Vince Vaughn has proven that his comedy star power is still going strong this weekend as his tropical rom-com Couples Retreat snagged the top spot at the box-office taking in a very solid $35.3 million. Three out of his past four comedies, (minus Fred Claus) Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up and Four Christmases all grossed well over $100 million domestically, displaying the affection most movie-goers have for the fast-talking funnyman.

Despite being co-written by Vaughn and Swingers/Made writer Jon Favreau, which would seemingly solidify comedic quality, Couples Retreat was bashed hard by most critics, receiving an awful 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Again proving that critical acclaim is not mutually exclusive with commercial success; although if it is indeed that bad, it should receive some negative word-of-mouth backlash on Twitter.

The blood-bath comedy of the year, Zombieland, continues to perform decently at the box-office by coming in second place with $15 million in its second weekend. As funny and as awesome as this movie is (I gave it an A grade in my review last week) the zombie genre in general is much more “cult exclusive,” thus restraining its potential blockbuster status. “This year’s Blair Witch Project,” Paranormal Activity, has made an exponential profit at the box-office vs. it’s production budget by taking in $7.1 million during its opening weekend, coming in at #5. Paranormal Activity‘s budget was a mere $15,000, but has made it’s creators Hollywood royalty over night. The film has received phenomenal reviews and is being dubbed as “the scariest movie of the decade.” Can’t wait to see it.

Opening up this weekend is the absolute no-brainer of the Fall to make a massive splash at the box-office, I am of course talking about Where The Wild Things Are. This is the film that myself, and most of my friends have been anticipating for months now and should easily be the most successful movie of the fall. WTWTA is a children’s book that has a lot of meaning for many people as it is has had a lot of emotional impact on our generation’s childhood. That, plus the constant marketing and very solid early reviews, I have no doubt that  Where The Wild Things Are will easily gross over $200 million domestically.

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the Top 5 at the Box-Office this weekend.

1) Couples Retreat $35.3 million
2) Zombieland $15 million
3) Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs $12 million
4) Toy Story 2/3 in 3D $7.7 million
5) Paranormal Activity $7.1 million

What Do You Think? Discuss.

Just have to start off saying that Bruno’s baby O.J., is probably the cutest baby ever. Look at him. So adorable. Anyway, as I predicted, Bruno was #1 at the box-office this weekend by taking in a solid $30.6 million. For you nit-pickers, yes I was off by about $12 million in my predictions, but I did accurately choose the the order of box-office postings. I didn’t write a review from Bruno because that review would take so long to dissect and I didn’t have the time, I will say that I absolutely loved it and thought it was great. I nearly peed my pants with shocking laughter, so in a quick review I’ll give it an A-, as the story is not as good as Borat.

Borat opened with just over $26 million in 2006 and ended up making a very impressive $128 million domestic total for Universal Studios. So you’d think, that with a $30 million opening weekend, Bruno would be well on its way to beating it right? Well maybe not. It’s very unusual for a film to drop significantly from Friday to Saturday during it’s opening weekend. It usually goes up since most people don’t work Saturday. Well Bruno was not so fortunate by dropping from a $14 million Friday to an $8 million Saturday. That’s nearly a 50% drop, that like I said, is very unusual. This obviously means that the film suffered from a massive negative word-of-mouth effect. This would most-likely be because of the outrageously pervasive sexual and offensive content including fire extinguisher sex, a penis hole  that shouts “Bruno!!” and a black baby nailed to a cross like Jesus.  But, you know, what the heck did people expect? It’s Sacha Baron Cohen. It’s rated-R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language. And it’s not just mindless hilariously awkward gay sex (although at times it is). It’s a critique on America’s still-present nonacceptance of gay people: ranging from uncomfortable to downright hate. It’s the same fashion of Borat, except Borat exposed America’s nonacceptance of “Arabs:” ranging from uncomfortable to downright hate.

So only time will tell how to see if Bruno has legs, but these statistical drops at the box-office sure don’t help. The parents who weren’t able to get a babysitter to see Bruno, helped Ice Age 3 come in 2nd with a solid $28.5 million, bringing its 12-day domestic total to just over $120 million. Michael Bay’s Transformers 2 continues to rake in the money, coming in third with an impressive $24.2 million, bringing its massive total to $342 million domestically, $711 million worldwide, just passing Lord of the Rings: Two Towers on the all-time chart. That’s pretty damn impressive considering nearly everyone I’ve talked to unfairly hated it. Entertainment writers are calling it, “the most successful bad movie of all-time.” Whatever.

