Box Office: TOY STORY 3 has huge 2nd week, goofy Sandler draws, KNIGHT & DAY flops, HEX enters oblivion

Toy Story 3 is officially already making a profit for Disney/Pixar, and despite the movie carrying the absolute perfect thematic ending for Woody, Buzz and the gang - you would be crazy to think we have seen the last of these soulful toys. They are simply too much of a goldmine, something not even Pixar will resist and you'll see Toy Story 4 before the decade is out. But, we trust John Lasseter and his filmmakers to treat their sequels as lovingly as they treat their original fare. I was terrified of Toy Story 2 in the late '90's and it was amazing. I was literally sweating over Toy Story 3 and it blew me away, moving me on an emotional level that I wasn't sure I was capable of anymore... so forgive me if I refuse to doubt them. For now though, Toy Story 3 pulled in $59 million on it's second weekend, and is totaling $226.5 million domestic. That's $326 million worldwide from a $200 million budget and that's before you consider it hasn't hit all international shores yet (such as the U.K.), and before the billions inevitably to be made in toys, merchandise, dvd sales, etc. Could it become the second movie of the year to hit the billion dollar mark after Disney's other big hit Alice in Wonderland? If it does, it would be the first animated film to do so (Shrek 2 came close 6 years ago with $919 million, and didn't have the added help of higher 3-D ticket prices) and the sixth film of all time overall - but we are a month away from that being a possibility. Unlike Burton's Wonderland, Toy Story 3 fully deserves the money it's raking in and we rejoice this rare moment of things all being right in the universe. Sadly, it kind of all goes down hill from here. Adam Sandler and friends' $70 million budgeted comedy Grown Ups takes in $41 million for second place, just $18 million shy of the final domestic total of Sandler's last movie Funny People. It's the highest three day cume of his very successful career, a consistent comedy draw for audiences and despite the horrific nature of the reviews, Columbia will be delighted by this. This time next week, we can expect Grown Ups to have succeeded Funny People's end total and for those of us who think Adam Sandler is better than this - those of us who love his work in Punch-Drunk Love and indeed Funny People (such an under-rated film we think), I think this total marks the end of that alter-ego. He's gone for good, unfortunately. You've only got yourselves to blame though. Joe Popcorn has spoken, and he likes his Sandler as a goofy lame duck, with shit & fart jokes a plenty and when he tries to bring something deeper, meaningful and/or philosophical - you guys get weirded out and don't show. What's up with that? In third then, and you are probably sick to death of my long written out eulogies to the high-profile, spy thriller comedy Knight & Day, but it's a big deal that it has ended with less than $30 million for it's 5 day opening weekend - taking in just $27.8 million from a budget of $112 million. The end total may not be as horrific for Fox as the $3.8 million opening on Wednesday (what kind of release day was that anyway) and may not instigate a massive cost-cutting job exercise, but no execs will be all that pleased with how the film has turned out. You have to remember that this movie was pushed by Fox, and all stages of Knight & Day were intensively covered by the media at the studio's expense such as allowing press to cover the stunt days and the constant on-set interviewing junkets that have been splashed around everywhere. I feel bad for all the people involved because Fox, rather unlike them, really took a risk with the film but it just didn't work out. They do only have themselves to blame, and some serious questions need to be asked of their marketing division because the trailers, the poster campaigns (this movie couldn't carve out an identity for itself, and couldn't sell the supposed box office duo of Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise). The movie might scrap back something for Fox, and I think it'll do well internationally but Knight & Day is neither the comeback for Tom Cruise that proves he is still a box office draw, and neither is it this year's Mr. and Mrs. Smith as hoped. Cruise needs to seriously look at the decisions he made early last year and why he shunned The Tourist (a serious version of a spy/thriller/romance that ended up with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie that opens at Christmas) and several other promising projects, to make this one. James Mangold, an above-average helmer whose last two movies were my favourites of their particular years of release (3: 10 to Yuma in '06 and Walk the Line in 'o5) should also ask himself how he came by directing this film, which by the point he boarded had seen well over half a dozen writers, three title changes (they ended on Knight & Day as the best of the bunch? Jeeez) and and well, it's known by all that Cameron Diaz doesn't sell movie tickets these days so this film has hardly hurt her career. 1 1 Toy Story 3 BV $59,000,000 -46.5% 4,028 - $14,647 $226,552,000 $200 2 2 N Grown Ups Sony $41,000,000 - 3,534 - $11,602 $41,000,000 - 1 3 N Knight & Day Fox $20,500,000 - 3,098 - $6,617 $27,789,000 - 1 4 2 The Karate Kid Sony $15,400,000 -48.5% 3,740 +77 $4,118 $135,641,000 $40 3 5 3 The A-Team Fox $6,000,000 -58.3% 3,242 -302 $1,851 $62,843,000 $110 3 6 4 Get Him to the Greek Uni. $3,010,000 -50.7% 2,188 -404 $1,376 $54,486,000 $40 4 7 5 Shrek Forever After P/DW $2,875,000 -48.8% 2,340 -867 $1,229 $229,313,000 $165 6 8 6 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time BV $2,801,000 -49.7% 1,851 -754 $1,513 $86,177,000 $200 5 9 8 Killers LGF $2,000,000 -60.3% 2,271 -348 $881 $44,000,000 $75 4 10 7 Jonah Hex WB $1,600,000 -70.3% 2,825 - $566 $9,144,000 $47 2 11 9 Iron Man 2 Par. $1,375,000 -52.1% 1,169 -443 $1,176 $306,882,000 $200 8 12 11 Sex and the City 2 WB (NL) $1,275,000 -47.1% 901 -779 $1,415 $93,128,000 $100 5 No change then with the order of the rest of the pack. The Karate Kid continues to bring in crowds, adding another 77 screens and an impressive $15.4 million to it's now $135.6 million total. That my friends, is what we call a HIT movie. The A-Team added $6 million to it's $62 million total, and is now over the half way line towards it's $110 million budget. BUT at 5th in the box ofice charts and on it's third week of release, the movie ain't gonna make Fox a dime theatrically and it's a non-starter franchise. Just like Knight & Day and the under performing Mamaduke. Poor Fox, eh? At 6, the Russell Brand/Jonah Hill starrer, which I actually enjoyed, Get Him To the Greek is now profiting $15 million and you can't rule out them going to the Aldous Snow well again. At 7, Shrek Forever After looks like the second-rate option to Toy Story 3 these days but $229 million domestic from a $320 million budget and it's done enough for Dreamworks and they will be pleased. At 8, Disney's Prince of Persia which is crawling towards $100 million domestic (half of it's budget). It's now $10 million short, but the movie has proved a hit worldwide ($312 million) and is actually the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time. At 9, Killers pretty much bows out of cinema's some $30 million or so short domestically of it's production budget. And at 10, Jonah Hex is the biggest disaster in recent Warner Bros. history and is a complete BOMB. An embarrassing screen average ($566), and 70% drop-off from the HIDEOUS total of it's opening weekend, and man... WB need Inception to open like, yesterday, to forget it's troubles here. It's weekend cume of $1.6 million to form $9 billion total so far, and it's dropping out of the Top Ten. Remember the movie was made for $100 million!!!