Its been a bitch this past week to update and I appologize for that. But I am going to try a little harder and that may prove to be difficult this coming week. I have to finish two papers for my night class at Fairleigh due the 29th and I plan on working on it, and I also plan on starting to write a script (it has been about a year and a half since I’ve actually written something but I’ve been thinking about this script for a couple weeks now).

I saw Batman Begins on Friday with Melissa and Deanne and I thought it was great. The girls both thought it was a prequel to the other movies and I had to inform them that it wasn’t a prequel but it was restarting the entire franchise. Melissa didn’t quite understand how they could do that and I had to pull out the film The Sum of All Fears and explain how Ben Affleck restarted the Jack Ryan film franchise that had stared Alec Baldwin (in The Hunt for Red October) and Harrison Ford in ‘Patriot Games’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger’. So, they do restart film franchises. And I’m sure those aren’t the only two.

What did I think? I thought it was great. And just like Star Wars, I hope (and wish) I could see it again (I haven’t been able to see Star Wars again, but that’s ok, its been too long and I’ve lost interest and it’ll have to wait till it comes out on DVD. Batman will be my next obsession for a bit, but I will say that I was dissapointed with the fact that they didn’t have a theme for Batman but I understand why they didn’t. He wasn’t supposed to be the heroic character that he is in in the other Batman films (and honestly should be looked at from a clean slate). I thought it was great, and I felt it resembled the Spiderman franchise as they are trying to make it a more realistic super hero.

Let’s hope they don’t fuck up Superman when Superman Returns comes out next summer. Thank God they didn’t give it to someone like Stephen Sommers.

The following is an article about the top grossing movies for the weekend of June 17th — June 19th from CNN.com:

‘Batman’ flies to top of box office

Sunday, June 19, 2005; Posted: 4:49 p.m. EDT (20:49 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Batman was powerful enough to rule the box office, but the superhero was unable to pull Hollywood out of its worst slump in 20 years.

“Batman Begins” debuted as the top movie with $46.9 million, while overall movie revenues skidded for the 17th-straight weekend, tying a slide in 1985 that had been the longest box-office decline since analysts began keeping detailed records on movie grosses.

The top 12 movies took in $128.5 million, down 1.6 percent from the same weekend in 2004, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The slump may be a sign that more people are seeing movies at home. An Associated Press-AOL poll last week found that 73 percent of adults prefer watching movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view rather than going to the theater.

Studio executives blame the downturn on a comparatively weak lineup of movies this year and say it will take more time to determine if DVDs and other home-entertainment options are eroding theater business.

“Certainly, we need to look at that, but I believe you can’t do it by looking at six months. I think you have to take a couple of years to look at it,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released “Batman Begins.” Warner Bros. and CNN are owned by Time Warner Inc.

“We’re still product-driven, and even though there were and will continue to be strong movies in the summer, I don’t think there have been enough of them.”

Movie revenues this year are down 6.4 percent compared to 2004, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Accounting for increased ticket prices, admissions are off 9 percent.

“Batman Begins” bumped the previous weekend’s No. 1 film, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” to second place with $27.3 million, raising its 10-day total to $98 million.

The weekend’s only other new wide release, Hilary Duff’s “The Perfect Man,” opened with a weak $5.5 million, less than half the $13.6 million debut for the teen queen’s 2004 romance “A Cinderella Story.”

Since opening Wednesday, “Batman Begins,” starring Christian Bale as the DC Comics hero in his early days, grossed $71.1 million. The cast also includes Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes and Gary Oldman.

Comparisons to the previous four “Batman” movies, released from 1989 to 1997, are imprecise since they all opened on Friday and ticket prices have risen dramatically since. The earlier “Batman” flicks had opening weekends ranging from $40.5 million to $52.8 million.

Warner Bros. expects “Batman Begins” to finish its first week with $85 million, compared to a range of $59 million to $77 million for the previous “Batman” movies in their first week.

Distribution boss Fellman said “Batman Begins” opened strongly enough that he expects the studio will push ahead with a sequel.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I disagree with the fact that this summer’s movie presentation is bad. I think that it is far stronger than last years I just don’t think people give a shit anymore. Which sucks. I hope that this slow decline does not make the event films like War of the World (due out on June 29th), Batman Begins, and Star Wars extint. Because I used to live for the summer movie popcorn, big budget, special effects films.

Hollywood, don’t fuck up!

–Socram

PS

Here is the Box Office Breakdown:

1. “Batman Begins,” $46.9 million
2. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” $27.3 million
3. “Madagascar,” $11.1 million
4. “Star Wars: Episode III,” $9.7 million
5. “The Longest Yard,” $8 million
6. “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl,” $6.6 million
7. “The Perfect Man,” $5.5 million
8. “Cinderella Man,” $5.2 million
9. “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” $3.2 million
10. “The Honeymooners,” $ 2.6 million