No, even I didn’t see this one coming. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are reporting ‘Sex and the City’ grossed $26.9 million yesterday (Friday). I’ve been very optimistic about Sex’ performance, but I never thought it would have a shot at $70 million for the weekend. Meanwhile, ‘Indiana Jones 4′ is doing a little less than expected, just like we saw in our weekly box office roundup. Spielberg’s oldie took in $12.2 million, meaning it would come in at a little over $40 million for the weekend. But when I said ‘Sex and the City’ could beat Indy, I didn’t think it would actually happen.

The other new release, ‘The Strangers,’ surprised as well. The cheap $10 million thriller made an impressive $7.5 million. Universal must have seen the potential hole it could fill between Sex and Indy. The Liv Tyler vehicle has a shot at $25 million for the weekend.

Lastly, the switch has finally happened. ‘Iron Man’ took $3.7 million, while ‘Prince Caspian’ came no further than $3.4 million. Sorry Disney, your $200 million pet is on its way out.

More numbers as they come in.

1. Indiana Jones 4: $145,840,212 ($185 million budget)
2. Narnia: Prince Caspian: $34,613,170 ($200 million budget, second week)
3. Iron Man: $30,457,656 ($186 million budget, fourth week)

Continue reading This week’s box office roundup

Some of these shots might look like paparazzi photos, but I don’t think Jason Segel wears a pair of Uggs in real life. Or maybe he does? The pictures were taken by jcollesano at Venice Beach. ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ star Jason Segel was there to film his new comedy ‘I Love You, Man.’ He co-stars with Paul Rudd, who also had a small role as Chuck in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’

The movie is produced, written and directed by John Hamburg, who previously made Ben Stiller’s ‘Along Came Polly’ and co-wrote ‘Meet the Fockers.’ ‘I Love You, Man’ is currently planned for January next year.

Steven Spielberg and Ed Harris unveiled Holly Hunter’s star on the Hollywood ‘Walk of Fame’ today. The star of TV series ‘Saving Grace’ got famous when she won an Oscar for her role in ‘The Piano’ in 1993. I can’t say I remember that one, but in more recent memory she got an Oscar nomination for playing the mother in ‘Thirteen.’

Steven Spielberg, her longtime friend, was there to unveil the tile. He directed Hunter in the 1989 romance ‘Always’ and placed a full-page ad in the Daily Variety saying, “We are so proud of you and your ‘fierce heat of living’.” Care to explain, Steven?

There might be an overdoses ‘Sex and the City’ coming out for men this weekend, depending on if the movie keeps up the numbers. O, how I hate to be right. I knew the analysts were underestimating the power of those movie-hungry women. Variety reports the chick flick is set for an estimated $20 million opening day. Beating even my overly optimistic expectations. This includes the early Thursday shows past midnight, which were mostly sold out. Yes, these numbers justify all the awesome Sarah Jessica Parker faces (1, 2, 3, 4).

It could even be possible for the movie to really beat ‘Indiana Jones 4′ in its second weekend. With a $20 million opening, anything is possible. Since the ‘Sex and the City’ movie can’t be put into a box easily, the industry’s projections are all over the place. Some expect it to keep up during the weekend, while others say the numbers will drop after the early adopters saw the movie this Friday. I’m expecting the ladies to keep dropping in with big numbers during the whole weekend.

Reuters is currently reporting $12 million in pink tickets overseas. $7 million in the U.K., $3 million in Germany and $1.3 million in France. Are the creators already penning a sequel?

Universal has sent over all their production stills of ‘The Incredible Hulk.’ The release date of Marvel’s second film is nearing. June 13 is just around the corner. Can the $125 million ‘remake’ do as well as ‘Iron Man’ last month? In two weeks we’ll know. Here are 8 more photos. I actually don’t remember which are old, so I’ve just picked some cool ones we didn’t show yet.

You can find more pictures here and some Abomination concept art here.

Would it be possible? ‘Sex and the City’ beats ‘Indiana Jones 4′ in second weekend. That would make some headlines. It probably won’t happen, but new tracking numbers indicate a better opening for ‘Sex and the City.’ The troops of women are now looking to bring in about $35 million, while ‘Indiana Jones’ would come in a little under $50 million for the weekend. It’s no secret I think ‘Sex and the City’ is going to do well. And the U.K.’s box office numbers confirmed this suspicion. Would it do exceptionally well, it could beat ‘Indiana Jones 4.’ Old man vs. old women. These are the new tracking numbers:

Continue reading Updated ‘Sex and the City’ box office tracking

As always, we have the upcoming movies in quotes for you. This week we can choose between the pink ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ and the pitch black ‘The Strangers.’ Or we could just go with an oldie, like ‘Indiana Jones 4.’ The critics were quite mild this week. Although ‘Sex and the City’ didn’t pass the test, with a Metacritic score of 5.4. Even beaten by ‘The Strangers,’ which scored 0.1 higher, a 5.5. Hit the jump to see what those grumpy critics had to say.

Continue reading The upcoming weekend in quotes

Blockbuster is launching a strange pilot to test in-store kiosks with downloadable movies. I say strange, since I thought the benefit of downloading was you didn’t have to get out of your chair. But that’s why it’s a pilot I suppose. Blockbuster still has to negotiate the deals with the studios and the movies currently only work with Archos devices. But if the demand is there, it wouldn’t be too difficult to fix these two problems.

I just wonder if there’s a market for this service. You would say the kind of high tech person interested in doing this, would have a high speed internet connection at home. Other people will take the DVD rental instead. I don’t think this is going to solve Blockbuster’s ‘iTunes problem.’