Not much relief in sight this weekend

The devil may continue his box office rule this weekend, considering the weak lineup of new films scheduled to debut. First is a 3D re-release of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Old flick. Yawn.

Then there’s Joyful Noise, a Queen Latifah-Dolly Parton church-based thing. Doesn’t seem like something that’ll catch on, especially since I’ve yet to spot a single trailer for it.

Finally there’s Contraband, a Mark Wahlberg drug war thriller that has him wearing a Scorpion EXO or something. I don’t know. Who pays attention to these things? Anti-War On Drugs movies happen four or five times a year as part of the Hollywood propaganda machine and all that changes is the cast, really. Yawn.

And again, it’s getting no push from the studios; I’ve seen zero trailers.

So, it looks like another ho-hum weekend. At least Underworld Awakening isn’t that far off.

Satan Rules The Box Office

The evil one himself may not have desired to serve in heaven, but this past weekend he did a pretty good job of ruling here on earth – at least at the box office. The Devil Inside, made on a modest $1 million budget, raked in $33.7 million domestically in its opening weekend, giving it a healthy $14K-plus per screen average.

The film breathed some life into an otherwise flagging post-holiday box office which saw the second-ranked movie, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, grab a mere $19.8 million; however, it’s been out a month now so that’s not bad. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows drew $13.6 million, while Girl With the Dragon Tattoo drew $11.6 million, while the Chipmunks movie added $9.5 million to round out the top five.

Devil Inside was the sole new release of the weekend.

Bleak winter release list

The only thing bleaker than winter weather this year is the upcoming list of movie releases for the next few months. Although a couple of them may appeal more once their ad campaigns kick into high gear, looking ahead there’s really nothing coming to theaters for the next several months that really grab my interest.

I suppose out of pure desperation some of these movies will do okay, but flicks like John Carter and a movie version of 21 Jump Street don’t do much for me. The next major release that raises my interest at all comes out in late March, when The Hunger Games jumps from print to the silver screen. And I’m not even sure about that one.

Sure, by May the summer blockbuster season starts and then things get interesting again. The Joss Whedon-directed Avengers movie, to start, looks promising. Dark Shadows might be fun. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter holds potential. And July should be huge, with the relaunched Amazing Spider-Man movie franchise, the final Dark Knight movie, and Ice Age: Continental Drift, since I can’t ever get enough of Scritch. That trio could spawn a lot of gifts for a man’s office in secondary marketing alone.

But until July, it’s a fairly dismal list. Even some of the sequels scheduled look boring.

Amy and Rory exiting mid-series, Smith out by the end?

Amy Pond and her husband Rory will return to Doctor Who during the revived show’s seventh series in 2012, but will exit by mid-season, according to showrunner Steven Moffatt. He intoned darkly about a tragic exit for the only long-term companions to appear during Smith’s entire run as the Doctor, which will be entering its third series next fall, when the show resumes broadcasts.

So maybe Amy and Rory can move to the US and go hunting for dining room furniture Los Angeles-style. Or not.

That much is confirmed, and Moffatt has promised that Smith will gain at least one new companion in the second half of the second series, but is remaining mum as to any hints of that companions gender, as well as any other details.

What is not officially confirmed, but highly rumored, is that Smith may exit the show soon, as well. Some say this could happen as early as the end of series seven, the upcoming 2012 season.

All these exits raise the question of whether the actors will be involved in the much-rumored Doctor Who feature film BBC is hoping to launch, or whether their exits are designed to allow for the new Doctor and companions to be in place by the timeframe of the feature film’s release.

Time will tell. Especially with The Doctor.

Three new releases, none excite me

The coming weekend brings three new releases to movie theaters nationwide and while they’re all big, broad-appeal ventures, not one of them excites me. Maybe I’m just getting pickier in the second half of my life, but really… if Hollywood has any fresh ideas squirreled away in a metal building somewhere, it’s time to dig some out, because this coming weekend’s releases are all yawners.

First comes The Adventures of Tintin, a Steven Spielberg production that’s part Indiana Jones and part Toy Story. About the only thing I like about it, however, is that the script duties were handled by Steven Moffatt, current showrunner of Doctor Who.

Then there’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first US movie made from the Steig Larssen yawner of a trilogy. Sure, everyone’s bought it, but how many people have actually read this boring police procedural? It’s one of the least thrilling thrillers I’ve ever attempted to read. So, no, the film doesn’t excite me.

Finally, there’s the predictable liberal Animal Planet-friendly family comedy, We Bought a Zoo. Yeah, great. And instead of anyone actually funny, it stars Matt Damon. Whatever.

None of these are sequels and they are still epic fails.

Sherlock locks up pre-Christmas weekend

Robert Downey Jr. may have won the weekend with his SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS taking the top spot in US Box Office receipts, but the film only drew a paltry $40 million in its opening bow, well behind the pace set by his first Holmes film, which drew over $60 million domestically. Of course, no word on foreign box office receipts yet, and the film is expected to do well in Europe, especially the UK.

Worse off was the third Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, Chipwrecked. Despite boasting more screen time for Jason Lee, who was barely present in the second installment as Dave Seville, the movie took second place with $23.5 million domestically and $14 million in foreign markets for a total of $37.5 million… again well behind previous installments, both of which drew in the $40+ million range on their opening weekends.

Sensing a pattern here?

