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  • Raised by opera-loving parents in a rock ’n’ roll world, Rich Copley has parlayed his broad interests into his career writing about arts and entertainment. Since 1998, he has covered performing arts, film and faith-based popular culture for the Lexington Herald-Leader, the daily newspaper in Lexington, Ky. It’s a pretty broad beat, but Rich delights in finding influences of the past in the present and showing fine arts fans the value of pop culture, and vice versa. ~ Copious Notes is a blog covering that broad spectrum. If you want to read about specific areas of interest, such as theater or opera, click on one of the categories to the right and you will be whisked away to all posts in that category. Also, look around the blog for links; multimedia items such as photo albums, videos, and interviews with artists; and other nuggets. Have fun, and thanks for dropping in. The header for this blog was designed by Danny Kelly and the illustration was drawn by Camille Weber.

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« Stop scribblin' and play yer guitar | Main | 10.24: It's Tuesday, and that means . . . »

October 23, 2006

10.23: Monday morning at the movies

It was a thing that made me go, "Hmmmmm," until giving it a little thought. The_prestige_poster The Prestige topped the box office this weekend, despite a mixed bag of reviews and the Johnny-come-lately status of being this Fall's second magician movie. But, it had some star power in Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in the leading roles, along with Scarlett Johansson. And that probably proved more attractive than the unknowns that made up the ranks of Clint Eastwood's World War II drama, Flags of Our Fathers, which clocked in at No. 3. In addition to The Prestige, Flags was also bested by Martin Scorsese's The Departed, performing strong in its third weekend. Also showing legs is Open Season, which hung in at No. 4 in its fourth weekend. Rounding out the Top 5 was the girl-and-a-horse drama Flicka. The weekend's other wide release, Marie Antoinette, opened at No. 8. Between that and Flags, maybe moviegoers were saying they weren't terribly interested in history. That might be just as well, as Orange County Register critic Barry Koltnow made some valid points in a commentary last week about movies loosely based on history muddying the record for young filmgoers.

Here's the weekend Top 10, according the Internet Movie Database:

1. The Prestige, $14.8 million

2. The Departed, $13.7 million

3. Flags of Our Fathers, $10.2 million

4. Open Season, $8 million

5. Flicka, $7.7 million

6. The Grudge 2, $7.7 million

7. Man of the Year, $7.04 million

8. Marie Antoinette, $5.3 million

9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, $3.88 million

10. The Marine, $3.73 million

It feels like you could write next weekend's box office report now. It's the third straight Halloween weekend with a Saw movie opening, Saw_iii_2 Saw III (photo, left, of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw and Shawnee Smith as Amanda, by Steve Wilkie). Last year, Saw II opened at $31 million, far outpacing Saw's $18 million opening weekend in 2004. It seems most studios are electing to stay out of Jigsaw's way this time, as the only other wide release is the Apartheid drama Catch a Fire, starring Derek Luke and Tim Robbins -- going for quite a different audience from the Saw crowd there.

After this weekend, holiday-awards season should start to gear up.

Posted at 11:03 AM in Film |

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