Chick Flick Triumphs Over Dick Flick at Weekend Box Office ...
Eric Shapiro - NY Press - 8/16/2010
1980s action heroes are apparently just as invincible at the 2010 box office as they were in their movies decades ago. Sylvestor Stallone’s The Expendables steamrolled over all of the competition this weekend, including the similarly star-studded Eat Pray Love, raking in $35 million. The writer and director claims to already have a sequel “plotted out” in his “mind’s eye.” “I believe this group has to continue to evolve; it just can't become the same people. So how do you get new people introduced into the group, and how do you have some of the other people leaving? Those are the challenges,” Stallone said. Does this mean balls-out; vaguely homoerotic action movies are coming back into style? Don’t tell the American Psychological Association.
Eat Pray Love, directed by Ryan Murphy (creator of Glee) and starring Julia Roberts, came in second place despite poor reviews. Personally, I get a little thrill every time a chick flick isn’t super successful. Perhaps it has something to do with all the repressed rage that I’ve accumulated as a result of being forced to sit through so many of them… usually when my dad usurps control of the remote.
If this weekend’s box office results portend the dominance of dick flicks over chick flicks, then I’m happy. Or at least moderately pleased. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t affect me all that much. I’ll still be forced to endure the uncomfortable seats at the Angelika when I want to see a good movie. Whoever had the idea of building that theater right over a subway tunnel should be walked in on when they’re sitting on a toilet at the very same establishment because its owners are too damn cheap to fix the lock (it happened to me, and it can happen to you!) And that’s in spite of the fact that they have a monopoly on so many indie movies in New York City. But I’m getting sidetracked.
The critically lauded Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, adapted from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series by director Edgar Wright, earned a paltry $10.5 million. Could it be that everyone’s getting sick of Michael Cera playing the same damn role in every movie? Or just sick of Michael Cera in general? Maybe I’m just projecting…
1980s action heroes are apparently just as invincible at the 2010 box office as they were in their movies decades ago. Sylvestor Stallone’s The Expendables steamrolled over all of the competition this weekend, including the similarly star-studded Eat Pray Love, raking in $35 million. The writer and director claims to already have a sequel “plotted out” in his “mind’s eye.” “I believe this group has to continue to evolve; it just can't become the same people. So how do you get new people introduced into the group, and how do you have some of the other people leaving? Those are the challenges,” Stallone said. Does this mean balls-out; vaguely homoerotic action movies are coming back into style? Don’t tell the American Psychological Association.
Eat Pray Love, directed by Ryan Murphy (creator of Glee) and starring Julia Roberts, came in second place despite poor reviews. Personally, I get a little thrill every time a chick flick isn’t super successful. Perhaps it has something to do with all the repressed rage that I’ve accumulated as a result of being forced to sit through so many of them… usually when my dad usurps control of the remote.
If this weekend’s box office results portend the dominance of dick flicks over chick flicks, then I’m happy. Or at least moderately pleased. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t affect me all that much. I’ll still be forced to endure the uncomfortable seats at the Angelika when I want to see a good movie. Whoever had the idea of building that theater right over a subway tunnel should be walked in on when they’re sitting on a toilet at the very same establishment because its owners are too damn cheap to fix the lock (it happened to me, and it can happen to you!) And that’s in spite of the fact that they have a monopoly on so many indie movies in New York City. But I’m getting sidetracked.
The critically lauded Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, adapted from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series by director Edgar Wright, earned a paltry $10.5 million. Could it be that everyone’s getting sick of Michael Cera playing the same damn role in every movie? Or just sick of Michael Cera in general? Maybe I’m just projecting…