By Brian Fuson
Audiences were more intrigued by human-to-human than human-to-mutant relationships at the boxoffice during the weekend. Universal Pictures' "The Break-Up," starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, took the industry by surprise and racked up a sterling estimate of $38.1 million -- the third-biggest opening of all time for a romantic comedy -- to claim the top spot.
SHOULD BE NO SECRET WHY THE BREAK-UP TOOK TOP SPOT! ANGIE AND BRAD GIVE BIRTH, TEAM ANISTON HITS BACK. BUT AS I SAID BEFORE I SERIOUSLY DOUBT BRAD, ANGIE AND JEN HADN'T DISCUSSED THE BREAKUP RELEASE DATE AND ANGELINA'S DELIVERY WINDOW.
Thumbs-up? Thumbs-down? Who cares?
Confronting critics: The disconnect between critics and moviegoers has become so obvious this summer that it now calls into question advertising and publicity concepts that have been part of Hollywood's arsenal of marketing tools for decades.
The boxoffice thumbs-up that moviegoers have given "The Da Vinci Code" and "X-Men: The Last Stand," for example, is a far cry from those films' thumbs-down reviews -- a rotten 23% for "Da Vinci" (149 rotten out of 194 reviews counted) and a rotten 55% for "X3" (80 rotten out of 177 reviews counted) on the RottenTomatoes.com Tomatometer. With "Da Vinci" having done about $153 million domestically and "X3" having grossed about $140 million, it's clear that the public could care less about what the critics think of these films... - Martin Grove
