DVD Bonus Clip from 'Role Models'

Tomorrow, one of the best comedies of 2008 will be released on home video. Role Models was a surprise hit, but anyone who has followed Paul Rudd over the past couple of years had to be thrilled that he finally had a big role that paid off.

As part of the DVD - which in the commercials features a new scene invoking Benjamin Button, a movie that wasn't released until two months after Role Models - there are plenty of add-ons. Here's one of them, a scene analysis by Rudd and Seann William Scott of their touching scene towards the end of the film when they're both decked out as members of KISS. This looks like one of those movies where everyone in the cast and crew is surprised that it turned out so well because they never took anything seriously.

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Box Office - 'Twilight' Earns $70 Million in Debut

It cooled off considerably and thus missed its chance to become the biggest non-major film debut of all time (Passion of the Christ), but nobody's really complaining, since Twilight opened with $70.6 million this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Here's the bad news, such as it is: Half of that audience was the opening day crowd. Since we've dubbed this a phenomenon, let's compare it to the last phenomenon. The Dark Knight opened with $67 million on Friday, which was only about 42% of its weekend total. Now, that doesn't mean Twilight is a one-and-done. I think we could see this have a comfortable two-week run at the top, because Australia, Four Christmases, and Transporter 3 aren't $30 million openers, which is roughly the neighborhood Twilight will occupy over Thanksgiving. And it will obviously be a $100 million movie overall, maybe as high as $150 million. But its performance on Saturday and Sunday was a lot more mortal than the Friday numbers, and unless the second weekend is really big, I don't think $200 million is in the cards.All of this is bad news for Bolt, the new Disney animated movie that was blackjacked by the early onslaught of Twilight viewers. I don't know if people who weren't watching Twilight but wanted to see Bolt just stayed away on Friday or what, but the movie never got off to a good start, and although a $27 million debut is decent, everyone thought this would do about 30% better. If there's a ray of sunshine for Disney, it's that Bolt's overall box office was a lot more steady, meaning it could play well for several weeks, but probably not enough to reach $100 million, meaning it will perform more like Brother Bear than Toy Story. Quantum of Solace had a terrific weekend for a movie that suddenly no one is talking about. The Bond flick finished in second place, has now made over $100 million in the U.S., and its worldwide box office is closing in on $400 million in in four weeks.The Top Five:1 - Twilight ($70.6 million)
2 - Quantum of Solace ($27.4 million)
3 - Bolt ($27 million)
4 - Madagascar ($16 million)
5 - Role Models ($7.2 million)

Box Office - 'Twilight' Rakes In $35 Million in One Day

OK, so even though I was on the high end of Twilight box office predictions with $66 million, I was still way off. In one day, the new teenage vampire/star-crossed lovers movie made, brace yourself, $35 million, the biggest single day of the year for any movie not named The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, or Iron Man. It is without question the biggest opening day or single day for a non-major film studio.It's hard to pinpoint where the film will be at the end of the weekend, because it could be one of those opening day successes like Sex and The City, which whimpered on Saturday and Sunday. But I think you'd have to be a fool to believe it won't out-gross Quantum of Solace, last week's top film with $67 million. I'd say we're looking at $70 million at the minimum. It could go as high as $85 million, although I'd be very surprised if it hit that number. It would have to surrender less than 20% of its Friday audience on Saturday and 33% of its Saturday audience on Sunday for that to be the case. Of course, if $35 million is just an appetizer, and it repeats that number on Saturday (a dubious assertion, I'll grant you), then it would have to dump 42% of its audience on Sunday to hit $85 million. It's out there, but I wouldn't see it's a practical number.And because Twilight was so dominant yesterday, there really is no other story. Disney's Bolt, which probably thought it would have a very successful debut about a month ago, has been taken out behind the woodshed by the vampire movie. It might make $30 million this weekend after a $7 million Friday, but that obviously won't be good enough, and it will be well below expectations. Bolt is actually in third place right now, behind Quantum of Solace, which is maybe a day away from breaking $100 million. Madagascar is in fourth and Role Models finished the day in fifth place. We'll have a complete wrap-up and probably some historical perspective for Twilight Sunday morning.

