Well, box office fans, it seems as if the Gods of Movies About Things That Go Bump in the Night and Send Shivers Down Your Spine smiled upon most of those who dared play the most recent round of EW.com’s Fall Box Office Challenge. For the first time in nearly a month, the clear favorite going into the weekend — in this case, Josh Hartnett’s vampires-in-Alaska horror flick, 30 Days of Night — came out the other side a definitive No. 1, with a $16 mil gross. A whopping 56 percent of all participants in our little game saw it coming. Of course, an even more whopping 76 percent thought that Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Rendition would finish higher than it actually did (ninth place, with a shockingly bad $4.1 mil). The French have a word for a movie like that, PopWatchers, it’s called une bombe.
Anyway, the overall winner of last weekend’s contest was a savvy soothsayer known only by the handle "blink1082." Props to our mystery champion, who failed to provide us with a picture by press time — Blinky, we hardly knew ye. Actually, we didn’t know ye at all. But, hey, wanna get your photo posted in this space a week hence as the winner of the next round? Just log into our Box Office Challenge and cast your votes. You, too, Blinkster.
UPDATE: Better late than never. Here’s a photo of this week’s winner.
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So when “In the Valley of Elah,” a movie EW absolutely loved, struggled at the box office, we were called bad Americans. What are we now when “Rendition,” a mediocre movie, bombed?
Wouldn’t it be “La bombe”?
bb: “The bomb” is good; “a bomb” is bad, so clearly, “une bombe” is correct here (or, more correctly, “une grande bombe”!).
I enjoyed RENDITION, although I must admit I also have not yet seen THE KINGDOM or THE VALLEY OF ELAH (which one of my good friends saw & she said it was like THE MOST DEPRESSIVE movies she EVER SAW!). Had I seen either of those other movies i’m sot sure how I would have felt when I walked out of RENDITION. I think its nice hollywood is finally making movies about the war on terrorism, but I think they should have spread out the release schedule a bit broader. Too much at once has left audiences thinking, you saw one of em, you seen ‘em all! Hence eliminating their point of even being made!
As far as 30 DAYS OF NIGHT being #1, I had too predicted it was going to land at #1, just as we ALL know SAW IV will be #1 this weekend too, but with all the wild fires raging in SoCal, expect the returns to alot lower than SAW 3 had this time last year! My thoughts & prayers go out to all the Southern California Popwatchers and their homes!
I saw Rendition for free and I still felt ripped off. NOTHING HAPPENS THE WHOLE MOVIE except one explosion in the beginning. The rest is watching people pray/yell/get yelled at. No thanks.
To Sarah, Rendition wasn’t an action movie. It wasn’t marketed as an action movie, and clearly it was about making people think. I saw it opening weekend, and I thought it was pretty good. For explosions, though, I would recommend The Bourne Ultimatum, or maybe Shoot Em Up, and not a political drama.
Hey Joshau, thanks for the props and sorry about the picture. But it turns out you don’t need one. You see, I happen to look exactly like Jake Gyllenhaal, so just say the photo is of me.
mscisluv
I totally know what you’re saying about Rendition not being an action movie and I saw Shoot Em Up and Bourne 3.
The thing is, I didn’t expect Rendition to be an action movie. I’m just saying that literally the only exciting thing that happened the whole movie was one explosion. I just wanted more exciting events to happen…ones that didn’t involve yelling or watching people pray. Unless maybe they were running down an alley, too.
sarah, I guess I see what you’re saying…I expected Rendition to be more of a political thriller than a straight drama, so I was a bit disappointed in that regard as well.
Hey, first up Ummm, that other Blink is not me, so i’m wondering why he’s acting like it. Oh well, but this is my moment. Anyway I’m wondering how i could go about getting my Picture still included, i didn’t even know that was an option.
jake and reese are both sexy. especially jake. iwoulda thought more people would want to see it. everyones so into all this political stuff i woulda thought itd be a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hut
jake and reese are both sexy. especially jake. iwoulda thought more people would want to see it. everyones so into all this political stuff i woulda thought itd be a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hut