Pandas Off The Hollywood Endangered List
Posted by Seth at 3:05 AM on June 10, 2008
Whether you spent your Sunday pridefully snorkeling Jäger bombs in WeHo or simply watching the Lakers' Championship hopes slip away, chances are, you're feeling pretty gnarly this morning. Here's some box-office-numbers hair of the dog to ease your crushing hangover:
1. Kung Fu Panda - $60 million
The proposed steel-cage bout pitting DreamWorks' deadly plushy versus the horse-hung Mossad assassin who's also handy with a crimping iron (or whatever the hell that movie is about) turned out to be unfairly matched: Panda swiftly minced his opponent into sabra-fruit marmalade. And while Jack Black scored high with audiences as the voice of the endangered hero, Seth Rogen stole enough scenes as the movie's insectoid master-of-deflection that his perpetually stoned character's spin-off movie—Tae Kwon Do Stick Bug—will be fast-tracked into production for a summer 2010 opening.
2. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - $40 million
$40 million is certainly nothing to sniff at, particularly for a movie whose premise left 99.7% of Sandler's core fan base scratching their backwards-baseball-caps. ("What's with the hairdressing stuff?" "Why's he talking with an accent?" "What's Israel?") And while they were lured in with the promise of broad Sandler-style comedy, they left with a far greater understanding of Israeli foreign policy, which was stealthily embedded into the proceedings via Rob Schneider's uncredited cameo as Golda Meir. We thought he delivered the, "Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values," speech from Munich stirringly.
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $22.805 million
This brings the grand total for Indiana Jones and Uh, Did We Just Wander Into Caddyshack? to $253 million, or one dollar per phoned-in performance, chintzy-looking set-piece, and CGI eyesore.
4. Sex and the City - $21.31 million
No need to panic, ladies. You still rule Hollywood with a mighty, manicured fist. The Official Movie of the Female Gender™ may have seen a 63% drop since last week, but that was fully anticipated by Warner Bros., They insist City will "find sturdier legs over future sessions," presumably once the cast has a chance to unbuckle those 7-inch stilettos and file down their bunions.
5. The Strangers - $9.289 million
Choosy mums pick The Strangers' floppy masks over Funny Games's crisp tennis whites nearly 2-to-1 as their random-home-intruder family-torture-porn uniform of choice!
- WEEKEND BOX OFFICE June 6-8, 2008 [boxofficemojo.com]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
TheQuestion
Posted 5:56 AM 10/6/08
The more I read about Indy4, the more sure I become that I won't destroy the pleasant memories of 1 - 3 by subjecting myself to this dreck.
TheQuestion
Sleepyhead
Posted 5:23 AM 10/6/08
@gwendolyn: Not to kick a dead horse, but:
- When an Indiana Jones movie starts with goddamn CGI gophers making human facial expressions, you know you're in for a steaming shitpile.
- I went with a crowd of 8 people, several of whom loved all the previous films and were excited for the 17-years-too-late 4th one. Six out of the eight slept at some point during the film.
Sleepyhead
Sweet Panda Love
Posted 4:39 AM 10/6/08
Let it be known by the Monday morning haul - everybody likes fucking pandas! Let that obscene gerund mean whatever you want it to mean.
Sweet Panda Love
gwendolyn
Posted 4:10 AM 10/6/08
"3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $22.805 million
This brings the grand total for Indiana Jones and Uh, Did We Just Wander Into Caddyshack? to $253 million, or one dollar per phoned-in performance, chintzy-looking set-piece, and CGI eyesore."
ohmigod, I took my daughter to see this, finally ("It came out this weekend?" "No, honey, it's been out for a few weeks." "Noooooooo! I thought it just came out!! Why didn't you tell me?!?!") and I could not believe how cheesy, hokey, phoned-in and just 'Why did we bother? Look at those initial box office receipts!!' pointless it was. The only thing I enjoyed was that pimped-out suburban street for the nuke test (I particularly loved the live TV. Were they unsure whether an atomic bomb would disrupt a television transmission?) and Ray Winstone (I have a thing for short, chubby guys AND accents).
But my thirteen year-old thought it was 'awesome', so it was ok just for that.
But - George Lucas and Steven Spielberg: really, now...
gwendolyn
Desk_hack
Posted 6:23 AM 10/6/08
Mark my words: pandas are the new penguins.
Desk_hack
hummingpenguin
Posted 6:19 AM 10/6/08
@TheQuestion: Yeah, seriously, don't go. George needs to learn his lesson, dammit!
hummingpenguin
gwendolyn
Posted 8:34 AM 10/6/08
@Sleepyhead: I'm not a big fan of the horses, so let me get one more lick in:
Shia LaBeouf?!? WTF to the tenth power! I am not quite old enough to remember Tab Hunter or Troy Donahue, but I do remember Sean Cassidy, Scott Baio and Bobby Sherman.
One unexpected box office sleeper rip-off of 'Rear Window' does not a sustained career make and he has all the charisma and acting chops of Karen Allen...
gwendolyn
Sweet Panda Love
Posted 9:07 AM 10/6/08
@Desk_hack: I sure hope so. Better pandas than zebras.
Sweet Panda Love
Pomalina
Posted 3:35 PM 11/6/08
@gwendolyn: Hey, leave Karen Allen out of this. Her smile alone has more charisma and wattage than Shia's little...err...well...anything.
Karen Allen's like the pandas of sassy girl sidekicks. I won't have it, dammit!
Pomalina
Factotum-Vergudo
Posted 5:32 PM 11/6/08
This movie sucks.
Factotum-Vergudo