Cinematical

For all that I Am Legend imploded with that awful doctored ending, it was actually really interesting for a while -- mostly because both Will Smith and director Francis Lawrence were willing to go surprisingly far in suggesting that isolation had actually driven Smith's Robert Neville to no-kidding insanity. It's the kind of bold move that can make an otherwise frivolous summer blockbuster into something special.

It's promising, then, that Lawrence and Smith are looking to team up on a project that reads like one enormous bold gesture. The City That Sailed, which Lawrence has signed on to direct and develop for Smith to star in, is about a father and daughter who live on different continents, he in New York and she in England -- until the daughter's wish for a reunion is granted in the form of the island of Manhattan breaking off from the U.S. seaboard and carrying dad across the pond.

As expected, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen won't have the word of mouth to hang around Star Trek style, though its megaton opening has already made it the year's top grosser. It fell just over 60% in its second weekend to virtually tie with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' bow with $42.5 million in the estimates, though the final numbers will surely break the deadlock.* A 60% drop is by no means unusual for a movie that opened to well over $100 million, so don't think the drop is a badge of shame or anything. Mr. Bay is still very, very happy.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs, meanwhile, collected $67.5 million over the five-day holiday weekend. That's not a bad showing either; its franchise predecessor collected about that much in its first three-day weekend, but it had virtually no competition at the end of March in 2006. The third film's numbers are likely enough to keep the franchise alive.

I was impressed with the showing for Public Enemies, which really leveraged its cast and gangster movie hook to the tune of $26.2 million over three days, and $41 million over five. Michael Mann's current top box office performer is Collateral with just over $100 million; it's unclear that Public Enemies, which is lengthy, difficult and dark, will be able to hang on long enough to toy with that number. But I think it's already earned a minor victory.

*Edited to note: The deadlock was broken in favor of Transformers, $42.3 million vs. $41.7 million.

The full top 10 after the jump.

This column is so often steeped in skepticism that it's a relief to declare unequivocally: I cannot freakin' wait for this movie. Just as I was starting to think that the zombie sub-genre was becoming played – the recent trend toward athletic, lightning-quick zombies hasn't really cured the zombie movie's fundamental repetitiveness – World War Z threatens to revitalize (your gratitude for not writing "resurrect" or "reanimate") the genre by hauling it, straight-faced and dead serious, into the real world.

The first thing Brooks does is set ground rules. Once infected and undead, zombies are essentially monomaniacal brains unmoored from brains' normal contingencies – e.g. a pumping heart, a digestive system, oxygen. Until the brain itself is destroyed, it will stupidly, relentlessly pursue human flesh, using whatever parts of the original body remain at its disposal. Zombies move slowly, with arms – if available – raised toward their target. If a zombie finds prey, it will moan; if a nearby zombie hears a moan, it will move toward the source and let out a moan itself. You see how this could escalate.

Well, don't we all feel a little silly. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the movie that received the most hysterically negative reviews of 2009 opened to by far the year's biggest numbers -- $201 million since Wednesday, according to estimates. That's just a couple million shy of the first-five-days-of-release record set by The Dark Knight, though that movie opened on a Thursday. (It's tough to truly compare opening weekends of mega-blockbusters these days, since God knows on what day of the week they all hit theaters.) I hope everyone is looking forward to Transformers 3, where Autobots will discover fart jokes.

The only movie to dare take on Revenge of the Fallen in wide release, was the Nick Cassavetes weepie My Sister's Keeper, which opened to a respectable $12 million -- almost as strong as Cassavetes' The Notebook, though unlikely to be carried to an $80 million cume by good word-of-mouth. Year One took a big tumble, falling off 70% its middling opening; I guess Michael Cera and Jack Black aren't quite the automatic draw that battling cyborgs are. And The Hangover continues to ride a wave of audience goodwill; it will likely have reached $200 million by this time next weekend.

As for your weekly Up v. Finding Nemo update -- it's still neck-in-neck, with Nemo ahead by about $3 million after five weeks of release. If this weekend's heftier drop-off for Up is any indication, it may be starting to lose a little steam, which would mean that Nemo would get to hold on to the Pixar crown.

