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The full title of "Ballroom Dancing" is "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School".

Did anyone see the pre-release newspaper ads for "ATL"? Underneath the "ATL" there's a curlycue with a big black circle. Makes it look like a guy's gonna get capped in the ass. Warner Bros. modified the ad when they saw the meaning of that one.

I'm confused by DP's sarcastic statement regarding the success of Ice Age 2 and "window shortening advocates suggest movie theaters should be for big action movies and kids movies only". How does the success of a kids movie suggest that this derided statement is incorrect?

"won’t cover Sharon Stone’s publicity travel costs this weekend."

That would be even funnier if it probably weren't true. :)

Shame about Adam and Steve... it was probably one of the funniest things I saw at last year's Tribeca Film Festival and it's worth seeing just for Parker Posey in a fat suit. Shame it couldn't latch itself onto the Brokeback bandwagon (although it's obviously a very different film)

Sorry for the triple post.. I expected the Beastie Boys movie to do better than that... looks like the Barney/Bjork movie was a much bigger draw in its single downtown venue, which seems to be working out for IFC and their constant stream of output this year.

Nine films have opened to $20 million or more so far this year. (Ten if you include $19.6 for Hostel.)

A black niche film, two crossover films with black leads, two kids movies, a romantic comedies, two comic book movies, and a thriller (two if you include Hostel).

If you start with the answer to the question – DVDs first… only big films and kids films – then you will rationalize the situation into what you want it to be. But that’s not journalism. And it’s not very smart debate.

None of these Top Ten films, released in the annual slow period for Hollywood, are not going to be moneymakers. And there is great variety.

Depending on how big "Ice Age"s Friday-Saturday bump is, it could come close to "Passion"s opening. $75M seems like a sure thing, but it could break the 80-85 barrier.

Beasties will do better, don;t worry. It's hardly been shown yet.

I really liked the first Ice age, even though Romano's voice can be as grating as Rosie Perez' after awhile.

Inside Man is doing well. Hurray.

Slither will do 4ish? I guess U should stay out of the horror game too.

I understand what you're saying now, DP. You do understand my confusion, though, right? I was missing the context.

Imagine if Ice Age 2 featured the voice of Rosie Perez. It'd be three annoying voices in one! Ray, Rosie and John Leguizamo. I liked the first one when I saw it, but since then I've seen it a few more times and really don't like it at all now.

If Ice Age 2 gets the same fri-sat-sun bump that the original had it's looking at a $72mil weekend, which is god damned impressive for a sequel to a movie that wasn't much cop.

Basic Instinct 2... I can't even feel sorry for it. It just looked atrocious. And all the hoopla from Sharon about being naked infront of the camera at age 48 would've been more worthwhile if she hadn't had a boatload of plastic surgery to make herself look better. Not that I particularly want it in a more movies, but when Diane Keaton did it in Something's Gotta Give it was truly shocking because it's Diane freakin Keaton! Here it's Sharon Stone who famously got famous by getting naked, who has had tonnes of surgery, flashing herself on screen in a lame desperate attempt to gain star-status.

I think Sharon needs to give up the Catwomans and BI2s and focus on finding movies with directors that are respectable and that can show her acting talents in a good light. Look what Scorsese did in the mid-90s! And Jarmusch just recently (although I didn't see Broken Flowers, I heard best-in-female-show things about her). Hell, I even really enjoyed her in The Muse... oh well. If she wants to make more crap then I can't stop her. I just wish she wouldn't. I find it hard to like her anymore.

So happy to see Brick doing pretty good. Means we might actually get it out here sooner rather than later.

Wait...what was the second comic book movie?

He might be talking about Ultraviolet, which in it's credit sequence implied it was based on a comic book by featuring various mocked up covers of Ultraviolet comics. None of which exist to my knowledge. Kurt Wimmer's addled brain seems to be solely responsible for that mess.

Wait, nm, that didn't open to $20mil.

Actually it opened to $26.9m, so that's probably the one DP thinks is a comic book movie.

I actually count 11 films opening to $20+, if you count Date Movie's long weekend take, and Ice Age 2.

You might be a little mixed up, jeffmcm...Ultraviolet hasn't even cumed $20 million, let alone opened to more than that.

Ice Age 2 not as a good a cohesive story as the first one, which was its most appealing aspect. Much more cut and paste musical-adventure-love story.

However, the hysterical pre-historic squirrel creature was prominently in the film throughout. These one defintiely for a narrower age group. Theatre half full (not half empty) for the first showing, and the line waiting for the second wrapped around to the door.

Inside Man excellent...not too predictable. I didn;t even find reason to dislike that dullard Clive. Denzel rocks. Chiwetel rocks. willem rocks. Jodie rocks. and all directed by SPike. nice one.

