Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler' The Wrestler: In a fairly grim box-office weekend, it got some of the only promising signals. Fox Searchlight
 

• This is what a slow weekend looks like: Jim Carrey's latest rubber-faced comedy, Yes Man, opens with $18.2 million; Will Smith's latest earnest drama, Seven Pounds, opens with $16.5 million; and the mouse-based kids' movie The Tale Of Despereaux opens with $10.5 million.

One of the few movies to get good news was The Wrestler, which opened in four theaters and managed a per-screen average of more than $52,000, almost exactly ten times Yes Man's average. Compare that to the $60,236 -- the highest per-screen opening of the entire year -- for the three-screen debut of Frost/Nixon a few weeks ago, after a much more visible mainstream marketing push.

Sci-fi connectivity, honoring Jeff Buckley, and the year in satire, after the jump...

• The New York Times is under the impression that it was the best year for satire ever. Not to be disagreeable, but my guess is that personnel on all the shows mentioned would suggest that in a true banner year, you wouldn't be without your writers for the first month and a half. Perhaps it was the best second half of a year for satire ever.

• Heather and Jessica, a/k/a The Fug Girls, present their Ten Things We Learned From Celebrity Fashion in 2008. (Included: "The Perfect Sparkly Minidress Can Make People Forget That Time You Shaved Your Head.")

• All sci-fi is connected.

• The Guardian had the story last week of the war between reality-show fans and Jeff Buckley fans over the chart position of X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," more famously covered by Buckley. How did it turn out? Not only did the Buckleyites successfully push his version to No. 2, but Cohen's own version landed at No. 36.

categories: Roundups

8:06 - December 22, 2008

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