The full top 10 after the jump.

I wouldn't recommend actually sitting through Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to anyone. But in the abstract -- after you've been through the horrifying experience -- there are parts of the film that are so bizarre that the whole thing starts to look like the work of some sick, Andy Kaufman-esque jokester genius. And then it becomes kind of interesting. I mean, some of this stuff can't be for real... Can it?

1. Megan Fox's first appearance. See above. That is the first shot of Megan Fox in the film, as she works on a motorcycle in her family's garage while taking a call from boyfriend Shia LaBoeuf. Makes sense, right? Or do you not typically mount your motorcycle in that fashion, wearing knee-high boots and denim hot pants, to do some body work? If not, why not? Hysterical -- though I have to say that Michael Bay's leering at Fox throughout the movie eventually becomes a little uncomfortable. And if you didn't think it was possible for a director to leer at his star with the camera, Revenge of the Fallen proves you wrong.

2. The enormous Bad Boys II poster in Sam's dorm room. If it just appeared on someone's wall at a point in the film, that would be one thing -- a little arrogant, but not really notable. That's not what happens here. The poster for Bay's Bad Boys II -- presumably belonging to Sam's motormouth techie roommate -- is enormous, and fills the screen on at least two occasions. The self-regard is astounding. Has a director ever put in product placement for his other work in a movie before?

3. The obsession with things humping other things. It doesn't really matter what things. First, we see dogs going at it. Why? Because humping dogs are funny, that's why. Then, later, a miniature decepticon grinds against Megan Fox's leg. Why? I have no earthly idea. I guess Bay or his producers thought this would amuse someone, somewhere. Gotta spend $200 million somehow.

It may have seemed like an "off" week by summer standards in terms of releases, but two debuts and two strong holdovers meant that four films grossed $20 million or more, which is rare for a non-holiday weekend. The top dog, surprisingly, turned out to be The Proposal, which rode a genial marketing campaign and a set of sneak previews to $34 million dollars -- Sandra Bullock's best opening weekend ever, by far. (Related question: did Bullock "open" this movie? I'm inclined to think not, though it's a perfect role for her.)

Year One is a bit tougher to read. Certainly with the Cera/Black/Ramis combination, it was expected to open bigger. Generally poor reviews didn't help; I haven't seen the film, so I'm a bit handicapped in the analysis. If I had to guess, I'd say that people saw it as a bit of a novelty item. Silliness can be hard to sell if it's not low-brow.

But the weekend's real story, I'd say, is once again The Hangover, which stuck around in second place after dropping less than 20% in its third weekend. It's hard to find a precise analogue for it at this point; Box Office Mojo stretches with "R-rated summer comedy breakout," which category it will dominate after it speeds ahead of Wedding Crashers in about two weeks. The movie did add nearly 200 new screens; still, when people talk about word-of-mouth giving a movie legs, this is what they're hoping for.

Meanwhile, Up is now pretty much running neck-in-neck with Finding Nemo for the title of highest-grossing Pixar release. It will be close.

The full top 10 after the jump.

When he went on the Late Late Show to promote The Strain, Guillermo del Toro – who co-wrote his first novel with seasoned crime writer Chuck Hogan – told Craig Ferguson that his goal with the book was to reclaim vampire lore from the decidedly unmenacing lover-vampires popularized by Anne Rice and, God forbid, Stephenie Meyer. (Watch the Late Late Show excerpt below the jump – worth it just for Ferguson's uncannily accurate take on Twilight.) I do think he overstates his case a bit – the last decade has offered such a surfeit of vampire stories, that there would seem to be something for everyone (not least del Toro's own Blade II, easily the best of that franchise). Still, I'm grateful to have del Toro's twisted imagination provide an antidote to the glittering fairy-vampire nonsense everyone always insists on discussing these days.

The novel, which came out June 2nd, just popped up in the #9 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List. It's not every day that a filmmaker as worshipped as del Toro makes a popular literary foray, so I thought The Strain was worth talking about. It is not currently pegged for a film adaptation, but I suspect that won't remain the case for very long. Whatever its merits as a book, it would make a kickass horror flick.

