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Fans "Obsessed" With Beyonce

April 27, 2009

‘Obsessed’ Brings $29 Million at Box Office

By Keith Williams

HOLLYWOOD, CA (RushPRnews/Hollywood Today) 4/27/09 — Psycho-chicks from the 90’s clawed their way back onto the nation’s screens this weekend with Ali Larter annoying Beyonce in Obsessed for an estimated $28.5 million at 2514 bitchbrawls. Star-in-waiting Channing Tatum’s latest, Fighting pummelled $11.4 million at 2309 butchbrawls, The Soloist played at 2024 hobohalls resulting in $9.7 million dollars’ worth of loose change, and for DisneyNature, the Earth moved to the eco-tune of $8.5 million at 1804 wilderness reserves.

In the last weekend before “summer”, Obsessed nipped in and grabbed the best opening yet for a Beyonce movie. The widely-regarded but little seen Cadillac Records didn’t do it for her, nor the generally unloved Dreamgirls, so why did fans largely ignore her in musical roles but go for her in this shameless rip-off, er, homage to thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Hand That Rocks the Cradle? Or could it be that the Ali Larter fanbase (waxed, then waned by Heroes, but revived by Resident Evil Extinction) turned out to be considerably under-estimated? Next week with the arrival of X Men Origins: Wolverine, testosterone season kicks off in earnest at the US box-office. Maybe this was a last chance for the gals to get out there, claim the theaters as their own before being blasted and vaporised into CGI Hell. Whatever the reason, kudos to Screen Gems for successfully launching yet another b-movie thriller with no aspirations other than to chill and cheer.

With G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra lurking round the corner of the multiplex, armed and ready to annihilate any popcorn bucket in sight, Channing Tatum, one of its stars, should soon be raising his hands up high in the box-office ring of mega-summer grosses (unless of course it turns out to be another Van Helsing for director Stephen Sommers). Step Up introduced him to dance flix lovers back in 2006, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints to arthouse crowds the same year, then Stop-Loss to what few lovers of Iraq-based movies there were a couple of years later. What with Michael Mann’s Public Enemies opening in the vicinity of G.I. Joe, expect the appeal of Mr Tatum to widen considerably with films like Fighting paving the way to dramatic and commercial credibility.

That violin you hear playing sadly in the next auditorium along is unfortunately that of Jamie Foxx’s failing to woo cinemagoers as well as music lovers to what looks like from the trailer and advertising a worthy but synthetic affair. Not even the presence of Iron Man himself, Robert Downey jr, could tempt larger crowds inside, and for Atonement director Joe Wright must be regarded as a major disappointment for his US feature directorial debut. Reviews were enthusiastic, other than the LA Times which was actually involved in this true story, but the overall feeling for cash-strapped, would-be punters was one of glumness resulting from watching people in homeless shelters they might find themselves in all too horribly soon.

The brighter side of life came along in the form of DisneyNature’s Earth, a feature-length culling of the popular BBC TV/Discovery Channel series Planet Earth. Opening on Earth Day for a record-breaking take of $4 million (that’s equivalent to a good Adam Sandler debut in docu terms), who could fail to be moved by trailers featuring amazing visuals, stirring music, the leather armchair voice of James Earl Jones, and penguins? With long-term prospects in sight - these things last at IMAX theaters longer than elephants - expect Earth to be solid, life-affirming entertainment for those currently wondering if there will indeed be one in the not-too-distant future of this planet we call home.

Bumped to no 2 in the charts, last week’s champ 17 Again fell by a somewhat unhealthy 50% to $11.6 million (those fickle teens), Monsters vs Aliens a drop of 35.6% to abduct $8.5 million, State of Play a thud of 51% to $6.8 million, and Hannah Montana The Movie a plunge of 52.5% to $6.3 million (those fickle tweens). Likely to exit the top ten next week, Fast and Furious proved neither by braking 48.5% to $6 million, leaving Crank: High Voltage to crash the furthest by 65.5% to $2.4 million.

Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficemojo.com

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