>Keep your helmets on: the studios are about to drop three more bombs in movie theaters this weekend.  A horror movie, an action flick and an adult comedy are being released, and we expect each to gross not much more than $30 million in their entire domestic theatrical run.  Opening weekends should range between $9-12 [...]

>  See A Word About Busted Pilots Peter Tolan, who with Denis Leary created Rescue Me, knows something about the comedy that emerges when when men try to assert their masculinity in the most idiotic ways.  So you can understand why FOX developed COUNCIL OF DADS, which was meant to bring that kind of tone [...]

> For anyone attending the Toronto International Film Festival that begins in just over 2 weeks, today was a crucial day:  the release of the Festival schedule.  (TIFF also announced some not-shabby final additions to its roster of titles, including Gus Van Sant’s Restless and Jonathan Demme’s third and latest Neil Young documentary.)   Now [...]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in down 2% versus last year’s comparable week (the first down week after five up weeks in a row).  Year-to-date box office is now down 3.9% versus last year.  The Help was the lone bright spot this weekend, down only 23% from its opening weekend and managing to [...]

>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, already a billion dollar movie worldwide, is now closing in on a billion dollars overseas alone.  The estimated worldwide gross for the final Harry Potter film now stands at $1.275 billion, with an estimated final domestic gross of $375 million and overseas gross to date of $900 [...]

> There’s not much to add about the weekend grosses that hasn’t been said (see Mitch Metcalf’s round-up report here), so let’s take a look at who, apart from the studios themselves, did and didn’t have a fun weekend: WINNERS Women of THE HELP:  Emma Stone isn’t likely to get Oscar consideration for her performance, [...]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), The Help is the pick of the litter, down an impressive 21% from last weekend’s opening.  All the openers are pretty much stillborn.  The weekend overall is now looking like it will be down 3% from this weekend last year.     The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final [...]

> According to Deadline, nothing much changed for the new boxoffice arrivals on Saturday.  THE HELP is still far in front for the weekend, with a beautiful $19-20M second weekend, and it’s followed by RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, with its own impressive $16-17M third round. (Apes now looks like it will pull [...]