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL is another story. The film, budgeted at $140 million, drew only $13.6 million this weekend, but only appeared on a paltry 400+ screens. It boasted the healthiest per-screen average of the weekend, drawing over $30K per screen. And with $68.2 million in foreign receipts already, the film hasn’t yet “gone into wide release” in the US and has already made $81.8 million.

So, it’s doing well.

Nothing else broke the $10 million mark, and only last weekendd’s champ, the multi-star rom-com, New Year’s Eve, even came close with $7.4 million. After that, all other films couldn’t even reach $5 million.

Breaking Dawn, Part 1 takes box office by storm

Although it fell shy of the record set by the original TWILIGHT, BREAKING DAWN, PART 1 set the pace for box office last weekend, raking in $138 million in its first weekend of release. Nothing else even came close, so it appears none of the cast will ever need to utilized the services of Zyngle free online dating. Which is nice for them.

Happy Feet 2 did okay, thought, considering the movie casting its shadow over the weekend. The animated sequel debuted drawing $21.2 million. The much-hyped Immortals took third place with $12 million and change and still hasn’t come close to making its $75 million budget back. Adam Sandler’s JACK AND JILL drew $11 million in fourth place, while PUSS IN BOOTS, a spinoff of SHREK, drew $10 million.

Early indicators are that BREAKING DAWN Part 1 will dominate the long Thanksgiving Day weekend as well.

Murphy returning to comedy for grown-ups

If TOWER HEIST does well and Eddie Murphy starts doing slightly edgier material that’s actually funny, I’ll be a relatively happy viewer. From all the previews, it appears Murphy is returning to that 48 Hours template that made him a box office wunderkind in the 1980s.

It’s been quite a while since Murphy has been relevant on the comedy front, however. Between choosing bad projects like BOWFINGER and lots of innocuous family films that were good for what they were, but were not laugh-out-loud funny, Murphy’s appearance in TOWER HEIST looks like it could be part of a major comeback for him, a return that makes him relevant as Hollywood’s erstwhile King of Comedy.

Frankly, I’d welcome it. Too many comic actors have come and gone, ripping off Murphy’s basic act. But no one does Murphy like Murphy himself. It’s time for the master to best his students

Now, am I saying I want him to return to having every other word coming out of his mouth being a profanity? Or that he should wear cool t-shirts from foulmouthshirts.com?

No, not necessarily.

But he’s also been perhaps a bit too cautious in that area of late. If he can capture the witty anger of his youth, without necessarily all of the foul language, that’d be a great mix.

But am I ready for Murphy to return to being a king of comedy? You bet. Long live the king!

Puss In Boots tops Paranormal Activity

Apparently a cat in a hat is scarier that a couple of young girls. Antonio Bandares’ PUSS IN BOOTS animated film scared up around $33 million this weekend in its opening bow, and while Paranormal Activity 3 is still doing well, it wasn’t strong enough to fend off the puddy-tat.

Paranormal Activity 3, however, did cruise to an easy second place win, taking in $19 million on the weekend and likely a strong Halloween Monday on the way.

From the extreme to the extremely disappointing, SF action flick IN TIME finished just barely around $12 million, well below expectations and what they needed to make their budget back. The folks who put this one together will need to be wearing northface jackets to bear the chilly reception they’ll get at their next pitch meeting. Yikes!

Nothing else came near the $10 million weekend box office threshold.

ABC shows mostly doing well

Surprisingly, ABC has the fewest shows in danger of cancellation in the wake of Charlie’s Angels getting the ax. The shows in the most trouble are PAN AM and BODY OF PROOF, but those shows average around 1.8 to 1.9, with PAN AM on a steep decline after a 3.3 in its debut.

While the network is flying high thanks to EX-H20G, PAN AM and BODY OF PROOF follow shows that are much higher-rated and so viewer attrition could spell doom for these shows even if they dip no lower than they are now.

Beware, Harry’s Law and Prime Suspect

If you’re one of the few surviving fans of NBC, the cancellation of FREE AGENTS and THE PLAYBOY CLUB may extend the life of the network’s remaining scripted shows, if only for lack of ready-to-roll replacement shows.

Even so, fans of HARRY’S LAW may be next to grieve the show’s passing; after a comedy-centric first season, the show has once again devolved into a typical David E. Kelly lawyer show that pontificates in favor of left-wing agenda items even when the main lawyers on the show are arguing the other side of a case.

Those boring, pedantic, by-the-numbers speeches sap the show of its comedy vibe and could prove to be the death of it.

Meanwhile, the more appealing PRIME SUSPECT is proving that it’s hard to be an NBC cop drama without LAW AND ORDER in front of the title; the show is averaging a 1.3 to 1.8 on what has traditionally been NBC’s strongest night, and it benefits almost not at all from its strong lead-ins, COMMUNITY, PARKS AND RECREATION, THE OFFICE, and WHITNEY, losing almost a full ratings point most nights behind WHITNEY.

Still, Whitney and Community aren’t completely safe, either, and so the cast probably would do well not to invest in high-ticket items like Julbo sunglasses just yet.

Fringe again on the fringe … of cancellation

The J.J. Abrams sci-fi drama FRINGE seems to be suffering without Peter Bishop on the screen so far this season. The show is drawing steadily in the 1.2 to 1.5 range, which is dangerous territory. The network almost gave up on the show last spring before it rebounded late, saving itself from the ax.

Whether it remains through the season, however, is currently in doubt, and its producers may not like their season’s greetings cards this December, as they may well contain a pink slip for the show.