Don't Shoot the Messenger

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www.FrontPorchColumbus Dot Com

Vaus made a comment in the comments about the box office $$ that Public Enemies might take in. He was looking for prognostications and found a few which I believe are way way low. However I do agree that Public Enemies will not be the highest grossing movie on the summer.

WHAT were we talking about last year anyway. Remember when people were saying PE was going to be the only major release because of the strike. It's not that I'm surprised we were SO wrong but I'm surprised no one corrected our boasting. Were we on crack?

So Vaus took IMDB/BoxOfficeMojo, ComingSoon, IndieWire, FilmSchoolRejects, and MovieRetriever estimates and put them all together. He/she does cover his/her ass by saying "All predictions were made prior to start of May when no-one had seen all the films. While most writers/predictors want to see Public Enemies, they know that summer movie time is for families and students"

Here is the list and I'll have my view after.

1.Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ;$345m
2.Harry Potter and the half blood prince ; $310m
3.Star Trek ; $229m
4.Terminator Salvation ; $222m
5.Up ; $220m
6.Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ; $206m
7.Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ; $204m
8.X-men Origins: Wolverine ; $204m
9.Angels & Demons ; $172m
10.GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra ; $133m
11.Bruno ; $118m
12.Public Enemies ; $115m
13.Funny People; $111m

OK - Public Enemies 115m is absurd. Seriously - that is just poopy talk. More on that later.

Star Trek will hit +250m as it's second weekend only had a 43% drop in sales which is remarkably low and by Tuesday will pass Wolverine. Wolfie should end up in the 180m area, not the 204m as mentioned above.

This year has been a steller year for movies as seven have hit the $140m mark compared to TWO last year.

Angels & Demons premiered this last weekend and had a good showing but nothing amazing, below most estimates actually. Demons has the lowest pre-Memorial weekend opening since 2000. Blame Star Trek which actually out drew Demons on Saturday. 52% of the audience was female for Demons. Star Trek is getting a huge word-of-mouth buzz and getting new people to see it.

REPORT from a worker buddy who saw Demons this weekend - he had just read the book and for him, thumbs down. It was loosely based on the book. The water, air, fire stuff was there but he was underwhelmed. His wife who did not read the book liked it. I guess they had to change somethings (he called it updating) that he did not appreciate.

The theater was about 3/4 full. However - there was a Public Enemies trailer which created a buzz and had people around him saying "wow, that is looking awesome".

Next weekend Terminator: Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian both kick off the long Memorial Day holiday session.

As for Public Enemies - it will be going against Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third and final Ice Age movie. This will get kids and parents attention but Public Enemies will have the adults attention. So perhaps PE will not win the weekend outright - who knows.

I believe PE will bow to Harry Potter but with all the Sci Fi movies coming out will the pubic be getting a little overwhelmed and need a rest from graphics and CGI? I think it will.

Transformers comes out June 24th which is suppose to be MUCH better then the first and coming up will be Terminator and . . . Night at the Museum another kids flick??

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Here is the results SO far in 2009

1 Monsters vs. Aliens 190.6
2 Fast & Furious 152.9
3 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 151.1
4 Gran Torino (2008 Ltd) 147.7 .
5 Star Trek 147.6
6 Paul Blart: Mall Cop 145.8
7 Taken 144.5
8 Watchmen 107.4
9 He's Just Not That Into You 93.9
10 Madea Goes to Jail 90.5

I just hope Public Enemies can beat Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Pretty high standards!
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We are going to have a little meeting about the Public Enemies Premier Party at West James Gallery at 5:00 today - just to see where we are. I'm going to push for a small change. I believe a 9:00 movie time is too late for many people on a work night. I would rather have a 7:30 movie and the Party AFTER the movie.

Look at it this way. "Party Before" no one will have anything to talk about. We will watch the movie and all go home to bed as it will be midnight.

7:30 movie we can all go to the AFTER movie Party, eat, have a drink and talk about what we saw. Comments? Thoughts?
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Had some damage with the 36 degrees we hit Saturday night. Some Coleus seem a little stressed and shriveled. Hope the babies come back.

I looks like my Asters FINALLY started to come alive. They are tiny little things. Will they grow fast enough??

Speaking of plants. Why is it people will dump chemicals on their lawns to kill all of the dandelions and THEN, they will plant little yellow flowers that look EXACTLY like little yellow dandelions in the front yard???

Mine are all planted naturally. My Jolly Bee Geraniums are all dead. No sign of life. I also hate my dorky look Flaming Bush.

My three year old clay garden is looking fantastic!! WOW. It's going to be awesome. You gardeners were right. Year 3 is going to be sweet. Year 2 in the lasagna garden is starting slowly. Some plants are doing great, some are just starting and some I'm not sure if they are weeds or plants.

Have a great day.
sigh!