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- Paul 
Sacha Baron Conen nailed the box office again as another zany charecter -- this time as 'Bruno.' Remember 'Borat?' I don't, I have not yet seen it.
'Bruno' sashays to box-office fame with $30.4M
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gay Austrian
fashion devotee Bruno has landed the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, though it's uncertain how much staying power he has.Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" started big on opening day Friday but had a huge drop the rest of the weekend, with the Universal Pictures mock documentary finishing with $30.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The
movie took in nearly half of its weekend total - $14.4 million - on Friday, then tumbled with just $8.8 million Saturday and an estimated $7.2 million Sunday.Revenues for hit
movies typically go up on Saturday, so the nosedive for "Bruno" could be a sign that it lacks the shelf life that made Baron Cohen's "Borat" a $100 million smash."It is unusual for a film to drop on Saturday. Normally, you expect the film at least to be even on Saturday or above compared to Friday, because Saturday is the biggest moviegoing day of the weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's going to be interesting to see how it does over the long
run.""Bruno," which features Baron Cohen as a wannabe going to extremes to achieve celebrity, finished ahead of 20th Century Fox's "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which took second with $28.5 million. The "Ice Age" sequel raised its domestic total to $120.6 million.
Finishing third after two weekends in the No. 1 spot was Paramount's
sci-fi blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" with $24.2 million, raising its domestic haul to $339.2 million. The sequel passed the $319 million total of 2007's "Transformers."The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's romantic comedy "I Love You, Beth Cooper" opened weakly with $5 million, finishing at No. 7. The movie centers on a high school valedictorian who uses his graduation speech to declare his love for a bombshell classmate (Hayden Panettiere).
"Bruno" outpaced the $26.5 million opening weekend for Baron Cohen's surprise 2006 hit "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.""Borat" started with $9.2 million on opening day Friday then climbed to $10.1 million Saturday, a sign that fans were talking it up to friends.
That good word-of-mouth propelled "Borat" to a long run at theaters, the movie climbing to a $128.5 million domestic total.
"Borat" also scored its big opening weekend in far fewer theaters. "Bruno debuted in 2,756 cinemas, more than three times the number for "Borat."
Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal, said comedies such as "Bruno" typically drop off over opening weekend this time of year, while "Borat" opened in November, when audiences are less fickle than summer crowds.
The studio will have to wait until next weekend for a sense of how well "Bruno" can hold up for the long haul.
"I don't know. That crystal ball just isn't on my desk this morning," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "Zany comedies tend to be like that, so I'm hoping that in the scheme of things, it just plays out the way zany comedies will play out."
Reviews on "Bruno" were not as strong as those for "Borat," which critics generally liked. There also had been questions about whether Baron Cohen's flamboyantly gay persona might prove off-putting to audiences.
"Bruno" did most of its business in cities on the East and West coasts, while revenues were "softer, much softer in middle America," Rocco said.
Even if revenues continue to plunge, "Bruno" is well on its way to turning a profit for Universal, which paid $42.5 million for rights to distribute it domestically and in eight other territories. "Bruno" took in $25 million in overseas markets so far, including $20 million in those Universal acquired, among them Great Britain, Australia and Germany.
Modi Wiczyk - co-chief executive officer of Media Rights Capital, which financed "Bruno" - said the movie exceeded the company's expectations. Wiczyk said he had anticipated "Bruno" would finish in the range of $25 million domestically for the weekend.
"We don't have talking robots or karate in our film," Wiczyk said. "For that increasingly small subset of films that don't have robots, we did terrific."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Bruno," $30.4 million.
2. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," $28.5 million.
3. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $24.2 million.
4. "Public Enemies," $14.1 million.
5. "The Proposal," $10.5 million.
6. "The Hangover," $9.9 million.
7. "I Love You, Beth Cooper," $5 million.
8. "Up," $4.7 million.
9. "My Sister's Keeper," $4.2 million.
10. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $1.6 million.
