I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for Avatar. Yes, the film proved its box office might yet again, grabbing another $36 million to claim the top spot for the sixth straight week. Yes, I’m sick of starting off every Monday blog with the same thing. Still, Avatar kept the blasphemously bad Legion out of the top slot, and I’m grateful for that. Really, high school shop safety videos are more enjoyable to watch than Legion.
But with that in mind, what movie should we talk about today? Legion earned $18.2 million—enough to push it past the still strong The Book of Eli for second place—but anyone who’s seen Legion is likely in counseling (trying to expunge the memory, you know). The Tooth Fairy, the latest kiddie fare from Dwayne Johnson, made a respectable $14.5 million to pull itself to fourth place (Pull? Get it?). But once you get past the film’s messages of family, perseverance and good oral hygiene, is there anything left to talk about?
Extraordinary Measures made just $7 million at the gate for a seventh-place finish—not strong enough to give me an excuse to ramble about how I interviewed Brendan Fraser, and how we chatted for 15 minutes, and how you can read the interview at Plugged In in a few days, and how he invited to me to lunch afterward (OK, I made that last part up. See what Legion has done to my brain?)
It’d be great to talk more about To Save A Life, which came in 15th with $1.5 million. But we talked about it quite a bit on Friday, and I’m not sure whether $1.5 million is enough to get really excited over or not. The good news is that the film likely made its money back in one weekend—nothing to sneeze at, for sure. But it’s a far cry from the success of Fireproof thus far, and it’s probably not enough to make the film industry stand up and take notice. But maybe it’ll retain its momentum over the coming weeks: This film deserves to be seen.
So let’s just make this Monday a frenetic, film free-for-all. What did you see this weekend? And are you glad you did?
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