One of our biggest fears heading into the UFC 153 live discussion at With Leather on Saturday night was that the event was going to be soaked in the stink of Here Comes the Boom previews, and I was even betting that Kevin James and Adam Sandler would show up as Stephan Bonnar’s ring entourage, which would have been fitting considering the beating he took. Fortunately, not only was the event free of Happy Madison lackeys, but I only remember seeing one preview for the film. Even more fortunately, Here Comes the Boom finished No. 5 at the box office this weekend, which is yet another sign that maybe, just maybe the nation has had enough of these guys.
Or maybe not, because the film still made $12 million and averaged $3,981 per screen to Seven Psychopaths’ $2,889 average, and that’s depressing. I don’t want to live in a world in which Christopher Walken is appreciated less than Kevin James.
Meanwhile, Taken 2 remains the No. 1 film in America, as moviegoers proved they’d rather watch Liam Neeson beat the crap out of foreigners than Salma Hayek pretend she’d ever reveal the holy chesticles to Paul Blart. Argo opened strong at No. 2 with a $20 million weekend, which also proves that we’ll always take shoot ‘em up style over clever escape plans. This is America, dang nabit!
Of course, it’s worth noting that Happy Madison still killed at the box office this weekend with Hotel Transylvania making another $17.3 to run its 3-week gross up to $102 million and change. Frankenweenie, which has been out for 2 weeks, has only grossed $22 million ($7 million this weekend), which means that Sandler is even making better animated Halloween movies than Tim Burton. But to Sandler’s credit, Frankenweenie looked weird, even for Burton.
Sinister also had a strong opening, which is cool, but it won’t mean anything when Paranormal Activity 4 comes out and earns $6 trillion on a budget of 6 food stamps and a pack of Skittles. And speaking of cookie cutter horror, people are still paying money to see The House at the End of the Street, and I have a very strong theory as to why:
What’s up, Jennifer Lawrence? Cool dumpster.