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On the Net:
http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice
Have you seen 'Public Enemies' yet? Neither have I. But I want too. As a Hoosier, I had heard the tales about John Dillinger. This is part of the story the movie missed.
Dillinger's Ohio crime spree left out of new movie
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Before becoming Public Enemy No. 1, gangster John Dillinger pulled off his first bank robbery in a sleepy Ohio town.
Police captured him months later when they swarmed his girlfriend's apartment, but within weeks he brazenly strolled out of jail after his gang killed a rural sheriff.
His Ohio escapades aren't part of the new movie "Public Enemies," which tells of his life on the
run after an escape from an Indiana prison and of his death in Chicago. But his rise from small-town bank robber to America's most wanted man can be traced to a string of holdups during the summer of 1933 and the daring escape that left the Ohio lawman dead.Even though Dillinger didn't kill the sheriff, it was the first murder in which he was involved, said John Carnes, curator of collections at the Allen County Museum in Lima.
"After the sheriff was killed," Carnes said, "everybody knew about him."
Dillinger, born in Indianapolis, is better remembered for his gang's crime spree through Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana and for his death outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, where FBI agents shot him.
The Universal Pictures movie, starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger, focuses on those final months. Dillinger's time in Ohio often is overlooked because it wasn't until months later that he became the FBI's top priority, Carnes said.
"I wasn't really surprised the movie left it out," Carnes said. "But it is an important part of the story."
Universal spokeswoman Jennifer Chamberlain said the film takes place during a specific time in Dillinger's life and was not intended to be a biopic.
Dillinger had served nearly nine years in a Michigan City, Ind., prison for robbing a grocery when he and his prison buddies, including a few with Ohio roots, hatched a plan that would set in motion his infamy.
They decided that Dillinger, who was to be released first, would begin knocking off banks so he could buy guns and break his friends out of prison. They targeted banks in small towns where Dillinger could easily get away, and his first bank robbery was in New Carlisle, near Dayton, in June 1933.
In the next few months, he robbed banks in Indiana and then in Bluffton, Ohio. The money helped him smuggle guns to his Indiana prison buddies, who overpowered guards and broke out in September 1933.
But just days before the prison break, Dillinger was captured while visiting his girlfriend in Dayton. He was moved 100 miles north to Lima, where he faced a bank robbery charge in the Bluffton holdup.
Dillinger was playing cards with a few other inmates in Lima on Oct. 12, 1933, when three men claiming to be officers from Indiana walked into the jail.
They were Dillinger's old prison buddies from Indiana.
The three men told Allen County Sheriff Jess Sarber that they wanted to speak to Dillinger. When Sarber asked for their credentials, one of them shot him and then began beating him.
Dillinger heard the gunfire, got up from the card game and grabbed his coat. He knew he was free again.
Sarber died in the escape, and the three men who killed him later were captured and convicted.
Dillinger and the rest of his gang continued robbing banks in the Midwest before they were caught in Tucson, Ariz. Dillinger was taken back to Indiana, where he escaped while awaiting trial on charges that he killed a police officer during a Chicago bank robbery.
By that time, he was the FBI's Public Enemy No. 1.
The movie, which opened July 1 and features Christian Bale as FBI man Melvin Purvis, renews the debate about whether Dillinger was a Robin Hood-type hero for those who were angry with banks and had lost their savings during the Great Depression.
"He was, as far as I'm concerned, a criminal and a murderer," said Sgt. Tim Garlock, of the Allen County sheriff's office, who began studying Dillinger's escape in Lima after he started working in the former sheriff's residence.
Visitors still stop by about once a month asking to see the old jail, which still looks the same on the outside, Garlock said.
"People," he said, "still have the fascination for it."
I just watched Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino.' This is a very touching film with a surprise ending. Certainly not what I had expected but no less heroic. You must see it!This film has alot to offer for adults and teens. But it maybe too intense for young children. In fact, this is one of those films that I think should be required viewing.
- Paul 
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