Box Office Round Up: Thor Hanging On

I Googled Chris Hemsworth happy, and this was the closet I got to a smile

Thor may not be as Floppy after all. It finished in first again for the second straight week. It made $34.5 million, more than half of what it made last weekend, which isn't a bad drop-off at all. I finally saw two or three TV commercials for it, so maybe that helped it out a bit. However, not too great of a weekly gross, earning only $19 million during which was probably Finals Week for most schools. That's my best explanation anyway.

Number two was Bridesmaids at $24 million, which is getting some very good word of mouth. The previews were painful to watch, but I didn't think The Hangover had that great of commercials either and I spent the entire movie rolling on the floor laughing. Which reminds me, I can't believe so many of my followers hate the Hangover.

Since we are there anyway, The Hangover made $45 its opening weekend and dropped very slowly, on its way to the third highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. I can see Bridesmaids having legs too. However, both movies have almost the same budget: $35 for Hangover and $33 for Bridesmaids. The Hangover had a much bigger and more accomplished cast, and I'm assuming it had a bigger location fee. Just renting that suite was a couple million right there. I'm sure Tyson has a high asking price. And a car or two gets destroyed. Maybe that stuff happens in Bridemaids too...but probably not. Why are they almost the same price?

As for everything else, Fast Five made $19.5, Priest made $14.5 (more than I ever expected), and Rio will not die holding on to #5, five weeks after it was released. And nowhere to be seen is A Serbian Film. It was either such a limited that it is not being tracked, or everyone who saw it walked out and demanded their money back. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Thor ... A Flop?

The day was indeed a good one for Loki the Trickster

Thor finished the weekend number one at the box office, earning $66 million on 4000 screens. I'm sure many people will look at that number and say how can that be bad. And yes, there is no need to panic just yet. However, this is not at all a good sign for this great movie, nor is it for the future of comic movies in general.

First off, 5 Fast 5 Furious was number two at $32 million. In its opening weekend, it made $83 million, and it made another $30 mil during the week already putting it at $140 million. At this rate, Thor will struggle to make that by its third weekend. Also, Something Broom and Jumping the Borrowed each made $13 million for some unknown reason. It is a sad world.

Thor mini-Review: Best Fantasy Movie Ever

Thor is astonishing. Plain and simple.

The first thing people are doing are comparing it to Iron Man and the other cape movies. That's quite the hard task, because Thor is not a super hero movie, it is a fantasy movie. And that is not a bad thing whatsoever.

Asgard is unbelievable. I have never seen a fantasy setting anywhere close on film. Not Avatar, not Lord of the Rings, not Star Wars, not even concept art. The place is other-worldly, and you'll spend the first few minutes trying to pick your jaw off the floor. As I was watching this, I was terrified that once the movie shifts to Earth, it just wouldn't be the same.

That's mostly true, but not always in a bad way. The Earth scenes are very funny. Basically, the movie becomes Viking in a small town (I was trying to think of a similar movie, and the only one coming to mind was Pauly Shore's Encino Man. I'm not sure how comparing those two makes me feel). I can't say if the humor will hold up over repeated viewings. The story does begin to drag long into the Earth part, but Chris Hemsworth does keep it enjoyable throughout.

With that in mind, Hemsworth will be a huge actor someday. The bad news, he'll mainly be in romantic comedies. He is built to play any action role he wanted, but he has the range, the charm, and the Aussieness to fit better in the cheaper and easier to make rom-coms. He is a former soap opera star anyway. The Avengers will take up most of his action film time, and other than that I can only picture him in movies I don't want to see. He's taking the Gerald Butler route.

As great as he is as Thor, Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki just about outshines him. In the comics, the God of Mischief is basically Marvel's answer to the Joker. In film, though, he plays a soft-spoken, conflicted, tragic-villain. People who aren't familiar may even think he is a good guy in the film, meaning I just spoiled it for all of them. Loki, in both Thor and in true mythology, was all about confusing his enemies, so it only makes sense that he confuses the audience, too.        

My only true compliant may be a consequence of my hype. During the SHIELD raid, you are introduced to spoiler, easily one of my favorite comic characters. That entire scene is just done poorly. The middle of the scene is definitely played up, but the initial introduction to him is thrown together very fast. If a die-hard fan like me has trouble catching it, it is going to fly completely over the head of the average viewer. And then, the character goes away without doing anything.

Still, the movie is a must see. I am still blown away by how impressive Asgard is. That's visual effects at its finest. So go out and see Thor, because it truly is better than Iron Man and the other cape movies.



Also, this is the best Stan Lee cameo.

Opening This Weekend: Thooooooooooor!

Thor - If you aren't excited for this movie, you really need to check your pulse. The latest film based on a Marvel hero is about a god from... Wait a minute, did they copy off the Social Network poster?

 Possibly. All I know is Chris Hemsworth and Jessie Eisenberg both have huge noses.


Something Borrowed - The plot was for sure borrowed.
Jumping the Broom - Isn't there already a Tyler Perry movie in theaters?


If you see either of these movies instead of Thor, I'm going to have to kindly ask you to leave my blog.


Hobo With a Shotgun - I have no idea what the plot of this is. It's the second fake trailer from Grindhouse to be made into a full length film, after Machete. If they will only make Werewolf Woman of the SS.  This has been out in certain cities for awhile, and has long been leaked onto the internet. But for whatever reason, I still haven't seen it.

Passion Play - Megan Fox, Mickey Rourke, and Bill Murray star in what is being considered one of the worst movies of all time. This is actually coming to DVD just weeks after it hits theaters.

The Beaver - This movie has taken on epic portions. It's about a guy who brings a beaver puppet everywhere to help him out in his family life. The script has existed for years, and it has been voted twice as the best movie not yet made. But people deemed it unfilmable. Well they finally found the perfect director in... Jodie Foster?  If that isn't enough to get you interested, did I mention Mel Gibson plays the beaver guy? Art really does imitate life.