Watch out, Tim Allen!
A couple of characters as dangerous to the government as Valerie Plame
A well-placed studio source told me this week that there’s probably only one "big-time" movie remaining on the release schedule for August, and, no surprise, it is Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder (Dreamworks/Paramount).
Hollywood is gearing for what is certain to be a spectacular 5-day 4th of July holiday movie-going period with two strong holdovers and a brand new PG-13-rated superhero picture starring the world’s biggest box office draw.
Sex and the City (Warner Bros), which enjoyed a meteoric $27M in sales in its first 24 hours, had a much quieter Saturday. At least 25 percent quieter. It looks like Sunday could add at least $14M for a truly remarkable $60M opening weekend.
Iron Man (Paramount) will almost certainly comfortably win a 2nd consecutive weekend at the box office as Speed Racer (Warner Bros) struggles to reach $30M. I have not been able to find a studio exec who believes that the Wachowski Brothers' adaptation of the late '60s anime cartoon classic will be able to outrun its bad industry tracking and generally negative reviews (only 29% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes as of Wednesday night).
I did a personal survey of studio sources Wednesday, and they were unanimous in saying that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 video game sensation released on Tuesday, will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the box office performance of Iron Man this weekend.
Smoke Lies & Videotape is an interactive exhibit chronicling the role smoking in movies television and radio over the past century that opened Friday at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum