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Grubby Charlize is less appealing than grubby Zhang Ziyi

Kim Hollis: With a weekend total of $6.5 million, do you think North Country is eliminated from Oscar contention?

Dan Krovich: The movie is, though Charlize Theron will remain a possibility for a Best Actress nomination.

Reagen Sulewski: It might be eliminated from Best Picture. Acting awards are much less box office dependent.

Joel Corcoran: Yes, but only because it got hoisted on its own petard. Had it been a quiet, limited release film, I think it might still be in contention, though (like Dan) I think Charlize will get a nomination.

David Mumpower: I think that a lot would have to go wrong with the rest of this year's releases for anything from North Country to get much notice. It wound up being viewed as self-serving and self-important by too many people. And Charlize Theron has already gotten her dressed down Oscar nod.

Joel Corcoran: I think "self-important" is the right way to describe it, David.

David Mumpower: If we just look at box office demographics, 62% of the audience were female while 68% were over 30. That's not where the money is for exhibitors.

Fog is apparently scarier than water

Kim Hollis: The Fog dropped 38% from last weekend and has a running total of $21.5 million. It had a budget of $18 million. What do you think about its performance so far?

Tim Briody: That's stunning for a horror movie.

Joel Corcoran: On a budget of $18 million? Fantastic. Not only in terms of its return-on-investment, but also in terms of horror movies over the past year.

Reagen Sulewski: I would have bet a lot of money against The Fog holding even 50% of its box office.

Kim Hollis: It's already made back its budget, too. And yet, I somehow expected a little more from it. Or I did until I started seeing the commercials.

David Mumpower: I don't understand the decline here on The Fog. Reviews and word-of-mouth are best described as hateful.

Reagen Sulewski: It's like, creepy weather. That's scary, but Dark Water bombs?

Coming soon: the stars of the WB in the scariest movie ever!

Kim Hollis: The drop is downright miraculous. It's PG-13. Did kids maybe buy tickets and sneak into Doom? Oh, wait. No one saw that, either.

Reagen Sulewski: I would seriously buy that as a real reason, Kim. Everything else seems too far fetched.

David Mumpower: Does Tom Weller die a gruesome death? If so, I could see word of that increasing demand a bit.

Tim Briody: My only guess is that it's because we're so close to Halloween, but I still feel like I'm grasping at straws trying to come up with a reason.

Joel Corcoran: I'm trying to come up with some witty insight about how The Fog is succeeding where Dark Water bombed (along with a few other better horror movies recently), but I'm just dumbfounded. So I'll just blame David.

Dan Krovich: Dark Water didn't feature any teen friendly stars. Kids these days aren't into Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly.

Kim Hollis: Kids never learn.

Dan Krovich: We'll be seeing more Horror remakes. The formula is pretty bulletproof. Hire some stars from WB shows, grab some property with even a slight recognizability factor, keep the budget cheap and you have a safe bet. You won't lose money, and you have a chance at a breakout hit. When is the remake of Christine coming out?

Kim Hollis: After the remakes of When a Stranger Calls, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Eye 1 and 2.

Joel Corcoran: And as long as Chad Michael-Murray and/or Tom Welling appears shirtless in it, I'll go see it. I'm cheap and shameless that way.

David Mumpower: I don't know but Lindsay Lohan will be driving the car.

Kim Hollis: Herbie the Love Bug turns heel!

David Mumpower: I envision more of a Paparazzi Meets Christine than a pure re-make.

Ewan and Naomi who?

Kim Hollis: Stay rolled over and played dead this weekend, as it didn't even crack the top 12. Should people just stop casting Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts in films?

Reagen Sulewski: Ewan has to start petitioning to carry a light sabre in all his future films. This one at least had the excuse of being pulled off the shelf after two years.

Dan Krovich: They made the mistake of not using the Lisa Loeb song as the theme song.

Kim Hollis: I'm sort of stingy about Ewan anyway. I don't like anyone else to like him except for me.

David Mumpower: Ewan McGregor is circling into Mark Hamill territory with his recent box office performances. He's going to wind up doing voice work in Wing Commander 6 if he's not careful.

Kim Hollis: Sadly, the movies where he's done voice work haven't been so hot either. Though I'm sure that will change if Robots has a "story" as promised.

Dan Krovich: Ewan McGregor will always be able find work in independent films where most of his career has been anyway.

Kim Hollis: Frankly, Dan, I think that's how he prefers it.

Dan Krovich: It's not like Mark Hamill had anything approaching the career that McGregor had pre Star Wars appearances.

David Mumpower: As for Naomi Watts, if a film she's in makes money, it's in spite of her rather than due to her presence. Between this, I Heart Huckabees and The Ring 2, I'm starting to suspect her agent hates her and is trying to destroy her career. She's in phase two of the Tara Reid Career Collapse. Thank God she got on that casting couch with Peter Jackson.

Reagen Sulewski: She'll always have a career taking the roles Nicole Kidman rejects.

Kim Hollis: Hey, Peter Jackson lost a lot of weight!

David Mumpower: With McGregor, I think he's almost better off having this happen. It keeps him seeming edgy and hard to pin down.