The people have spoken: Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart beats Mike Myers as Guru Pitka. Not that it wasn't much of a contest. Reviews for "Get Smart" (including my own) were mixed to pretty good, whereas the fumes of overripe cheese gone fungoid emanating from the trailer for "The Love Guru" extended to the critics and audiences. "Get Smart" pulled in a very tidy $39 million at nearly 4,000 theaters (for a healthy $10,000 per-theater-average). Compare that with "Guru," which came in fourth -- behind "Kung Fu Panda" and "The Incredible Hulk" in their third and second weekends respectively -- with $14 million at 3,000 theaters (for a paltry $4,600 PTA -- not much "want to see" there).
Message: Give the people what they want (a serviceable bit of retooled nostalgia), not what Mike Myers wants (a chance to work his way back into our good graces with copulating elephants).
In other B.O. news, "The Happening" no longer is happening: Down two-thirds from its opening weekend. Why? This may be best illustrated by the following word-of-mouth anecdote. Scene: The men's room of the AMC Boston Common. Time: Last Thursday night. The personnel: Guys doing their business, irate moviegoer. Irate Moviegoer:"Everybody, I just saw 'The Happening,' and I've taken it as my personal mission to warn you. Do. Not. See. This. Movie."
Way down the box office charts there was a limited five-theater release of "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," the Abigail Breslin period movie that means nothing to you if you don't have daughters who've read all the "American Girl" books and collected the absurdly expensive dolls and accessories (I have some experience here). The total take was just over $200,000, but the real story is in the per-theater-average: a whopping $44,600 that bodes well for the film's wide release next Friday. As with "Sex in the City," another hint of the underserved female audience, no matter what age we're talking about. Also, along with good returns for the expanded "Mongol" ($8,000 PTA at 94 theaters), "Kit Kittredge" is a sign that releasing company Picturehouse maybe shouldn't get absorbed by parent company Warner Bros.
More number twiddling at Box Office Mojo and Movie City News.
