The Silver Surfer rose this weekend, and regardless of how well he may have done at the box office, Fantastic Four 2 is still the best sequel of the summer to date. That's not necessarily saying much, though, since its only competition has been plot-wandering, bloated effects fests like Spider-man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
Still, American churned out $57 million to see comic book cinema's most lighthearted quartet do their thing. That's just a shave higher than the first in the series which opened at $56 million. With that kind of a financial turn out there's a good chance the production won't go on to turn much of a profit on its $130 million budget (that's $30 million more than the last film), making the chances of a third movie just a little slimmer. That's good news for those of us who are getting tired of sequels, but bad news for the movie's writers who stuck this last movie with yet another painful "to be continued" sort of ending.
Nancy Drew rolled in at $7 million for the weekend. While I really liked the movie, at least as an option for younger movie-goers, I'm going to go on the record as saying that I don't mind the movie doing so poorly so long as the upcoming Bratz movie does worse. Crap pre-teen flicks like Bratz and Aquamarine are like crack, actually doing damage to the brain and sending the audience out of the theater a little dumber than when they went in.
Next weekend horror flick 1408 starring the unlikely duo of John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson hits theaters going head to head with the modern Noah comedy Evan Almighty. In a smaller release Angelina Jolie's war drama A Mighty Heart will stake its claim at the box office, hoping for a bite. Look for Evan to ride a tidal wave of cash all the way to the top.
