What's The Big Deal?

\Well, it looks like I was wrong. George Clooney's Leatherheads couldn't get to the top of the charts on charm alone. The Blackjack thriller 21 was the ace-in-the-hole for the 2nd straight week at the box office for some reason and though it looked as the football flick was destined to hit #2 with the original Sunday projections of the box office take, something funny happened on the way to Monday.

When the votes were tallied during the recount it actually turned out that adventurous Abigail Indiana Breslin beat out the gridiron gag show with Nim's Island. I'm not sure what this says about Clooney's bank-ability, but I'm more inclined to say who cares?

Do you know how many kids there are in this country and how many parents would like them to be quiet for at least an hour and a half….about 13 million dollars worth. Furthermore, I'm not really sure why we need box office projections. Can't we just be patient enough to see what a film's actual take is? We're projecting projections before a weekend is over.

What if it a force majeur like an unexpected rainstorm hit a crowded street fair consisting of mostly rabid George Clooney fans directly outside of a multiplex and caused those numbers to be greatly shifted at the last second. I know entertainment is big business, but I see no cause for controversy over box office numbers when we're ultimately playing an unnecessary guessing game. Clooney isn't destined to become any less of a star after his movie opening in 3rd place. Men will still want to be him, women will still want to be with him, and he'll keep making films he believes in.

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21 Tops Gross. Superhero Movie, Just Gross.

First off, I was surprised to see "21" on top, taking in nearly $24 million. The trailer didn't so much as motivate me to get out of bed, so it was a bit of a shocker that it got that many people in the theaters. I fully expect to see Blackjack take over as the next televised non-sport, similar to what happened with Texas Hold 'Em after "Rounders," complete with boring semi-celebrity tournaments.

It was nice to see "Horton Hears A Who" still raking in the big bucks as well, with $17 million plus. In addition to it being my favorite Seuss story, I had a bit of a grudge against the past Dr. Seuss vehicles because of their live-action format. There's something really annoying about when someone tries to create live action magic with what is best served up as animation. I also like seeing the success of the new breed of comedic actors over the tired gimmicks of people like wacky accent-specialist Mike Myers and the 1970ish schtick of Will Ferrell (who I still think can be somewhat funny). So here's to the Seth Rogen's, Steve Carell's and Jonah Hill's of the world...or not of the world of the actual people.

Finally, in third place was "Superhero Movie," which, despite a the all things Weinstein boycott from Star Wars fanboys still managed to rake in $9.51 million even though it was probably pretty horrible. I think this proves one thing and one thing only: If you're not a film's target audience and you protest it's release, you probably won't affect the film's box office very much, even if it sucks. After all there are plenty of people out there who like laughing at dumb jokes for an extended period of time. Just ask anyone who watches MAD-TV.

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