BeverlyHillsChihuahua Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Australia
This felt like it would be one of those epic films that came, saw, and conquered. In the past, Baz Luhrman has made some impressive shows, from star-crossed lovers to sexy dancing and pop tunes, but Australia never knew what it wanted to be, and suffered for it. As JMA wrote in his review: "It's too bad that he had to waste the all-encompassing title Australia on such a mixed mess." Skip it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jeffrey M. Anderson's Review

Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Where one like Australia fizzled, Beverly Hills Chihuahua shocked even Eric D. Snider: "[it] isn't the braying, garish nightmare that the trailers make it out to be, or that we've come to expect from Disney's live-action-excrement factory." Rent it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Eric D. Snider's Review

Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective
I can only hope that this film isn't the first in a long line of comedic offspring: Zoolander: Mini Male Models, Step Brothers: When Kids are Kids. Unsurprisingly, Cinematical never reviewed this gem of a film, but you can read through our news about it here. Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
Right in time for the long-awaited release of Watchmen, we're getting the complete motion comic. Now this isn't an entirely animated film, but rather the comic amped up with some movement and a voiceover. DVD Talk says: "these motion comics offer up a unique presentation of the material that is just about as faithful as anything short of a reprint could be, while still offering something new." But there are faults, like Tom Stechschulte voicing ALL of the characters, even the women, but it still looks worthwhile. Rent it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Buy at Amazon

The top two films at the box office this weekend couldn't be more different -- which might help explain why both had such strong starts. The third film in the Disney Channel's wholesome, wildly popular High School Musical franchise, and the first to hit theaters, had a $42 million debut, and will go on to be at least as wildly profitable as its predecessors. $30.5 million for Saw V is basically in line with its three immediate predecessors, all of which had first weekends between $31 and $33 million. The films' final grosses have been steadily declining since the second film, however, with the most recent entry dropping like a rock and managing only $63 million total. We'll see if that trend continues. I'd say, though, that this debut guarantees a sixth Saw for next Halloween. As Eric wrote yesterday, it is now the most lucrative horror franchise in film history.

The only other new wide release this weekend was Pride & Glory, which New Line more or less dumped. It did a predictably weak $6.3 million, good enough for fifth place.

Oliver Stone's W. took a big hit, as the people who needed to see it apparently saw it last weekend. It dropped nearly 50%, with a $25-28 million finish looking likely. Max Payne held up even worse after last week's strong debut. Meanwhile, two films from the early fall doldrums continue to emerge as success stories: Eagle Eye and Beverly Hills Chihuahua are both still hanging around, and both looking to reach $100 million before all is said and done.

In 20th place, Clint Eastwood's Changeling made a strong limited bow: half a million on fifteen screens, for $33,000 per screen. It goes wide next week. A bit further down, the annual rerelease of Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D couldn't do much business, ending up with $372,000 on almost 300 screens.

The full estimates after the jump.

Well, what do you know: I was right, sort of! Oliver Stone's W. didn't remotely flop. Its $10.6 million opening weekend on just over 2,000 screens is very respectable for a political, current-events-themed drama. In case you're just joining us, those have not been doing well. W. was a couple million away from matching the first weekend gross of the Scott-DiCaprio-Crowe offering Body of Lies (which fell to sixth place this week). Of course, conservative blogs are already spinning its (completely unsurprising) slip from second place on Friday to fourth for the weekend as some sort of referendum on Oliver Stone's politics. Fat chance.

There were other winners this weekend. $18 million is a good number for an inexpensive actioner like Max Payne, though if you think it underperformed a bit you're probably right. $11.1 million in semi-wide release for The Secret Life of Bees is gold. Beverly Hills Chihuahua continues to do well, approaching $70 million. Even Eagle Eye is still kicking down in fifth place; it'll just miss the $100 million mark.

The weekend's only flop was such a foregone conclusion it can hardly be called a flop. Summit's Sex Drive opened to 9th place with $3.6 million. With no stars and no real marketing hook (choosing a picture of the protagonist in a donut suit as the film's main piece of branding probably wasn't the best thing), it could have been worse, and the thing will break even eventually.

The full estimates after the jump.

Eric D. Snider tried his best to trick me into watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua this week. It didn't work on me, but it worked on millions of Snider acolytes all over North America, who joined forces to give the talking-animals kidflick a strong $29 million, first-place debut. I didn't see it, as I say, so it would be wrong for me to bemoan the decline of civilization that this surely (if unsurprisingly) represents. Feel free to do so in the comments.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist opened to $12 million and third place, which I'd have to say is okay for the low-profile, borderline-niche film. That number, though not terribly impressive, is actually a fair testament to Michael Cera's star power, since his presence was literally the only mass-marketable aspect of the movie. So the debut is at least a draw for Sony.

It was an interesting weekend in that there were several films opening in, or expanding into, semi-wide release. The biggest winner of that bunch has to be Religulous, Bill Maher's aggressively anti-faith documentary, which did $3.5 million on around 500 screens for $6,972 per screen. Given the preaching-to-the-relatively-small-choir quality of the film, I don't expect it to hold up too well in the weeks ahead, but this level of interest is a mild surprise. Facing off against Religulous ideologically was David Zucker's conservative spoof An American Carol which, according to the estimates, edged out Religulous with $3.8 million on over 1,600 screens.

Ed Harris's lightweight western Appaloosa expanded to roughly 1,000 screens and took in $5 million -- which is okay, but seems like a missed opportunity. Faring worse were Flash of Genius (1100 screens) and Blindness (1700), with $2.3 and $2 million respectively, both landing outside the top 10. The grim Blindness was a no-sale from the beginning, especially since the critics never got on board, but the unabashedly populist Flash of Genius underperformed. Maybe the ads emphasized windshield wipers too much.

A bit more plus the weekend's top 12 after the jump.

Chalk up another number one opener for Shia Labeouf as Eagle Eye took the top spot with Richard Gere's romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe sliding into second. Here's the top five:

1. Eagle Eye: $29 million
2. Nights in Rodanthe: $13.4 million
3. Lakeview Terrace: $6.9 million
4. Fireproof: $6.8 million
5. Burn After Reading: $6 million

We've got a whopping six new releases this week, so let's get started...


How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
What's It All About: Simon Pegg stars as a small time gossip journalist from England who joins the staff of a prestigious New York magazine and proceeds to piss off a lot of people.
Why It Might Do Well: Dude, it's Simon Pegg.
Why It Might Not Do Well: No zombies or cricket bats in sight.
Number of Theaters: 1,750
Prediction: $6 million

Both of the upcoming animated releases that aren't Wall-E or Space Chimps got new trailers yesterday. Here's one for Igor (and here's a link to the poster we premiered a few weeks ago), and here's one for Kung Fu Panda.

Kung Fu Panda looks like it'll be just a step or two above -- *shudder* -- Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Igor, on the other hand, looks like a charmer: the premise is inherently nerdy, requiring viewers to think back to the original Frankenstein films (or at least Young Frankenstein, or Van Helsing in a pinch) to get the joke, and the trailer has a few big laughs.

The biggest upside of Kung Fu Panda coming out on June 6th: those of us who frequent AMC Theaters will no longer have to endure the Kung Fu Panda-themed pre-movie interlude exhorting viewers to shut up. I'm not sure how many more times I can listen to Jack Black tell me that he can hear me texting before I have an aneurysm. But I guess I should be grateful AMC is no longer airing that horrid Three Doors Down "Citizen Soldier" video pimping the National Guard (because no one screams "role model" to teenagers like the lead singer of Three Doors Down). That thing gave me nightmares.