Tuesday, November 6, 2007

'American Gangster' Whacks the Competition













American Gangster nailed the number one spot over the weekend, raking in $43.6 million. That’s a career best start for the two lead actors, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. In fact, it set a new record for the most successful debut of an R-rated crime drama. This might help Oscar voters in the ensuing months to vote on these two heavyweights in the award arena. Marketing replicated the swagger of past gangster pictures coupled with a black and white poster, eerily reminiscent of ‘Scarface’s.’ I’ve been in kind of Russell Crowe mood I guess, having watched L.A. Confidential on my ClearPlay DVD player recently. That is an amazing movie, I totally recommend it.

Jerry Seinfeld’s animated comedy ‘Bee Movie’ scored second with a hefty $39.1 million. I was kind of interested in how this movie was going to do after Seinfeld’s relentlessly annoying promotion. It kind of got mixed reviews, but almost reaching $40 million is a sizable chunk of change for an opening week, yet it still pales in comparison to other PG-rated fare.

Also, of note: ‘Dan in Real Life’ held relatively well, down only 33 percent from its opening week, which is pretty good. There’s a smidgeon of Oscar talk attached to this movie as well, but it deals more with the soundtrack. The lightweight singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche penned some original material that’s rather, well, swell, I guess. (I’m a sucker for Scandinavian music though.) Check out one of his music videos that’s somewhat amusing.

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