BOX OFFICE 7/19-7/21: R.I.P.D. and Red 2 Buried Under The Conjuring

Saw director James Wan's The Conjuring scored a $41 million debut this weekend, marking the second highest opening ever for an R-rated movie. The horror film was helped by some pretty great reviews (85% Fresh) and good word of mouth (A- CinemaScore) from audiences who aren't afraid to rate horror flicks from C to F if they don't like it. It will probably hold strong in the coming weeks to make at least $100 million. The other openings of the week were less impressive, with Red 2 hauling in $18 million, which is $3 million less than the original's debut in 2010, and R.I.P.D., with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, flopped hard, earning just $12 million for a film with a $150 million dollar budget, and not even making the top 5. The other new release on this crowded weekend was the Dreamworks animated film Turbo, which fell victim to Despicable Me's continued dominance in the family film arena, and earned a soft $21 million.

Top 5

  1. The Conjuring- $41.5 million
  2. Despicable Me 2- $25 million
  3. Turbo- $21.5 million
  4. Grown Ups 2- $20 million
  5. Red 2- $18 million

The holdovers continue to do well, with Despicable Me 2 amounting a huge $276 million total so far and well on its way to over $300 million, while Grown Ups 2 is at $79 million and likely to cross $100 as well. Unfortunately, Pacific Rim fell 57% since last week and looks unlikely to impress much in its domestic gross, but overseas totals are still to come on that one. Next week, it's a pretty open weekend for Hugh Jackman with The Wolverine, and Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine (with an apparently Oscar-buzzy performance from Cate Blanchett) coming out in limited release.

More from Comic-Con: Superman and Batman to team up

The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop: WB's big news this morning is that Zach Snyder's follow up to Man of Steel will be a Superman/Batman team up movie, with a release date set for 2015. Henry Cavill will return as Supes, while it's not yet known who will play Batman in the film.  It was also announced that a Flash movie is set for 2016 and The Justice League for 2017 (but that's tentative). David Goyer is set to write the script for the Superman/Batman movie.

Call me less than thrilled by this news. To me this says WB doesn't trust the Superman property on its own (even though it's brought in a pretty hefty box office haul so far, if not as much as they wanted), and even though I had a glimmer of hope that the next Superman would be better, since they introduced Clark Kent, what this says to me is that it's just going to be more excessive fight scenes and pounding stuff.

And can I just say, where the hell is the Wonder Woman movie? Why does no one believe that a superhero movie about the most famous female superhero ever would make any money? That is absolutely ridiculous, there are just as many fangirls out there as fanboys (just look at The Hunger Games franchise), and to not even try it while beginning to trot out the second tier ones continues to piss me off.

5 Great Summer Vacation Movies

Whether you have plans this summer for a cross country trip, lazy days on the beach, or a a visit to a distant relative- these 5 films will take you on various cinematic vacations, through summer flings, European sojourns, and road trips gone haywire. Spend your summer break with a couple of these, and even if you’re stuck at home with nowhere to go, you’d still have traveled all over the world.

  • National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. Dir. Harold Ramis. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first and best Griswold family vacation, as Clark W. Griswold takes his wife and kids on a road trip from Chicago to California’s “Wally World” theme park. Disaster ensues, but Chase’s sheepish silliness holds it all together and makes his final freakout all the funnier. Randy Quaid and John Candy are scene stealers in support.

  • Summertime (1955) Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi. Dir. David Lean. The first entry in the “single woman goes on vacation and finds herself in a foreign country” genre (think Under the Tuscan Sun or Eat, Pray, Love). Kate is a middle aged, lonely spinster who goes on a picaresque journey to Venice, shops, sight sees, and falls in love with Italian dreamboat Rossano Brazzi. A gooey romance, and Italy has never looked so ravishing (what can you expect from Lean, after all?) Chick flick? Definitely. But in the very best of ways.
  • Jaws (1975) Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfus. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Spielberg’s breakthrough may still be his best movie, utterly devoid of sentiment and filled with heartpounding suspense. Martin Brody is the new police chief of a summer resort town, and it’s no sooner than summer begins when tourists start getting terrorized by a man eating Great White. Thrilling, exciting and may put you off swimming for a while, but most definitely worth it.
  • Dirty Dancing (1987) Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey. Dir. Emile Ardolino. It’s the summer of ’63, and teenage Baby is vacationing with her family in the Catskills. Wouldn’t you know it, the dance instructors just happen to include sexy shaker Johnny who has a thing or two to teach Baby about how to move…in all kinds of ways. A huge hit in ’87, and still one of my all time guilty pleasures.
  • Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell. Time for another quirky road trip! Dysfunctional family including neurotic dad, shrill wife, suicidal gay brother-in-law, brooding teenage son, smack snorting grandpa and 6 year old wannabe pageant contestant haul into a broken down van en route to the annual Little Miss Sunshine contest. Sweet and funny with elements of black humor, the chemistry among the cast is tops, and the ending is heartwarming.

Hollywood's Highest Paid Actors

Forbes has got the list, and coming in at an unsurprising No. 1 is Tony Stark himself, Mr. Robert Downey, Jr., with a whopping $75 million in earnings last year. With Iron Man 3 easily crossing the billion dollar mark in a matter of weeks this summer...yeah, that makes sense.

Hollywood's highest earning men: 

  1. Robert Downey, Jr. - $75 million
  2. Channing Tatum- $60 million
  3. Hugh Jackman- $55 million
  4. Mark Wahlberg- $52 million
  5. Dwayne Johnson- $46 million
  6. Leonardo Dicaprio- $39 million
  7. Adam Sandler- $37 million
  8. Tom Cruise- $35 million
  9. Denzel Washington- $33 million
  10. Liam Neeson- $32 million