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Best Actor Emmy voters get the last laugh

Kim Hollis: Talladega Nights was not the only success story of the weekend. Barnyard earned an unexpectedly solid $16 million. The per-venue average of $4,844 is middling at best, but isn't this better than you were braced for?

Reagen Sulewski: Oh, yeah. The bloom is off the rose for animation unless you're in the big two. This one looked like a complete flop. I can only credit the idea that animals are cuddlier than ants as a reason for this this to do better than The Ant Bully.

David Mumpower: That's at least double what I was expecting. I have no idea why it earned more than Ant Bully. I saw basically no advertising for it.

Dan Krovich: Yeah, after The Ant Bully it looked like perhaps animation had run out of steam for the summer. Barnyard was able to at least open respectably. The Ant Bully just goes to further show how poor a summer Warner Bros. has been having.

Tim Briody: Considering this has been the year when computer animation has officially gone from special to ho-hum, it's quite decent.

Kim Hollis: Given how horrid Barnyard looked, I think any number in double digits had to make Paramount happy.

Reagen Sulewski: The bad news is that this only encourages Steve Oedekerk.

Dan Krovich: Maybe at least Hollywood will learn that the reason people flock to Pixar movies is not the computer animation, it's that their screenplays are better. Nah, I doubt Hollywood will learn that.

Kim Hollis: No chance.

Joel Corcoran: Based on the previews and commercials, I was surprised Barnyard did so well. It looked like dreck.

Tim Briody: I've been waiting for a Kung Pow! sequel.

Reagen Sulewski: You and Steve's mother, Tim.

Dan Krovich: Barnyard may have also benefited from some Nickelodeon marketing muscle that wasn't as apparent to adults.

Lionsgate spends a few dollars, makes several million

Kim Hollis: The Descent earned $8.8 million from 2,095 venues. Should Lionsgate be happy with this performance?

Tim Briody: It's no Saw II, but it cost less than that to make, so it's par for the course for Lionsgate.

Reagen Sulewski: For a monster movie that starred no one anyone in its audience has ever heard of, they should be doing cartwheels.

Kim Hollis: I think it's another example of Lionsgate doing horror well. It was an inexpensive pickup for them and will have even better life on video.

Joel Corcoran: Absolutely, Lionsgate should be happy. For very little investment, they got a few million dollars and some great reviews. I just hope they put the original ending in the DVD.





Reagen Sulewski: I think there's a distinction here in that it was a foreign pickup, and they couldn't have input to get someone like Kristin Kreuk in the film.

Dan Krovich: I think maybe Lionsgate thought that throwing more marketing money at it wasn't going to get them a whole lot more and they're happy with the return on a pretty inexpensive investment.

Robin Williams was in a movie that opened this past Friday

Kim Hollis: The Night Listener made $3.6 million over the weekend. Did you know this?

David Mumpower: This is some sort of Robin Williams movie, right? Does it involve an RV?

Reagen Sulewski: For someone as famous as Robin Williams, it's astonishing to look at how many outright bombs he's had.

Tim Briody: Reagen nailed it, another in the "Robin Williams thrillers nobody sees" genre.

David Mumpower: Agreed, Reagen. He's not quite in Eddie Murphy/Bruce Willis territory, but his signal to noise ratio is a bit alarming.

Dan Krovich: I think it's a matter of the new Miramax still trying to find its feet and figure out what it is.

Joel Corcoran: I really wasn't paying attention - I honestly thought this movie was opening in another week or two.

David Mumpower: You and almost everyone else in North America, Joel.

Dan Krovich: They reportedly bought it at Sundance for $3 million, so they're not too upset, I guess.

Another TV show remake, another disappointment

Kim Hollis: Miami Vice, the film that supplanted Dead Man's Chest as the #1 film last weekend, fell a startling 62% to $9.7 million. Does the $45.7 million running total indicate a hit, a miss or a draw?

Tim Briody: To be honest, this is the amount that I thought Miami Vice was going to open to, until I realized it was Michael Mann and figured that was going to be good for a few million.

Reagen Sulewski: Big miss. Especially since it's not going to play well to foreign audiences.

Dan Krovich: A miss because they let the budget get so high.

David Mumpower: The first weekend performance in the Collateral range is exactly what I expected. The second weekend performance, which is nowhere near the Collateral range (35% decline) is not. This is a disappointing turn of events, particularly given it's a Michael Mann movie. His productions should all have legs. This is behaving like a generic action film, unfortunately.

Joel Corcoran: Big miss, which is unfortunate.

Kim Hollis: I think it's a touch disappointing. It certainly hasn't had the strong holdover of Collateral.

Reagen Sulewski: It ended up being a bit too much like the series, really. The ending left you with an unclosed, episodic feeling.