Basic Instinct 2 as I said before was laughably bad with the most boring men in acting today. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Could Universal ride Inside Man to become Lee's first $100 million movie? That would be great. Lee could use that momentum to make whatever dream project he has. That Joe Louis biopic would be nice. Too bad Redford is doing a Jackie Robinson movie. Spike is the only director who should be doing a Robinson movie.

I meant Underworld: Evolution, not Ultraviolet. Whoops. (I don't think U:E is based on a comic either).

Very suprised at the poor showing of Slither. I guess the horror mode is more in the serious/straight vein. Not a bad thing but maybe it was perceived as being soft.

As for Basic Instinct 2. Stone is such an arrogant human being it actually kinds looks good on her.

Now, I'm off to see Inside Man.

Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion - $30m

Big Momma's House 2 - $27.7m
Inside Man - $29m

The Pink Panther - $20.2m
Eight Below - $20.2m

Failure to Launch - $24.4m

Underworld: Evolution - $26.9m
V for Vendetta - $25.6m

When a Stranger Calls - $21.6m
Hostel - $19.5m

Did someone mention above re. SPike Lee --that he might get to do his Joe Louis movie project?

I do hope he is not using the draft/story (there was one on the table) where Schmelling is portrayed as a Nazi thug/tool and Louis, an accepted American hero (he wasn't accepted by white people and received an incredible amount of abuse and denial by the boxing system--the public fortunately loved him). The real Schmelling refused to join the Nazi Party and also put his head on the block by hiding Jews. The Nazis sent him on suicide missions (but he refused to die!)

The true story is fair to the real life people & interesting--Joe Louis - a black man who didn't have the rights that white people did but nevertheless white people used him as a symbol of a democracy (that excluded him), fighting against a man who was held up as the embodiment of all evil--the Nazis, even though Schmelling utterly rejected them & the system.

I would really hate to see a SPike Lee project turn into a Ron Howard project where an essentially good man (Max Baer) was turned into a villain, needlessly, to try to create a false sense of drama.

If anyone knows if the Joe Louis project is going ahead and which script draft will be used, enlighten please.

I really hope a Cinderella Man path will not be taken. I would campaign against it if it were the case. There is no need to destroy a real human being who was a mensch simply to make another look good (Joe Louis and his real story are interesting enough, no need to degrade Schmelling).

sorry...it's schmeling

my papa says he paid for Joe Louis' funeral and they were good pals.

Lota: There's a terific documentary about the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling story called "The Fight" -- it aired on PBS a couple years back, and it's available through Netflix. There's also a better-than-average TV-movie drama called "Joe and Max," directed by Steve James ("Hoop Dreams")with Til Schweiger as Max and Leonard Roberts as Joe. Richard Roundtree and David Paymer co-star

Hey, did anyone else had the feeling that Basic Instinct 2 was there to promote Sharon Stone and not the other way around? I understand stars are always getting personnal publicity from their film, but here is a film that everyone tought would tank, who did tank, and she had a huge amount of press anyway. She's not a stupid woman, she must have known the film was terrible, and yet...

I think anyone who went to see Basic Instinct 2 this weekend has a risk addiction.

..that being said, I'll probably catch it sometime this week. First step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem, eh?

Yes, Eddie, you need help. Naked Sharon Stone? good god.

I myself have no such addiction. I'll be just like any other red-blooded American male and go buy Brokeback DVD this Tuesday and watch it for the 1000th time. Good for me!

Saw "the fight"...didn;t see the Steve James thing, will lookout for it, thanks.

David, Underworld: Evolution wasn't based on a comic.

Did anyone see the interview with Sharon Stone on the Daily Show last week? It was one of the most uncomfortable interviews I've ever seen. She was just... empty. She could barely go through the motions of promoting her movie.

I would like to think she was high on something, because the alternative would be that she really is that stupid.

Sharon is not at all stupid.

After all, she knows that peace in the Middle East is 'just a breath away'and that all girls faced with sex they can't get out of (like rape Sharon?) should just offer oral sex instead.

Nope, she's not stupid at all.

It's funny you mention TDS. I started to watch the interview, and got so uncomfortable with it that I fast forwarded through to the moment of Zen.

Glad someone else noticed.

Jon alluded to making fun of Stone in an earlier episode. Perhaps that was her way of holding a grudge...by making him uncomfortable on camera.

I read in Newsweek that Aaron Eckhart (not exactly Mr. Superstar) turned down $6 million for BE2?

Holy crap, that movie must suck.

Based on him constantly wearing his shirt during and after sex in "Thank You for Smoking," I'm just gonna blame that on his reluctance to get into shape.

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