As for the coming weekend, I don’t recall a major clamoring for a new Men in Black film; although the effects look rather impressive, and I love Josh Brolin’s impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones. Chernobyl Diaries could go either way, and I’m leaning towards the other way.

Men in Black III – $85m (although my gut tells me closer to $72m)
Chernobyl Diaries – $15m

I don’t get the bashing (maybe 4 episodes ago) of American Reunion
-box office mojo lists $172million total gross, cost $50 million, if we add $50 million marketing costs, and then factor in the sharing of the gross with theatres – it has pocketed 30-40 million
-this is before DVD/home market revenue where we know it will sell well.
-I think there will be a few more of these – it has not lost money. The trend is to make loads on disc sales (as Kevin Smith does – Smith says it’s a hidden tally, he has made more on disc sales than theatrical on his movies)

Death of Theatres:
- the mammo podcast 253 talked abut the death of the theatre – is now, just a matter of time until they all close shop. The guys say people want to enjoy stuff at home by streaming/waiting for the disc to go on sale. Thoughts on this would be great to hear.

I’m amazed at the midweek numbers. I think it pulls in close to $110 to this weekend.

I’m seriously wondering now that Dark Knight Rises is going to be able to beat this for top grossing movie of the summer (or year).

Dark Shadows – $31m

I also agree with you that this might be a complex movie like The Dark Knight. I thought the conversion of Harvey Dent from upstanding district attorney to Two-Face was too quick and upset the pacing of the film. In my opinion, it would have been better to have saved Two-Face for the next film, but obviously Christopher Nolan had other plans. Oh well….

The Dark Knight Rises trailer however I thought was lacking. The incredibly slow build was unexciting and that movie looks overly complex like The Dark Knight, but Bane could be just as good a foe for Batman as the last movie’s Joker was. I’m still uncertain how things will play out in this movie, since the Bane/Batman stuff is well known and they’re keeping this film’s plot under wraps incredibly well we don’t know any deviations. I find it difficult to believe they will have a replacement in the end of this film, as that would leave Batman a paraplegic and Bane would conquer and get away.

Dark Shadows is in this time slot because Alice in Wonderland opened in April, they’re trying to repeat that but it looks like they should have gone for last month when they would be competing against Hunger Games instead.

I don’t think Dark Shadows has a snowball’s chance in hell of over performing this weekend. – $31m

I didn’t think it was possible to have so many main characters share the screen without muddling the story or devolving into a senseless, meandering storyline. Every character got enough screen time to satisfy the fans. The plot moved at a quick pace yet allowed for the characters to remain the focus of the film rather than the onslaught of first-rate special effects. This film clicked from beginning to end. Biggest hit of the summer? Probably not as there will be a lot of competition coming from Spiderman and Batman. However, I believe this film will rank among the best of the summer.

I watched the new trailer for the Dark Knight Rises and it was more about plot than the previous trailers. I’ve always thought it would be an interesting turn of events if Bain did break Batman’s back forcing someone else to take over the role of Batman as in the comics (if my comic book informant friends are correct). This would also allow for another actor to replace Christian Bale within the storyline. It could happen. Having said that, Dark Knight Rises looks very dark. Given that dark is the trend in comic book movies, I do wonder if (sheer speculation without much fact) perhaps Dark Knight Rises might go too dark, too depressing for audiences. It could be a compelling storyline to see Bruce Wayne down and out, but will that be what audiences want from a superhero film that usually has a happy, hero-conquers-evil ending. We’ll see in a couple of months, no doubt.

It’s sad when of the 4 new releases opening this weekend, the only one I’d see if I had to would be Safe..but I will end up seeing Pirates! with my kids. I guess the studios wanted to be sure to get these out there before the juggernaut that is The Avengers kicks off the “summer movie season”.

As for it being the best Marvel/Disney production, I don’t even think it’s close. I liked Iron Man (Iron Man 2 took a step back for me). I thought The Incredible Hulk was an improvement over Ang Lee’s movie, but let’s be realistic…how hard was that? It wasn’t the kind of movie you build a franchise on. I very much liked Thor, and Captain America, and look forward to how they move those franchises forward. It was my enjoyment of all those previous films that set the bar so high for my expectations. I seriously thought the movie was that damn good!

I’m giving it an A+, and not blinking an eye about doing it.

BTW guys, I had the opportunity to see The Avengers. It kicked major a$$!!!!

You guys are killing me with no podcast this week….make my days a whole lot longer in work!