Weekly Recap:
This was a nice short work week and a fun week on top of it. Last Thursday I did something that I thought I would never do ... I sat in on a "The Simpsons" episode table read. The entire cast was there and it was just an amazing and surreal experience ... to see the the people behind the voices (who I have seen before on TV shows and stuff) in-person and not see the animated characters ... so so cool. Was very fortunate enough to catch pics with:
Matt Groening- Such an amazingly down-to-earth guy.
Nancy Cartwright- Amazing person.
Yeardley Smith- so sweet.
Hank Azaria- talk about coolness.
Pamela Hayden- very very nice.
As soon as it ended a couple of folks left right away. Julie Kavner didn't want to take a picture but at the table read they gave each person there a copy of the script to follow along and she signed that for me which was very nice.
At the movies:The top 5 this week is pretty ... well, weak. The summer box offices slam is completely over and these numbers support that. Creeping in at #1 is The Covenant at 9 million for the weekend. Starring in the #2 spot is Hollywoodland showing up at 6 mil, this number is very disappointing for what looks like a really interesting film. Tackling its way to #3 is the football bio pic "Invincible" with an additional 5.9 mil. New to the scene making some acrobatic martial arts moves is The Protector with 5 mil which is enough to take the #4 spot this week. Rounding off the top 5 is "Crank" surviving with an additional 4.8 mil.
Who are the top 5 summer winners for 2006? Clearly there is one above them all and that would be "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" with an up-to-date total of 416.6 mil and still over 1500 screens out there. This film should cap out at around 430 mil nation-wide (including Canada). The #2 film for the box office summer is Pixar's "Cars" with a 242.1 mil gross and it's pretty much done. Standing in at #3 with 234.3 mil is "X3" or "X-Men The Last Stand". Flying in the #4 summer spot is "Superman Returns" with a strong 196.9 mil as its summer ends. And finally the #5 film for the summer is yet another racing movie with "Talladega Nights: The Ballard of Ricky Bobby" zooming in with 139.2 mil and still going as it was a late summer release.
In the end, clearly Disney wins the summer crown with both "Pirates..." and "Cars" leading the pack and "Invincible" bringing up the tail-end. A total of 14 titles which gave them a 20.79% market share. Looking through the majors ONLY, the top 3 were Disney, Sony and 20th Century Fox (1, 2 and 3 respectively). The bottom ranked for the summer are Lionsgate, New Line and MGM (7, 8, and 10 respectively).
Q & A:
None at this time.
Other News:Today is the 5th Anniversary of the attack upon the World Trade Center in NY and The Pentagon. Its a solemn day of reflection and one that I will probably always remember. What was I doing ... I was asleep and I remember the radio going off. We had our station set to KISS FM at the time because it was one of the few stations we could get clearly on the clock radio. As soon as I heard Rick Dees say something about NY, first I thought it was a really bad radio prank/joke and I hit the snooze. Then on the second or third time, they were still talking about it and gags don't run this long. So I turn on the TV and sure enough, it's on the news all over and I'm in utter shock. I called into work and was instructed to just stay home because no one knew what was happening ... yep, a day I won't forget. But one thing is for sure ... I wish to remember them standing rather than what will be built there.
So its 5 years later and what has happened? We are still searching for Osama, a new report was just released proving AGAIN there was no connection between the terrorist and Saddam, the death toll of US Soldiers and civilians continues to increase at a steady rate in Iraq ... and the country is well worse off then it was with Saddam in power with a failing infrastructure, power outages and no exit plan in sight. Iraq went from a semi-wealthy nation (under a dictator's rule of course) to a poverty stricken third world country.
Facts & Tips:
The first vacuum was so large it was brought to a house with horses.
"I had a dream where Jesus was a dirty old bum, and I was about to sock him in the face because, well he's a dirty old bum, but then I thought, there's something special about him ..."- John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton, Jr. in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"
posted by McDuck @ 11:20
2 Comments:
Ingmar Bergman said the secret to his success was continuing to make films in Sweden where he could have creative control--films could be low budget rather than expecting everything to be a box office smash as in America. The slogan: "Ars Gratia Artis" (art for the sake of art) has long given way to "Ars Gratia Pecuniae" (art for the sake of money), malheureusement.
You know I always wondered what that meant in the MGM logo when I worked there. Of course I assumed "Artis" meant "Art" or "Artist"
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