Considering Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married (133 screens), Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky (60 screens), Penelope Cruz in Elegy (21 screens) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (52 screens), Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long (20 screens), Meryl Streep rising above the ineptitude of Mamma Mia! (178 screens), and several others, it has been an exceptionally good year for roles for women -- all except The Women (164 screens). To date, I've spent a good deal of time railing against that movie, without ever asking: what happened to some of those amazing actresses that they should end up here?

Meg Ryan, for example, was once a top star -- one of a trinity of "America's Sweethearts" (with Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock) -- and a sure thing. She was irresistibly adorable, and she mastered a kind of self-conscious, nervous eye-flick that won over audiences time and again. And she made her debut in the final film by George Cukor, for goodness sake! Her highest point was probably When Harry Met Sally... (1989), where her effortless performance was not as easy as it looked. She had a hard time branching out into serious films, mainly because her cute, sweet, funny quality made it seem as if she had a lack of depth, and she looked out of place in hardcore, delirious movies like The Doors (1991). Her last ten years has given us a string of flops. But I maintain that her best films are the ones that nobody understood.

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Not long ago, newspapers began showing signs of trouble, which included the laying off of film critics. At around the same time, and probably not connected in any way, studios began increasingly to open movies in theaters without screening for the press, realizing that stupid Tyler Perry movies, or horror remakes, or what have you, would probably make money regardless of what the reviews said. These combined factors led to a series of editorials asking about the necessity of film critics. Thankfully, that discussion has died down, and we're still here. And I can add that I don't think The Dark Knight (375 screens) would have done such monster business without the enthusiastic approval of nearly every critic on the planet.

But what needs to be discussed now is the necessity of directors. If film criticism was viewed yesterday as a job that anyone could do (no knowledge of film or film history necessary!) then film directing today is viewed in much the same way. Take a look at the colossal mess that is Mamma Mia! (279 screens). Here's a film that cost $50 million, and it was entrusted to Phyllida Lloyd, who had no experience. From the looks of things, Lloyd probably decided that, as long as it looks like everyone is having fun, then it doesn't matter if things like tone, moods and pacing ever matches up. You can have self-conscious musical numbers one moment, then moody, emotional ones the next. You can have a knockout performance by Meryl Streep and a mixed one by Pierce Brosnan.

Was it the controversy over the title? Or the controversy over the bloody tampon scene? Either way, Alan Ball's Towelhead finished the weekend with the best per-screen average of all films, earning $13,250 at four engagements in New York and Los Angeles, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Neither this flick, first unveiled at Toronto last year, nor Ball's recent return to HBO, Southern Gothic vampire drama True Blood, have drawn unanimous critical praise, but specialty audiences still seem interested in whatever the American Beauty scribe / Six Feet Under creator is doing.

Speaking of directors with a strong following, Takeshi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django expanded to Los Angeles and maintained a healthy $4,200 per-screen average in its third week of release. Also in its third week, comedy I Served the King of England expanded into 37 locations but hasn't picked up much steam ($2,262 per screen), while steady earners Tell No One ($2,263 per screen; 11th week), Frozen River ($2,011 per screen; 7th week), Elegy ($1,948 per screen; 6th week), and Vicky Cristina Barcelona ($1,724; 5th week) all saw somewhat predictable declines in business. After all, sex and thrills only go so far among indie filmgoers.

Our criteria for inclusion in the Indie Weekend Box Office report hinges on the distributor, so here's another shout out to the #1 overall earner, Burn After Reading, from Focus Features. Likewise, soon-to-shutter Picturehouse released Diane English's The Women on the largest number of of screens they've ever handled -- 2,962 -- resulting in a per-screen average of $3,405. The picture earned more than $10 million total.

It would be nice to be able to say that the Coens are finally getting some drawing power, but I suspect the insane cast of Burn After Reading -- Pitt, Clooney, Malkovich, Swinton, McDormand -- had something to do with its exceptionally strong $19.4 million bow, the Coens' strongest ever. It barely beat out The Family That Preys, which opened to $18.02 -- slightly below par for Tyler Perry, though still nabbing the highest per-screen average in the top 10 on just over 2000 screens.

The third-place, $16.5 million take for Righteous Kill seems about right: a compromise between the draw of De Niro and Pacino, and the toxic buzz surrounding the film. As for The Women, $10 million isn't exactly gangbusters, but probably more than Picturehouse had any right to expect given that the movie came out of nowhere.

Anna Faris's The House Bunny has turned into a minor hit; it took a 22% drop from last weekend, and has passed the $40 million mark. Not bad for a late-August release with no real star power. Bangkok Dangerous is dead in the water, dropping from 4th to 8th place; it will top out at around $15 million.

And I can't resist noting what happened to Proud American, the patriotic half-doc that was dumped into 750 screens this weekend by Slowhand Cinema. It landed below the top 25, with $135,000 and a $180 per-screen average. That's for the whole weekend. If you take $6.50 as an average ticket price (a bit below the actual average, but probably reasonable given that the interest for this film was probably not in major metropolitan markets), that's comes out to an awesome 28 people per theater, and around 2 people per show. Whoo!

The full estimates after the jump.

Whether you like it or not, the success of Sex and the City has breathed new life into the so-called 'chick flick' landscape (heck, it even gave The Women another shot at the multiplex). So get ready for more 'Ya-Ya Sisterhood' on the big screen, because Hollywood is finally starting to figure out that women like to go to the movies. Next up, according to Variety, is Lauren Weisberger's novel Chasing Harry Winston for Universal and Mandalay Pictures. You might recognize Weisberger as the author of the best-selling novel, The Devil Wears Prada, and Winston is her latest book to spend some time on the NYT's best-seller list.