Fearless Forecast - 'Twlight' Eclipses $60 Million

It will be hard for Twilight to match the hype. Ever since Summit Entertainment announced it was moving a smaller teentastic movie into the void left vacant by Harry Potter (which will now open in July), word has been slowly spreading about the film, and as I've maintained all week, I don't believe I can recall the last time a movie like this had its public image peak at such a good time. You'd have to go back to Blair Witch to find an accurate comparison, because like this film, nobody had expectations of being one of the year's bigger hits when they were making Blair Witch. My Big Fat Greek Wedding started its terrific theatrical run very slowly, building over a couple of months, but it didn't have hype when it hit theaters.The wave could have come in at low tide for Twilight because hype has a way of burning out potential audience members. But because it has such fervent followers from the book series, I think most undecided moviegoers really had no clear idea what this movie was until a month or two ago. And now they've seen trailers or magazine covers or news coverage of the frenzied fans, and they've become interested enough - or at least, enough of them have become interested enough - to make this a huge, huge success.I'm excited to see how it plays out, genuinely excited. Summit and Twilight don't have the machines at their disposal that Disney has for Bolt, the new animated movie that until maybe two weeks ago, everyone thought would debut at number one. Bolt will make money, too, but there's no real mystery to it; it's a product from a major studio that the company knows how to push. They use roughly the same model for that as Lilo & Stitch. Twilight is something new under the sun. Or the moon, in this case.Should Twilight perform as well as we believe it will, then we'll have the first back-to-back-to-back $60 million opening weekend set since May 2004. And what's fascinating about that number is how different the audiences are for Madagascar, Quantum of Solace, and Twilight. And just put this projected box office number into perspective when you consider it has a big film opening against it - which the other two did not - it doesn't have the number of automatic ticket sales that Madagascar or Solace has, and because a number of November films have done well and will continue to do well, Twilight faces competition from all sides. And its monumental success will be built from the ground up.The Top Five:1 - Twilight ($66 million)
2 - Bolt ($40 million)
3 - Quantum of Solace ($30 million)
4 - Madagascar ($16 million)
5 - Role Models ($6.5 million) Let's take a look at last week's forecast. The final number for Quantum of Solace was significantly lower than the $70 million estimate given on Sunday. We said $63, and the actual amount split the difference, with $67 million. We ran the top five and were only $1.5 million off the second weekend runs for both Madagascar and Role Models. So it was a real stable week in the fortune teller's den.

Box Office - 'Quantum of Solace' Shatters Bond Record

As expected, Quantum of Solace completely dominated the weekend box office, setting a new opening weekend record for James Bond film and outearning all but the last five movies in only three days.The $70 million weekend passes last week's Madagascar debut for the fourth-best debut of 2008, according to Box Office Mojo, and it now seems pretty clear that this will be the first 007 movie to exceed $200 million in U.S. ticket sales. We've been covering the film's performance overseas as well, and while the most recent weekend numbers have not been reported yet, we do know that Solace will likely be near $300 million in global receipts by Monday.The debut is even more impressive when you factor in that the film opened in 600 fewer theaters than Madagascar, Indiana Jones, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight. Where would the number be if the film had shown in 4,000 theaters this weekend? Probably in the $80 million ballpark, based on its per-screen averages.Madagascar had another big showing, taking in $36 million, which puts its U.S. total around $120 million in ten days. It will be interesting to see how much of its audience migrates to see Bolt next weekend. Still, it should have no trouble making back its $150 million budget in domestic ticket sales alone.Speaking of being in the black, congrats to Role Models, which now looks poised to make something like $60 million, and now sits well ahead of its budget at $38 million in two weeks. Zack and Miri just turned that corner, too, although the film is generally considered a box office disappointment. Three other movies currently in the top ten are massive moneymakers, as well: High School Musical, The Secret Life of Bees, and Saw V. And Kirk Cameron's Fireproof has still earned more than its $500,000 budget in every weekend it's been in theaters. The faith-based firefighter movie has made a staggering 60 times its budget in two months.The Top Five:1 - Quantum of Solace ($70 million)
2 - Madagascar ($36 million)
3 - Role Models ($11 million)
4 - High School Musical ($5.8 million)
5 - Changeling ($4.2 million)