The Best Films of 2010 (So Far)

Dare we even break the year in half to look at the best movies from the past six months? We dare. And we do so because we have as many Five Damn Dirty Ape movies from January to June (actually from April to June) as we did all of last year. And if you're new here, Five Damn Dirty Apes is our highest mark, and a good year may get three of them total. Usually, however, it's no more than two per year, and it's surprising that it would happen on this half of the calendar.

Of course, one of those Five Apers is a foreign film released last year, picked up an Oscar, and then found general release in the US, so maybe that's cheating. But the overriding point is, despite how weak the summer has been so far, we have six very good films for you from the first six months of the year. Many times, it's tough to fill 12 months with ten great movies, so we're more than halfway home. 1 - Kick-Ass My initial reaction to this film was that it was the best comic book/superhero movie ever made, and I didn't put that in my review because it's a bit hyperbolic for me. But in the three months since, I've seen it two more times, and it really holds up. The way Matthew Vaughn presents his story has enough originality for a genre desperate for it, the hero grabs our sympathies, it's not overpopulated with villains - the curse of Marvel and DC films, almost all of them - it's incredibly fun, it has great supporting characters, three magnificent action scenes, and Hit-Girl, the best character of 2010 so far, Roger Ebert be damned. (Read our review)

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Box Office - 'Elm Street' Wins Easily, Fades Early

We mentioned ysterday that the trend for horror movies is to start strong on Friday and fall off quickly. And the reason we brought that up is because Nightmare on Elm Street made almost $16 million on Friday...and now it looks like Elm Street made that much on Saturday and Sunday combined. See?

Yes, the new Nightmare easily won the weekend, and even if the numbers adjust themselves when the final results are tallied tomorrow, it's not likely that this remake will show a lot of promise on Saturday and Sunday. After $15.8 million on Friday, Elm Street dropped in the $10 million range on Saturday and then lost another $5 million on Sunday. So it's one-and-done here, and not just because industry projections have Iron Man 2 making as much as $150 million next weekend. Elm Street would struggle to put up much more than $15 million without any competition a week from now. Makes you wonder if a sequel will happen; Platinum Dunes reportedly isn't moving forward with another Friday the 13th flick, and it did much better in terms of actual dollars and in per-screen average, so more Elm Street doesn't seem like an inevitability.

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DreamWorks Announces 'Train Your Dragon' Sequel

It sure didn't look like this when the movie was released, but there will be a sequel to How to Train Your Dragon. DreamWorks, no doubt buouyed by strong box office after a decent but less-than-memorable opening weekend as well as some of the absolute best reviews of 2010, has officially announced we'll get plenty more Dragon.

There are plenty of ways to go in subsequent installments, since this is based on a lengthy series of books. There's even a prequel, if DreamWorks wants to go that route. Here's the official press release:

“2010 is off to a strong start, thanks in large part to the performance of How to Train Your Dragon, which – having grossed nearly $375 million to date in worldwide box office – has become DreamWorks Animation’s next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation.“3-D continues to have a tremendous impact on the industry at large and we are now looking forward with great anticipation to bringing Shrek Forever After, the final chapter in our beloved Shrek series and the first in 3-D, to audiences across the globe next month.”

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Box Office - 'How To Train Your Dragon' Back On Top

After debuting five weeks ago to what was considered a fairly uneventful $43 million (Shutter Island did $40 million in fewer theaters without the benefit of 68% of tickets sold at a higher rate for 3-D), How to Train Your Dragon has cobbled together a very effective month, primarily through word-of-mouth. And now it's all paid off; Dragon is once again the number one movie in America.

Keep in mind that a week after it opened, another 3-D movie - Clash of the Titans - took the top spot, and don't forget that this week and last week, Dragon shed a total of almost 350 theaters, which would normally be a disadvantage. But the drops from weekend to weekend have been quite low (topping out with 34% in its second weekend, which is always the biggest drop, anyway), and now after losing only 23% of last weekend's audience total, Dragon earned $15 million, easily enough to turn back the challenge of every other movie released since the film's March 26th debut. Obviously, $15 million isn't a great big number, and relatively speaking, $178 million on a $165 million investment isn't super duper, either, but the global number is just over $350 million, so Dragons is getting closer to being an outright success. But keep it in perspective: Monsters vs. Aliens, last year's DreamWorks 3-D spring release, made around $380 versus a $175 million budget and was not considered a hit by the studio, so there's still more work for Dragons to do. And it should be able to make about another $100 million or so in the next few weeks around the world.

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Box Office - 'Back-Up Plan' Leads Slow Friday

A weak Friday at the box office helped The Back-Up Plan, which can now run commercials boasting that it's "America's number one live-action comedy on Friday." The Jennifer Lopez rom-com took in $4.2 million, and might push toward $13 million by the end of the three-day stanza, but that won't be enough to win the weekend outright.

More than likely, How to Train Your Dragon, as we discussed on Thursday, will take the crown four weeks after its last stint at number one. That's a rare feat, unique going back at least ten years. But the DreamWorks 3-D flick has been mighty consistent, and will be close to $180 million by Monday, meaning $200 million is in the bag. Not bad for a film that opened with $43 million and sent the company's stock plummeting. It's in second place right now, but Saturdays have been very good to Dragon, and should push it past Back-Up Plan heading into Sunday.

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