Oooooo. Do you hear that? It’s Potter and Co. coming to massacre the box-office. Harry Potter is back after over a two-year hiatus and it’s gonna be big. Not only does Harry Potter have one of the largest and most intense fan-bases on the planet, but this particular installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has received almost flawless reviews, being hailed as “the best Potter film yet.”

The Harry Potter film franchise has made over $4.5 billion total combined. This latest film was supposed to be released this past November, but Warner Bros President Alan Horn pushed it back to July of 2009 because of the uncertainty of the Watchmen legal battle between WB and Fox. So needless to say the Potter fan’s anticipation is at it’s boiling point and the wait is going to pay-off for Warner Bros. HP and the HPB opens Tuesday at midnight and over the following five days, it’s going to dominate with repeat viewings. I predict that HP and the HPB will obviously be #1 at the box-office this weekend, with a five-day total of $210 million. That will shatter the five-day record held by my precious Dark Knight ($203 million), set last summer. This record was recently threatened by Transformers 2, but came up short with just $201 million over five days just a couple weeks ago. This is a very reluctant prediction as I would like for TDK‘s record to stand for as long as possible.

Ice Age 3 will come in second with a solid $22 million in its third weekend. Bruno will tie with Transformers 2 by both taking in $18 million. I’ve been pretty terrible at predictions so far, but I’m gonna keep at it cuz it’s fun! Challenge?

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the Top 5 at the Box-Office this weekend.

1) Bruno $30.4 million
2) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs $28.5 million
3) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $24.2 million
4) Public Enemies $14.1 million
5) The Proposal $10.5 million

What Do You Think? Discuss.

So I was waaaaaaaaayyyy off. I predicted last week that Transformers: Revenge of the fallen would gross a modest $115 million over its 5-day opening weekend. Looks like director Michael Bay and his robots Pwned me. Trans 2 absolutely destroyed the box-office and its competition in the process by taking in a WHOPPING $201.2 million over five days. It set a few records as well. It broke the weekday opening-day record by taking in over $60 million on Wednesday. It is also the second-biggest five day total of all-time. Second only to that little movie from last summer, The Dark Knight.

This defied industry predictions, as well as what would usually be a hamper on box-office performance, horrible reviews. Trans 2 was barely able to crack 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it seems as though pretentious critical analysis, which usually lowers expectations and ticket sales, was obsolete this time as Americans went to the cinaplexes in droves to watch huge robots kick the snot out of each other.

Last week’s box-office champ, The Proposal, came in second with a very respectable $18 million, bringing it’s two-week total to a solid $69 million. The comedy blockbuster of the summer, The Hangover, continues it’s impressive run coming in third with just over $17 million. It looks as though the blackout comedy will be able to easily crack the $200 million mark as it currently stands at a $183 million domestic total.

This week should be interesting in gauging the long-term success of Trans 2. The same young male crowd that helped Trans 2 accumulate all this money might forgo a second viewing to see Michael Mann’s gangster-action flick, Public Enemies. PE is of course the semi-biopic of legendary American bank-robber John Dillinger with the irresistible cast of Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotilliard. Another film that will challenge the boy-hood fun of Transformers is Ice Age 3, which the families should be flocking to, especially because it has the 3D label. I for one will be apart of the former group seeing Public Enemies, as it looks unbelieveably badass.

Because it is rated R and has much more adult subject-matter (violence, sex, language) I will predict that Public Enemies will come in second this weekend. Trans 2 will drop over 50% and come in 1st with $60 million. Public Enemies and Ice Age 3 will battle it out for #2, with PE taking the second spot with $48 million over 5 days and Ice Age 3 come in third with $45 million over five days. Challenge?

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the Top 5 at the Box-Office this past weekend.

CHAMP: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $201 million
2) The Proposal $18.5 million
3) The Hangover $17.1 million
4) UP $13 million
5) My Sister’s Keeper $12.2 million

Source: Box-Office Mojo

What Do You Think? Discuss.