Disney's Game Plan This Weekend...

Walt Disney Pictures "The Game Plan" starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a self-absorbed superstar quarterback opens up today against Universal's "The Kingdom". While it's likely "Kingdom" will be on top, it remains to be seen if "The Game Plan" can pull in strong numbers at number two this weekend. The last Disney movie that came out during the summer was "Underdog", which seriously underperformed(I was worried about that one from the moment I saw the stills and knew it was doomed upon seeing the trailer).

Another movie that's in limited release right now, opening up last Wednesday is "Into the Wild", directed by Sean Penn and based on the best-selling book by Jon Krakauer. I hear this one is amazing and plan on seeing it next week.

So tune in Sunday and see if an egotistical professional football player can overcome terrorists fighting FBI agents. Can you smell what the Mouse is cooking?

Rush To Judgement...

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker's "Rush Hour 3" was at the tops of the box office this weekend with a $50 million take sending the super-spy, Jason Bourne down to number two with a $37 million haul. The Matt Damon vehicle, "Bourne Ultimatum" has domestic total of $132 million since last Friday. "The Simpsons Movie" brought it's home total to $152 million. Disney's "Underdog" continued to under-perform for the second week with a disappointing total of under $25 million in ten days. Pixar's "Ratatouille" collected over $193 million in domestic cheese... Remy is getting closer to a $300 million world-wide gross. While it's probably not going to equal "Cars" take, it seems to still have good legs, particularly overseas where there are still a few territories to open up.

Jason Bourne, No Underdog...

This weekend, secret agents were more powerful than super-heroes, it seems...

The number one movie at the box office was "The Bourne Ultimatum" staring Matt Damon as the uber-spy with a double dose of conscience and no memory. He was definitely no Underdog in movie theaters with $70.1 million on opening weekend. At number two was the Bart Man himself, the "Simpsons Movie" added up $25.6 million in grosses. Fox has been tooting that its film opened bigger than any Pixar film ever. All I have to say is... 2D animation is dead. Dead I tell you! Hear that, Michael Eisner? Disney's very own "Underdog" brought in an unheroic $12 million at third place. Michael Bay's robot love-fest, "Transformers" finished the weekend at eighth place with a little under $6 million for a domestic total of $296 million dollars... just shy of the magical $300 million line. It should clear that sometime this week.

Pixar's "Ratatouille" opened up in France and Spain this weekend to the top spot, knocking down the "Simpsons Movie". Remy has made $188 million in America so far. The final tally for its international take isn't in yet, but over the next month the film opens in many more countries so the total gross should start to rise quite a bit with the uptake in foreign debuts.

That little movie with the pirate plot-line, "At World's End"... perhaps you've heard of it? Its slowly moving in on the billion dollar mark. It may yet equal the grosses of the second film. Jack Sparrow's one lucky pirate.

Disney doesn't have another major film for distribution till the Fall with "Enchanted". The other great thing about the coming Autumn is the resurrection of something not seen since 1953... Disney Shorts! Goofy's career rises from the ashes in "How To Install Your Home Theatre". I'm actually more excited about this than most of the films coming out later this year.