May 28th, 2002

More "Clones"

Ah yes, Memorial Day. Once the official start of the summer movie season, it's kind of taken a back seat now to the start of May. No matter though, as during the four day weekend moviegoers pack in to their multiplexes for some entertainment. While this weekend had some major new releases that did well, it was more of a battle between two bigger movies from earlier in the month.

Star Wars Episode II - Attack Of The Clones was first for its second week in the row, this time taking in another 61.2 million during the past four days, breaking the 200 million barrier mark. Spider-Man, expanding screens, still performed majorly. This is truly a mindblowing phenom, taking in another 36.5 million over the long weekend. It's now made 334 million overall, and should climb upwards of over 400 million...

The next three places were reserved for the weekend's new releases, and each of them did really well. Christopher Nolan's remake of the 1997 foreign flick Insomnia made 26.1 million, while Dreamworks' latest animated effort, Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron made 23 million, outperforming some expectations. In fifth was the new Jennifer Lopez thriller, Enough, with a solid 17.5 million.

About A Boy expanded screens this weekend and made another 10 million, while Unfaithful only took a slight drop and made 7.7 million more. The New Guy also had a minimal drop, making 5.5 million this weekend, while Changing Lanes and The Scorpion King are on their way out with 2 million and 1.9 million each. Looks like "The Scorpion King" will miss the 100 million mark by just a few inches... but perhaps not. Obviously, the spin-off was not as successful as the actual "Mummy" franchise.

I assume a lot of you will be picking up the "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" DVD this week, so have fun with it (sarcasm there). Be sure to read my review, which will pop up this week. In the meantime, I finally posted my Vanilla Sky review. It's a bit detailed, and if you liked the film and want my in-depth thoughts (the review's a bit lengthy), do check it out and I hope you enjoy my take on Cameron Crowe's latest.

On another note, today's my Mom's birthday, and I figured I'd wish her a good one right here :-) Happy Birthday Mom.

And next week... it's June. Wow.

-Zach B.