HollywoodIdiocy.com

The IQ of the US box office has risen to Steve Carell levels; the comic actor’s tribute to the 1965 Don Adams spy comedy, “Get Smart,” ruled at the box office this weekend, drawing in an estimated $39.1 million. Adams, who died on September 27, 2005, revised his role for the first silver-screen adaptation of the classic TV series in 1980, The Nude Bomb, but the movie was a critical and box office failure. The Carell version has been panned by critics, but with a nearly $40M weekend, it seems America doesn’t care what the critics say; they like Carell.

The whole Ademco link to Carell’s career might eventually become complete if Carell ever hosts a TV reality show that allows middle Americans to audition for a chance to get their big break in Hollywood; Don Adams had minor success with that concept on CBS in the early 1970s with “Don Adams’ Screen Test” and given the current trend of reality programming, bringing the concept back with Carell as host might not be an altogether bad idea. Only, of course, once Carell’s career cools down, which at the moment it shows no signs of doing.

Elsewhere on the weekend box office results, Kung Fu Panda ($21.7 million) eked out a narrow victory for second place behind Incredible Hulk ($21.5 million), which easily took third. Hulk raked in an extra $30 million from foreign box office so far, to bring its total to date to $127 million.

Mike Myers’ The Love Guru bombed out of the gate with a weak $14 million showing, although its light, $62 million production budget helps alleviate some of the disappointment; the movie seems to suffer mostly from Myers’ long absence from the silver screen, which led to him seeming more like “yesterday’s news” than “the hot, happening comic of the moment.” Rock on, Steve Carell.

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening held tight to the last spot in the top five, with a $10 million weekend. So far the film has grossed $50.2 million domestically and $31.5 overseas, for a tidy $81.7 million gross against a $62 million budget, putting the film into the black in only its second week of release.

The rest of the “million or more” club goes like this: sixth place, Indiana Jones, $8.4 million; seventh place, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, $7.2 million (which has been weak overseas as well, grossing only $4.5 million so far, for a total of $88 million combined, against a $90 million production budget); eighth place, Sex and the City, $6.4 million; ninth place, Iron Man, $4 million; tenth place, The Strangers, $1.9 million and eleventh place, Prince Caspian, $1.7 million.

There are some Orlando vacations in the futures of all the folks involved in making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The three-day total for Indy 4’s first weekend of release has reached an impressive $101 million domestically. With a Thrusday debut and a Memorial Day Monday added in, the film is set to make big bucks by the end of tonight.

With Monday total not yet in, Spielberg-Lucas-Ford action flick has so far grosses $126 million domestically and $146 million overseas, for a grand total of over $272 million combined; not bad for a movie that had a production budget of $185 million.

Prince Caspian, the second film in the Narnia Chronicles, based on the series of children’s stories by C.S. Lewis, did well enough to retain second place, but at $23 million, saw a huge, 58-percent dropoff from its debut week. Boasting a production budget of $200 million, Prince Caspian’s two-week total is $96 million domestically, and $22 million overseas, for a disappointing two-week total of only $118 million. This could make it difficult for the sequel to make its money back prior to DVD release.

That’s not a problem for Iron Man, which held on to the third spot in the box office race with an additional $20 million domestically. In release not for over three weeks, Iron man has taken in $257 million domestically and $228 million oveseas, for a staggering total of just inter $486 million; considering the film’s relatively slim $140 million budget, Iron Man stands now shoulder-to-shoulder with Spider-Man as one of Marvel Studios’ most profitable franchises.

What Happens in Vegas made just over $9 million in fourth place and then there was a huge dropoff as Speed Racer couldn’t even draw $4 million to take fifth place. Speed Races has only barely topped $36 million, contrasted to its $120 million budget, guaranteeing its stink-bomb status in this summer movie season; even with foreign box office added in, the film has barely made half of its investment back, at $61 million, and with business dropping like a rock, the best hope for producers to make their money back on Speed Racer is DVD/Blu-Ray sales.

This coming weekend is likely to be the least competitive of May, as Sex and the City and the thriller The Strangers are the only two new entries; both flicks seem unlikely to unseat Indy 4, and depending on the dynamics of the weekend, could potentially have trouble unseating Prince Caspian and Iron Man from the Top 3 spots as well.

Actress Sandra Bullock and her husband emerged unharmed after a car crash late Friday night. Bullock and her husband, Jesse James, were passengers in an SUV when a car driven by Lucille Gatchell crossed the center line, striking their vehicle.

Gatchell, 64, of Gloucester, MA, blew a 0.20 on an alcohol breath test following the accident, according to police reports, almost three times the legal limit. Both vehicles were totalled, but no one in either vehicle was hurt, thankfully. Both vehicles were reported to be traveling about 15-20 MPH at the time of the crash, which probably contributed to the lack of injuries.

Bullock is in Massachusetts making a new romantic comedy, The Proposal. As for the accident, it is generally believed that the failed movie 28 Days did more damage to her, but it’s unlikely Gatchell will be able to get a reasonable life insurance quote any time soon.