The Hangover is officially the summer's biggest breakout hit. Its closest analogue is Wedding Crashers, which, four summers ago, was carried by positive word-of-mouth to a final gross nearly seven times its opening weekend. The Hangover has bigger raw numbers, but its second weekend drop -- 25% -- is comparable. For a film that opened to $45 million, and without any sort of holiday boost, that's pretty remarkable. It will have some competition next weekend in the form of Year One, but it may not matter much; its word-of-mouth appears to be the stuff that dreams are made of.

Pixar's Up is also going gangbusters in second place. It is now running a mere $4 million behind Pixar box office champion Finding Nemo. At this point it's anybody's game.

The weekend's two wide openers -- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Imagine That Imagine That opened pretty much to expectations. Pelham did a respectable $25 million, which is pretty close to previous Denzel Washington-Tony Scott collaborations (Man on Fire and Deja Vu). And Imagine That's $5.7 million pretty much precisely mirrors the opening of Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave this time next year. Murphy really needs to do something to shake things up a bit.

The full top 10 after the jump.

I like this James Franco chap. Always have. Part of it, I think, is that he never seems like he's slumming. It would have been real easy to phone in Harry Osborne in Spider-Man -- it seems like such a thankless role -- but he wound up giving one of the most finely calibrated performances in the franchise. It would have been even easier to milk his heartthrob qualities for a banal and lucrative career. Instead, he's constantly doing something challenging. And even when he's not, e.g. in total junk food like Annapolis, he tries to add value.

I think I like the guy even more after this story. Franco is enrolled in the masters program in directing at NYU -- points for both ambition ("I want to direct") and humility ("I need to learn how"). (Apparently he's also, simultaneously, getting his masters in English from Columbia, which is sort of insane.) Before heading off to film David Gordon Green's follow-up to Pineapple Express, Franco will headline a low-budget project directed by his professor, Jay Anania.

Anania -- little brother to Elizabeth Edwards, weird fact! -- last directed Martin Donovan and Olympia Dukakis in the little-seen Day of Fire, an avant-garde take on post-9/11 New York. The new movie, saddled with the rather precious title In Praise of Shadows, tells the story of a dude who returns to New York City after four years "in exile" (?) to rescue a woman from the mob.

I guess it helps to have a famous student -- especially one without a bloated ego.

Up's 35% second-weekend drop -- allowing it to barely hang on to first place with $44.2 million, at least according to Sunday estimates -- is remarkable, placing it very nearly in Finding Nemo territory. (It's currently running around $7 million behind Pixar's highest grosser.) I am loving Up's success, not just because it's a terrific film, but because it has the least obviously commercial concept Pixar's ever tackled. (Though, as I mentioned last week, Wall-E -- which Up will now surely top -- is actually the more challenging film.)

The Hangover, meanwhile, rode great buzz and good reviews to $43.3 million, which is the second highest opening weekend ever for an R-rated comedy, behind American Pie 2. (Unless you subscribe to the ludicrous notion that Sex and the City is a comedy, in which case it's third.) If you've seen the movie, you know why it's been rapturously received. If you haven't, you should.

On the other hand, Land of the Lost was punished by reviews and a muddled marketing message, landing in 3rd place with $19.5 million. The folks at Universal tried hard to push this into the summer blockbuster A-list, but I think they would have been better off pushing it as what it is: an above-average Will Ferrell comedy. As it stands, the funny film got its ass kicked by Semi-Pro, which is sort of unacceptable.

Drag Me to Hell had a disappointing second weekend, with hopes that good word-of-mouth would help it overcome its weak opening weekend evaporating. I suppose the movie was likely inexpensive enough that its $40-million-or-so domestic final won't be seen as a total bust.

Nia Vardalos' half-hearted comeback attempt My Life in Ruins grossed $3.2 million in 9th place, which is... exactly how much Connie & Carla made in its first weekend in 2004. Oh well.

The full top 10 after the jump.