Box Office - 'Lakeview Terrace' Wins Easily

In case you're wondering, 59-year-old Samuel L. Jackson is not the oldest actor to have a number one movie. Though he's a little older than Ron Perlman, Hellboy II opened at number one just two months ago, but The Bucket List had two guys in their 70s - Nicholson and Freeman - and it was number one less than ten months ago. So, it wasn't a record or anything. At least not on that count. It was, however, the biggest debut ever for director Neil LaBute, who scored his first number one opening. Over the three days, Lakeview Terrace earned $15.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo. It was not as strong a frame as we had last weekend; The four new releases were staggered throughout the top ten, and last week's first-place finisher, Burn After Reading had a strong enough carryover to land in second place with just over $11 million. Dane Cook continued to his trend of not performing well enough to be a movie star. If you combine the box office of his first two comedies with the opening weekend for My Best Friend's Girl, the total is only $72 million, and that's with notable female leads in each film. My Best Friend's Girl did manage a third-place landing, but the movie will no doubt fizzle out within a couple of weeks. Still, Cook probably wouldn't want to trade places with Ricky Gervais. The well-reviewed Ghost Town didn't make much of an impression on audiences, generating only $5 million in ticket sales. The Top Five: 1 - Lakeview Terrace ($15.6 million)
2 - Burn After Reading ($11.3 million)
3 - My Best Friend's Girl ($8.3 million)
4 - Igor ($8 million)
5 - Righteous Kill ($7.7 million)

Movie Review - 'Igor'

Igor

Featuring the voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, and Eddie Izzard
Directed by Chris McKenna
Rated PG

For years, probably dating back at least as far as the first Toy Story, animated movies have reserved more than a few laughs for the adults forced to see them. Sometimes, the entertainment directed at parents in these cartoons is much better than anything aimed at the kids. Certainly, that’s been the case with three or the past four Pixar titles. But very few mainstream animated movies are as gleefully adult-oriented as Igor. In the country of Malaria, the King declared many years earlier that the only way for its citizens to maintain a good quality of life was to transform Malaria into the home of evil inventions - be they monsters, machines, or potions - that would frighten the rest of the world into paying the King into not unleashing these horrors on mankind. To keep the threat real, Malaria holds an annual Evil Science Fair, in which the new models are demonstrated. Evil scientists need lab assistants, and in Malaria, they’re all named Igor. One such Igor (John Cusack) has longed to be an evil scientist, but because he was born with a hunch, it was off to Igor School instead. This year is different, though, and he’ll get his chance to show the world what he can do. Following the accidental death of the mad scientist he assists (voiced, all too briefly, by John Cleese), Igor and two of his previous inventions get to work creating a giant female Frankenstein. There's Scamper (Steve Buscemi), whom Igor has treated with some chemical compound or other that has made the little ugly rabbit immortal, and there's Brain (Sean Hayes), who is little more than a brain in a jar that can talk. He shouldn't, because he's a moron, but he can. They have five days to build a weapon of mass destruction and get the right wig for her, too. While this Igor isn’t evil (he’s far from it), parents may have a different reaction to Igor the movie. Lines like "Who doesn’t like tortured kitties?" may not fly with them, at least not as far as their children are concerned. But despite a character that gnaws his feet off and an intention to shoot over a lot of heads by naming the villain Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard), Igor is a very inventive and funny movie. The animation isn’t great but it’s devilishly good fun for kids of most ages.

Fearless Forecast - Sam Jackson Wears the Kangol Hat of Victory

Nobody's movies have made more money than Samuel L. Jackson's. He's starred in just about 70 movies and they've grossed $7.42 billion in the U.S. alone. That's an average of $106 million per movie. Now, Jackson is not the primary reason people see some of those movies, like the most recent Star Wars trilogy, which accounts for a healthy chunk of that total, but the fact is he's made a ridiculous amount of movies since Pulp Fiction - one has been released every 90 days or so since 1994 - so obviously, his total is going to be way up there. Jackson will add to his stack of money this weekend with a likely number one finish at the box office. Lakeview Terrace is a new domestic drama co-starring Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Releasing Lakeview this weekend is just plain smart by Sony Screen Gems. Not only does it have a chance to do well because it's not directly competing with last week's four new releases, it's also skipping next week's battle royale with Eagle Eye, Miracle at St. Anna and Nights at Rodanthe. I don't think it could've been number one in either of those weeks, and it has a great shot to do it this weekend because the competition isn't as strong. Its biggest threat is My Best Friend's Girl, which could walk away the winner but it could also be the big misfire. Kate Hudson, Dane Cook, and Jason Biggs inspire zero confidence, and audiences are a little tired of Hudson's rom-com retreads. Not having press screenings doesn't help, or at least, it shouldn't help its word of mouth, which would be key on Saturday and to a lesser extent on Sunday. The animated comedy Igor doesn't really have a chance to do much damage, but because it's kid-friendly (at least in theory), Igor should sop up about $10 million worth of business, which ought to be good enough to make it in the top five. I really think Burn After Reading will have a stronger than expected second frame. It did much better than anticipated last week, producing about 25% more business than was projected, and because there's not a lot of must-see new releases, that always favors the current number one movie. I don't think it will win back-to-back weeks, but it should be pretty competitive. The Top Five: 1 - Lakeview Terrace ($14.5 million)
2 - Burn After Reading ($12.5 million)
3 - My Best Friend's Girl ($12 million)
4 - Igor ($9 million)
5 - Righteous Kill ($7 million)

I've Got a Hunch You Might Like These New 'Igor' Pictures

On September 19th, we'll get our next animated family movie when Igor hits theaters. It's been an up and down couple of months for animated film, with Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda soaring to great heights and Space Chimps and Fly Me to the Moon never exactly taking off (pun intended).

Igor (John Cusack) is an assistant to a mad scientist who has his own aspirations of winning the annual Evil Science Fair, only Igor's not really evil at all. These new computer animated spins on classic genres can work or they can backfire. For example, Hoodwinked was good fun, but Happily N'Ever After is one of the worst cartoons I've ever endured.

Based on the trailers, Igor looks fun, and it's written by Chris McKenna, who previously gained some experience writing for American Dad, so we'll continue to hold out hope for it. And based on a series of new images we just received in our e-mail, it looks like director Anthony Leondis has a pretty funky vision.

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Trailer - I've Got a Hunch about 'Igor'

Igor looks like it has a little something to it. I think the animation makes it stand out a little bit and there's a possibility it might have a Charles Addams-type macabre sensibility. Let's hope.

Igor (John Cusack) is a lab assistant for an evil scientist who wants to prove that he can wear a labcoat of his own one day, and sets out to win the town's science fair.

Take a look:


Igor co-stars the voices of Eddie Izzard, Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Coolidge, and John Cleese, and comes out on September 19th.