Winston "revolves around three young women who each vow to change their entire lives for the better in the course of the next year" -- and you can probably guess how each of them is going to 'change' their lives. One glance at the cover art gives this gal a quick education in what this book probably has in store for its readers. Gina Wendkos (The Princess Diaries) has already been signed to write the script, and Andy Tennant will direct.

The addition of Tennant is probably where the last of any desire I might have had to watch this movie disappears all together. Call me judgmental if you must, but Tennant was the director behind films like Sweet Home Alabama, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Fools Gold; so I doubt this film is going to deviate from form. Plus, if you are anything like me (and I know there has to be some of you out there) this current crop of 'movies for girls' is starting to get a little insulting. I like shopping as much as the next girl, but there is more to our gender than marriage-mania and rampant consumerism; isn't there?

The gimmick of The Women is that no men appear anywhere in it -- not as background extras, not as voices on the phone, nowhere. It's all women, all the time. Which might sound empowering and feminist, except that the women are all shallow, vain, and petty, and their primary topic of conversation is, you guessed it, men. (Also: shoes, manicures, shopping, facelifts, etc.) If this were any other film, I suspect women would be complaining about Hollywood's sexism and misogyny. But hey, we men had nothing to do with this one. This one is all you.

Written and directed by Murphy Brown creator Diane English as an update of the 1939 George Cukor comedy (itself based on a Clare Boothe Luce play), the film establishes its tone in its first scene, with two women walking their dogs in New York City. The dogs fight, and the women, their faces invisible to us, respond cattily to one another. One remarks that the other's shoes are "last season," then confides to her dog that the other woman is "a word not usually heard outside a kennel." I think that's supposed to be a joke, but if the word she's referring to is "bitch," then I've got news for her about how its usage has spread.

And that's the movie: women harping on and mistreating one another, and cracking jokes that aren't funny.

Box office numbers were way down this week, letting Bangkok Dangerous take the top spot with a figure that is frankly nothing to brag about. Here's the rundown:

1. Bangkok Dangerous: $7.8 million
2. Tropic Thunder: $7.2 million
3. The Dark Knight: $5.5 million
4. The House Bunny: $5.5 million
5. Traitor: $4.2 million

We've got five new releases this week. Will any of these be able to bolster a sagging box office? Let's see.

Burn After Reading
What's It All About: In the newest film from Ethan and Joel Coen, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand star as health club employees who find a CD full of classified information left behind by a CIA agent played by John Malkovich. George Clooney also stars.
Why It Might Do Well: This is an awesome cast and those are the No Country For Old Men guys behind the camera. The film also scored a 75% Fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Jennifer Aniston's followers may not have forgiven Brad yet.
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $12 million

I guess we won't be seeing the first female President of the United States in 2009, but we could at least see the first female cinematographer nominated for an Academy Award (in the cinematography category, that is). In the 80 years of the Oscars there hasn't been one female nominee for Best Cinematography. Shocking, isn't it? But fortunately there's a chance for next year's ceremony: Mandy Walker, who shot Baz Luhrman's war epic Australia, could be a shoo-in for one of the five nomination slots if the film is Oscar-worthy in general.

The Oscar blog In Contention points out the possibility in a recent post celebrating Walker's reception Tuesday evening of the Kodak Vision Award at the Women in Film's Crystal + Lucy Awards (other honorees included Salma Hayek, Sherry Lansing, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Diane English and the ensemble of The Women). Clearly we only need to look at the trailer to see that Walker's work on the film is gorgeous and might have a shot. In Contention also notes Walker's previous achievements, such as her Independent Spirit Award nomination for Shattered Glass.

Before we get the sequel to and the potential copiers of Sex and the City, we're in for a summer of comparative marketing. Already we've seen a new trailer for The Women, which arrived well-timed on the heels of the Sex in the City box office reports. Now, thanks to some insightful reporting from the New York Times, we find out that Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is just like Sex and the City, only its for little girls. Like the recent hit movie, Kit Kittredge comes with a built-in audience thanks to the successful American Girl property, which consists of dolls, books and TV movies. Also, yes, it's mainly for females. Oh, and it's a Picturehouse release, meaning its pretty much being released by the same studio (New Line, now a division of Warner Bros.) that brought us Sex and the City.

Interestingly enough, The Women is also Picturehouse, and this summer's other big female-geared movie, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, is Warner Bros. Hopefully another article can point out that the sequel is just like Sex and the City, only for teen girls. Then all we'd need is for Warner Bros. to make my desired big-screen Golden Girls movie (with original cast, of course), because it'd be just like Sex and the City, only for older girls. Unfortunately the series was produced by Disney, who'd likely hold on to the film rights.

No, I'm not talking about Paul McCartney and Wings' "Venus and Mars" (though that is a pretty awesome tune). I suppose you would be hard pressed to find a movie with no romantic angle at all, but these five trailers focus specifically on male/female relationships.

Nights in Rodanthe
No, this doesn't have anything to do with that radioactive pterodactyl occasionally seen hanging out with Godzilla (that's Rodan to the uninitiated). Actually this one (which Erik first posted about here) stars Richard Gere as a doctor on his way to reconcile with his son. His trip takes an unexpected turn when he begins a love affair with an innkeeper whose loveless marriage is on the skids. Christopher Meloni plays the estranged husband, which doesn't seem all that different from his role on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. It looks like a competent production, but it just reeks of Bridges of Madison County. There may be something worthwhile here, but it's not my cup of tea.

He's Just Not That Into You
If nothing else, the cast of this adaptation of the novel by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo will make you sit up and take notice. Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, and Justin Long star with Barrymore also producing. The film follows several interconnecting stories, with the trailer showing us several romantic missteps that could easily come from any romantic comedy, but the cast is so top-notch that I find myself wanting to see more. This one hits theaters on October 24. Here's Elisabeth's take on the trailer.