The Weekend Report: April 10, 2011

Audiences continued to Hop to it as the animated Easter eggs-travaganza topped weekend tickets sales with an eggs-timated $21.6 million. The film bounded well ahead of a quarter of new national releases that saw the remake of Arthur and the distaff thriller Hanna competing for the second slot with the former squeaking ahead by about 200k with a $12.5 million tally. The inspirational Soul Surfer bowed to $10.9 million and the tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler Your Highness swiped $9.5 million.

Wilmington on Movies: Potiche

“Movies can be works of art. (This one isn’t.) But they can also be, in a way, fantasy bistros where we meet and re-meet people we love to watch.”

And – A DP/30 w/ Ozon

Friday Estimates: April 9, 2011

Hop|5.4|3616|-53%|51.9 Arthur|4.4|3276|NEW|4.4 Hanna|4.1|2535|NEW|4.1 Your Highness|3.7|2769|NEW|3.7 Soul Surfer|3.6|2214|NEW|3.6 Insidious|3.2|2419|-32%|20.6 Source Code|2.7|2971|-46%|22.3 Limitless|1.7|2642|-44%|60.4 Wimpy Kid 2: Toderick Rules|1.3|2881|-53%|41.9 The Lincoln Lawyer|1.2|2420|-39%|43.1 Also Debuting Born to Be Wild|0.22|206|| No Eres Tu, Soy Yo|0.17|226|| Thank You|70,200|92|| Meek’s Cut Off|6,300|2|| Meet Monica Velour|3,500|2|| Blank City|3,500|1|| American: The Bill Hicks Story|3,000|1|| Henry’s Crime|2,350|2|| The Ceremony|2,250|3||

Review: Your Highness

NOT-SO-HIGH TIMES “Your Highness” is about as fun as a bag of schwag and an episode of Starz’s “Camelot” Pot can make any movie better. Don’t forget, though, that you actually have to smoke the pot to achieve these results. Just watching a bunch of scenes where characters smoke pot won’t do it. This is…

Wilmington on Movies: Arthur

After the sheer lousiness or mediocrity of so many Hollywood romantic comedies, it’s depressing to see the memory of a good old one go blotto, in the hands of a lot of talented people. Why did this happen? Where is there a romantic comedy touch today anything like Lubitsch’s? Or Wilder’s? Woody Allen some time again, maybe?

Box Office Hell — April 8

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Hop|23.5|22.5|24.0|23.0|24.0 Arthur |15.3|18.1|13.0|18.0|17.0 Your Highness|12.4|13.3|11.0|15.0|11.5 Soul Surfer|10.0|10.1|10.0|n/a|10.5 Hanna|8.6|7.1|7.0|10.0|10.0

Critics Roundup — April 8

Arthur|Yellow||Red||Red Hanna|Green||Green||Green Soul Surfer|||||Yellow Your Highness|||Red||Yellow Meek’s Cutoff (limited)|Yellow||Green|Green| Kati with an I (NY)|||Green|| American: The Bill Hicks Story (NY)|||Green|| Henry’s Crime (NY)|||Green|| To Die Like a Man (NY)|||Green||

The DVD Wrap: Fair Game, I Love You Phillip Morris, Chronicles of Narnia, The Next Three Day, Desert Son, Treme …

Fair Game: Blu-ray Here’s another feel-bad movie about being an American … just what we need, right now. It used to be easy for those on the right (as opposed to left) side of any political debate to blame Hollywood’s many commies, sodomites and Jewish studio executives – sometimes all three simultaneously — for distributing…

The DVD Geek: The Sweet Smell of Success

There are many outstanding Blu-rays in the marketplace, and not a few of them have been released by the Criterion Collection, but every once in a while you come across a Blu-ray that is even better than outstanding, one that has an extra sort of subliminal something that crystallizes its perfection of delivery and transports the viewer to the illusion of a genuine theatrical experience.

The Weekend Report, April 3, 2011

The non-stereoscopic anime egg hunt that is Hop easily outdistanced the competition to take the weekend box office crown with an estimated $38.3 million. The session also featured two other new entries that ranked second and third on the charts. The sci-fi thriller Source Code edged out the eerie chills of Insidious with $14.9 million to the latter’s $13 million.

Friday Estimates: April 2, 2011

Hop|11.4|3579|NEW|11.4 Source Code|4.9|2961|NEW|4.9 Insidious|4.7|2408|NEW|4.7 Limitless|3|2838|-36%|49.2 Wimpy Kid 2: Roderick Rules|2.7|3169|-62%|30.9 The Lincoln Lawyer|2|2707|-31%|34.6 Sucker Punch|1.9|3033|-77%|25.7 Paul |1.3|2806|-45%|28.9 Rango|1.2|3645|-50%|109.7 Battle: Los Angeles|1|3118|-53%|76 Also Debuting Shakthi|31,400|31|| The Last Godfather|27,800|58|| Game|22,400|62|| Trust|17,700|28|| Super|16,900|11|| Bumrush|10,800|37|| Cat Run|8,300|100|| In a Better World|7,800|4|| Queen to Play|7,200|6|| Rubber|6,100|5|| Le Quattro Volte|4,600|1|| Elephant in the Living Room|3,400|1|| Circo|2,550|1|| Venus noire|2,500|4|| Le Colis|2,300|7|| An…