have been the finale to any TV show ever. The final season of Friends could have been had an alternate reality in which they didn't know each other and then when they touch hands they remember good times at Central Perk. And then die happy. Blah." - Dana Shaffer

Does the final scene of Boy Meets World look a little familiar to anyone? Watching that final scene last night, only having sampled the first few seasons of the show this week (for work-related reasons), I could have sworn that Cory, Shawn, Topanga, and Eric were dead, and that Mr. Feeny was their guide to the great beyond. It actually plays pretty much the same whether you think that they are alive or dead. And at least it explains why Shawn apologizes to Eric for strangling him to death in a misbegotten scheme to get back to the trailer park ('We have to go back!').

Scott Mendelson

Mano-A-Mano? Why the Predators are complete morons.

I don't hunt. I've never hunted with any weapon of any kind. Hell, I've never even fired a real gun before. But, to those who have hunted, I pose this question. Say you're out in the woods, hunting a larger animal (a bear, a deer, etc). Have you ever been in a situation where you realized that said animal was putting up a better fight and/or evading your rifle scope a bit better than you expected? Let's say said animal even fought back just a little, providing a real challenge. Did you up your game a little bit, perhaps concentrate less on the 'thrill of the kill' and just make sure you shot said animal before said animal escaped and/or attacked you? Or, realizing that that big bear was a worthy opponent who had won your respect/honor, did you decide to throw down your weapons, strip off your camouflage and engage in a good old-fashioned fistfight with said beast? If so, how did that turn out for you? Just asking...

Scott Mendelson

Avatar, set for IMAX/3D re-release on August 27th, nets James Cameron $350 million. As the first theatrical run ends, why he deserves it.

I've been meaning to run the numbers, and today is as good a day as any. First of all, news broke over the last two days that A) Avatar would be returning to IMAX and 3D theaters in an eight-minute-longer special edition on August 27th and B) the film's success has netted writer/director James Cameron $350 million in personal income. The re-release was mainly fueled by the not-unlikely theory that Avatar would have kept pulling it in had it not been forced to surrender the IMAX and 3D screens to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in March. But, for all intents and purposes, Avatar's groundbreaking initial theatrical run is pretty much over. So, let's see how it did...

Not Necessarily the News: Chris Nolan is not directing a James Bond film.

The internet is all aflutter today with various posts asking whether or not Chris Nolan will direct a James Bond film in the near-future. No. Heck, considering MGM's current financial woes, it may be a long time before we see anyone direct a new James Bond picture. All Chris Nolan has said is that he would like to make a 007 adventure and that Inception is partially inspired by Her Majesty's Secret Service. None of this is news. Nolan has expressed his admiration for the series many times over the last decade. Heck, in many ways, the last two-thirds of Batman Begins is a Caped Crusader picture filtered through the constructs of a James Bond template (Batman/Alfred/Lucius/Gordon/Rachel = Bond/M/Q/Leiter/Moneypenny). Point being, all Nolan said is that he'd like to theoretically direct a Bond film sometime down the road. So please stop foaming at the mouth and waiting for poor Sam Mendes to get fired.

Scott Mendelson

He is not your parent, your role model, or economic savior: It is not LeBron James's responsibility to save Cleveland, Ohio from economic collapse.

It is said that you should never make important decisions while you're upset, and it certainly holds that you shouldn't write rambling diatribes intended for a national audience well, ever, but certainly not when you're upset. But Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert did just that and came up the a priceless super villain rant. I can certainly sympathize, and LeBron arguably could have handled the situation with a little less pomp and circumstance. But the NBA is a business plain and simple. Countless winning coaches have been canned over the years just because they failed to acquire a Super Bowl ring, a World Series trophy, or an NBA Championship. And had James been injured over the course of his Cleveland career, he would have likely been cut just as quickly as he was drafted. This is no different, except this time the player is firing the team.

Fans react at last week's The Last Airbender midnight screenings.

They were not pleased. I don't blame them.

Scott Mendelson

Twilight Saga: Eclipse leads Independence Day weekend as Last Airbender opens strong, Toy Story 3 crosses $300m. Weekend box office (07/05/10).

To the surprise of no one with a pulse, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse dominated the July 4th holiday weekend, as the third installment of the popular teen-lit romantic soap opera series (IE - Moody with a Chance of Vampires) debuted with $64.8 million over the Fri-Sun portion and $83.6 million over the four-day holiday weekend. That's the third-biggest Independence Day opening weekend in history, behind Spider-Man 2 ($88 million) and Transformers ($70 million), and War of the Worlds ($64.9 million). Now, while one might argue that the number is a few hundred-thousand dollars less than the opening weekend of the first Twilight, and it's actually three million less than what New Moon scored on its first day, let's not forget that this Twilight picture was opening on a Wednesday, not Friday. So for its first six days, the film has amassed a scorching $176 million (the fifth-biggest on record, just $2 million behind the first five days of New Moon). The picture is the eighth-fastest sprinter to $150 million. If you recall, Spider-Man 2 opened over the same period in 2004, and it amassed $88 million on its Fri-Sun weekend, with $151 million in the first five days and $180 million in the first six days. What Spider-Man 2 and Transformers didn't have was a mammoth $68.5 million opening day, the second biggest on record behind the $72 million Friday gross of New Moon last November.

Modern movie marketing campaigns that didn't know when to stop.

While any number of reasons and/or excuses have been tossed out for why Fox's The A-Team didn't perform better over the last month, one thing that sticks out is the general blandness of the theatrical trailer. As I wrote back in January, the first teaser did a remarkable job of knowing how to re-explain the concept, establish the new cast, and get out while the audience still wanted to know more. The second trailer, released in April, was a bland, overlong, and generally disappointing affair, seeming to highlight just how generic the film was outside of the inherent appeal of the original television show. Fox's campaign for The A-Team was just another example of not knowing when to leave well-enough alone. They had a fun and entertaining teaser that sold the movie perfectly, yet they had to go and blow their goodwill with a trailer that made the movie look worse than it actually was (it's a perfectly amusing, if sloppy, B-movie genre picture). For a moment, let's have a look back at some classic 'shoulda quit while you're ahead' marketing campaigns.