Box Office - $68 Million for 'Up' Buys Lots of Balloons

Up scored the third-biggest weekend in Pixar history, with a very strong $68 million debut. It trails only Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, both of which opened with $70 million. Because Pixar movies tend to have long lives theatrically, gobbling up a greater percentage of cash than a typical summer flick after the opening weekend, this indicates that Up will make well over $200 million over its run this summer.

It didn't face any direct new competition, although I can't help but think being tied to Up helped the also well-reviewed Drag Me to Hell, which was slow out of the gate. Up had the fourth strongest opening weekend of the year, and after this summer, it should still be a top six debut, at worst a top seven; there just aren't enough movies left with $200 million potential. Night at the Museum dropped to second place, with $25 million, and Terminator Salvation watched 62% of its audience from last weekend completely evaporate. With $16 million this weekend and a total of only $90 million so far, Terminator appears headed for a sub-$140 million summer.

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Box Office - 'Up' Kicks Off Weekend with $21 Million

A big debut weekend awaits Pixar's Up, which is clearly the dominant film in theaters at the moment. The Friday numbers were incredibly encouraging - $21 million, according to Box Office Mojo - and that probably translates to an easy $60 million over the first three days, perhaps in the upper 60s depending on the Saturday increases.

That kind of opening would be pretty standard for Pixar, and running mostly uncontested until Ice Age in July means that Up should make at least another $130 - $150 million in June. Drag Me to Hell appears headed toward a third place finish, which is not surprising at all. A $6.4 million start is good but not great for a PG-13 horror movie in 2,500 theaters, and the good reviews and word of mouth should keep this one around for a couple of weeks, even if it opens with a lower number than our mid-20s estimate. Right now, it's probably looking at a $20 million weekend, but as the only horror movie around for a couple months, the business should be there for Drag Me to Hell for weeks to come.

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Movie Review - 'Drag Me to Hell'

Drag Me to Hell Starring Alison Lohman and Justin Long Directed by Sam Raimi Rated PG-13

Drag Me to Hell is the kind of movie that Sam Raimi should make. It's a return to the kind of humorous, shocking schlock that launched his career with the Evil Dead trilogy, and while he's better known for Spider-Man, even the good ones in that series seem anonymous by comparison. There's just a personality in Raimi's direction that exists in his horror movies that is missing from his blockbusters and from the horror genre in general. So it's good to see that he can still access this filmmaker I thought had given way to way too bigger but not necessarily better films. Usually with horror movies, the story doesn't matter much. That's because they're generally pretty simple. In this case, however, the story is a huge component, and even though a decent effort could be made out of the basic elements of this story, Raimi continues to build it up, which increases the tension. By the end of it, there's genuine relief, and that's how you know you've had a good time. Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is a loan officer at Wilshire Pacific Bank. Everyday, she faces the empty assistant manager's desk, hoping that she can impress her boss (David Paymer) and get that promotion. To do that, Christine needs to make tough decisions that make him take notice, so when a decrepit woman (Lorna Raver) behind on her mortgage asks for an extension, Christine says no. The old woman gets on her knees and begs. The answer is still no. And then the old woman lunges at Christine, obviously not taking the news well. But she gets her revenge. Later that night in the parking lot, Christine encounters the old woman and a very physical struggle ensues at the end of which finds Christine dazed and missing a button off her coat. Her attacker holds the button up to the available light in the parking garage and begins a weird incantation. We know what Christine Brown doesn't: She's not only cursed to being a run-of-the-mill loan officer, she's literally cursed.

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Fearless Forecast - 'Up' Goes Up

There was an article this week about whether or not the box office hot streak was over. I don't think that's true. We've just seen some movies audiences weren't terribly excited about the last two weeks, repeating a trend from last May. But it will pick back up in about a month.

Between now and then, as I've said all along, I expect the May movies to continue to build up their bank accounts. Star Trek is the most audience-friendly movie so far, and June will be good for it, considering it's almost a month old, and Up will make most of its money there, too, because the competition in June just isn't that strong. For this week, I think we'll see a typically big debut for a Pixar movie. Last year, Wall-E opened against Wanted, and both films started with $60 million-plus. Up will see a little spike from the 3-D theaters, and that should help Pixar's tenth movie make over $60 million this weekend.

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Two New 'Drag Me To Hell' Commercials

Here's the deal about Drag Me to Hell being rated PG-13: I get that Universal wants to draw the biggest crowd possible and that R-rated movies tend to cut a swath through your total box office from time to time. But this is a horror movie, and if the stuff that happens to Alison Lohman in this movie happened to me, I'm sure I'd utter more than one F-bomb, which would make me rated R.

So we'll probably get one offending word, but we can't get any more, and that's a bigger thing to me than blood or gore. Some things just weren't meant to get PG-13 ratings; it's no different than if Pixar made Wall-E swear like a sailor or showed Mr. and Mrs. Incredible practicing to make baby Jack Jack. Some things just don't fit. I mean, this is being billed as the return of "true horror," right? A couple of new commercials have debuted for Drag Me to Hell, and ratings notwithstanding, I'm still interested to see what Sam Raimi will do in his horror movie comeback, and I think Alison Lohman has been unjustly ignored for years.

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