Raking in more than $20.8 million this weekend, the martial arts movie The Forbidden Kingdom bested all comers to take the top spot at the box office. The action flick eked out a victory over the Judd Apatow comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which came in at a still-nice $17.3 million in its intial debut to take second place.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall cost approximately twice that to make, so the film is expected to recover its budget at the box office, which means the studio won’t be making their budget software work overtime to help the flick break even; the breakup comedy stars How I Met Your Mother co-star Jason Segel as the victim of a breakup. His unrequited love is played ably by Veronic Mars and Heroes actress Kristen Bell, while Segal’s rebound girl is played by former That 70s Show and Family Guy star, Mila Kunis.

Both films pushed the Prom Night remake back to third place, where it posted a respectable week two draw of $9.1 million. The Al Pacino thriller 88 Minutes came in a distant fourth at $6.8 million which probably doesn’t even cost Pacino’s retainer to appear in the film, let alone his full salary.

The self-important George Clooney saw his Leatherheads farce drop to 10th place in its third week of release, and still hasn’t made even half of its $58 million budget back.

The Riedel-sipping Elton John spent the weekend shilling for Sen. Hilllary Rodham and took the occassion to Reagan-bash, even though the Gipper’s been in the ground for at least a couple years now, and out of power for 20 years.

John’s complaint, of course, was the old saw about how Reagan “did nothing” about AIDS. Yawn. The last time EJ’s been relevent in his political commentary is also about as long ago as the last time the Brit pop tart had a solid hit record.

Like Striesand, Manilow and countless other no longer relevant liberals, they tell you exactly how they feel about everything … so long as it’s 20 years after the fact and the person they’re hating on is no longer alive to defend himself.

Courage.

Charlton Heston, the actor that at least three generations of moviegoers associate with as the voice and face of the Biblical figure Moses, passed away this past weekend at the age of 84. In addition to his role in The Ten Commandments, Heston will be remembered for his roles in other Biblical epics like The Greatest Story Ever Told and Ben Hur.

Heston also spent a lot of time in science fiction films, most notably in the Planet of the Apes movies of the 1970s, as well as Soylent Green and The Omega Man. In his later years, he became politically active as one of the few “out of the cloest” political conservatives in liberal Hollywood.

While active in the National Rifle Association and serving as president of that organization for a time, Heston made famous the line that “they” could take is gun, “when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” Gun enthusiasts, Bible film enthusiasts and political conservatives will feel the loss most sharply as they are the most likely to memorialize Heston as the wallpaper image on their LCD mount.

One of Heston’s best-known screen appearances in his later years came in the SNL film, Wayne’s World. When Wayne and Garth stop at a gas station to ask directions to find a church, a feeble old man hesitatingly starts stumbling through his lines; suddenly, Mike Myers breaks character and asks if “we can get a better actor.” The old man is hustled away and Heston steps in, delivering the same lines with such emotion that it leaves Wayne and Garth in tears.

It was a movie moment that paid tribute to Heston’s acting ability even after he became outspoken on his conservatism and was officially “on the outs” with Hollywood.

Whether your entertainment tastes run toward Saw IV or The Girl With the Pearl Necklace… or was that earring?… movies or TV, late-night talkers or early-morning gab fests, there could soon be a whole lot less entertainment going on if last-minute negotiations between Hollywood producers and the Writers Guild of America fail to produce a compromise deal.

The stakes are large.

On the one hand, writers are the lifeblood of ideas that flows through the Hollywood circulatory system, yet the in-force deal with Hollywood cuts them out of a share in DVD, wireless and Internet sales produced as a result of their efforts. There is a reasonable case to be made that they should have their fair share.

The question at stake is, how much?

After a previous negotiation failed to produce the desired results several years ago, WGA members feel they are owed a larger portion to make up for all the extra royalties they’ve missed out on as DVD, wireless and Internet distribution has boomed, enriching producers.

Producers, naturally, want to give up as little as possible - preferably, nothing.

By standing too firm, neither side will gain. As work slows and ultimately grinds to a halt, competition from unscripted reality programming, videogames, music, Internet and other forms of entertainment threaten to gain ground against an already-dwindling TV and movie-going audience. Hit shows now boast ratings that, even 10 years ago, would have made them cancellation fodder. The question producers must ask is whether they can afford to allow a long work stoppage to give consumers an extended period to discover and become distracted by other forms of entertainment.

Writers, however, must be careful not to overreach; while they certainly must be entitled to a fair share of the profits from such new revenue streams, they must remain realistic in how large that “fair share” might be.

My estimation is that a livable deal will give writers a standardized royalty for such new revenues streams that are in line with current royalty rates from other, existing revenue streams. And producers must face the fact that they can’t hog all the profit pie to themselves, when what they are profiting on is the intellectual property of others.

It’s a lesson as simple as kindergarten: if you’re going to bring cookies to class, bring enough so that everyone can have some.