Madagascar 3 Cages Prometheus

Weekend Recap: 6/8-10/2012

Madagascar 3 (review coming soon) ruled the box office big tent this weekend, bringing in $60.4 million from 4,258 theaters. The weekend’s other wide release, Prometheus (review here), also did well, especially for an R-rated film since its audience is limited, grossing $50 million from 3,396 theaters (barely giving it a better per-location average than Madagascar 3). After being released internationally a week ago, the overall total for Prometheus is $91.5 million.

Snow White and the Huntsman (review here) continues to do well, taking in $23 million this weekend for a domestic total of $98.5 million and a worldwide total of $182 million. Men in Black 3 (review here) took fourth place with $13.5 million for a domestic take of $135.5 million and an overall gross of $488 million.

Marvel’s The Avengers (review here) brought in $10.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $571.9 million and one step closer to Titanic’s record of the second highest-grossing movie ever domestically ($658.5 million). Worldwide, The Avengers has grossed $1.4 billion, again in third place behind Titanic ($2.185 billion).

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (review here) took in $3.2 million for sixth place, while What to Expect When You’re Expecting (review here), Battleship (review here), and The Dictator (review here) each earned over $2 million for seventh, eight, and ninth place respectively. Battleship has performed the best out of those, having grossed $295.4 million worldwide. The Top Ten was rounded out by Moonrise Kingdom with $1.6 million from only 96 theaters, giving it the best per-location average of the weekend.

Meanwhile, The Hunger Games (review here) finally crossed the $400 million mark domestically, one of only 14 films to ever do so. In limited release, Safety Not Guaranteed brought in $100 thousand from nine theaters (an average of $11,111 per location) and Lola Versus grossed $34 thousand from only 4 theaters (an average of $8,500 per location).

Here’s a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films domestically:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	Madagascar 3	$60.4 million	$14,173	$60.4 million
2	Prometheus	$50 million	$14,723	$50 million
3	Snow White & the Huntsman	$23 million	$6,089	$98.5 million
4	Men in Black 3	$13.5 million	$3,560	$135.5 million
5	Marvel’s The Avengers	$10.8 million	$3,451	$571.9 million
6	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$3.2 million	$2,492	$31 million
7	What to Expect When You’re Expecting	$2.7 million	$1,298	$35.7 million
8	Battleship	$2.3 million	$1,170	$59.8 million
9	The Dictator	$2.2 million	$1,302	$55.2 million
10	Moonrise Kingdom	$1.6 million	$16,443	$3.8 million

Newly Familiar

Review: Prometheus

“Newly familiar” would be the oxymoronic phrase I would use to describe the exciting new movie, Prometheus. The film feels like the old school science fiction/horror movies we love, but still individualizes itself enough to stand alone, with only minor issues.

Consider, for a moment, the classics of this genre. Predator. The Thing. And of course, the film to which Prometheus is a kind-of prequel: Alien.

There’s a formula to these films that works. A minimalist approach, which never reveals too much too soon. A menace unknown, creating a mounting tension in the film that threatens to break even the bravest of viewers. Prometheus develops a similar atmosphere.

There were multiple times in the film, and one scene in particular, when I looked around the theater for assurance that I wasn’t the only one with gasped breath, knuckles white from gripping the armrests. I wasn’t. You know you’ve engaged an audience when they want to cover their eyes, but peer through their fingers anyways, because they so strongly want to know what happens.

The plot, too, is familiar. A space team, questioning if humanity may have originated in the stars, slowly begins to realize, as casualties mount and the size of their party dwindles, that they are in danger from alien life. The members of the space team are those we have come to expect: an eager scientist, a mysterious A.I. robot, a daring captain, and a calculating business executive. All the ingredients for a classic are there.

Weekend Preview 6/8-10/2012

Bel Ami: A chronicle of a young man's rise to power in Paris via his manipulation of the city's most influential and wealthy women.

Dark Horse: Romance blooms between two thirty-somethings in arrested development: an avid toy collector and a woman who is the dark horse of her family.

For the Love of Money: Spanning over two decades, "For the Love of Money" follows the true account of an Israeli immigrant who searches for his piece of the American dream.

Lola Versus: Dumped by her boyfriend just three weeks before their wedding, Lola enlists her close friends for a series of adventures she hopes will help her come to terms with approaching 30 as a single woman.

Madagascar 3: Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple. Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent - Madagascar style.

Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding: An uptight NYC lawyer takes her two teenagers to her hippie mother's farmhouse upstate for a family vacation.

Prometheus: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Safety Not Guaranteed: Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.