Batman Begins Beats Bewitched At The US Box Office

Bewitched, the Nicole Kidman comedy remake, has failed to beat Batman Begins - the most popular movie since Star Wars: Episode III at the US Box Office this weekend.

Batman Begins is powering past all the competition at the top of the US box office - at least until Crazy Tom’s War Of The Worlds comes out next week.

Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan (DVDs), took $26,770,000 over
the weekend, compared to Bewitched’s $20,200,000. This has surprised
some people, as Bewitched was a high profile remake of a beloved TV
series, starring the biggest actress in the world, and one of the most
popular comedians.

However, the last comedy Nicole Kidman (DVDs) tried was The Stepford Wives,
and that was rubbish. Perhaps audiences don’t trust her to be funny.
And Will Ferrell seems to be saying "yes" to any film he’s offered
these days - a Woody Allen film, an awful kiddie soccer film, and he’s
signed up to star in the hideous-sounding Joan Of Bark: The Dog That
Saved France. Moreover, Bewitched was directed by Nora Ephron - the
hilarious woman behind You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless In Seattle. A
recipe for mediocrity, you might say.

Despite the continuing success of Batman Begins, the US cinema slump
has crept into it’s 18th week - the longest in modern cinema history.
Why is this? Has everyone started illegally downloading the movies? Has
the population of America decided that they have something better to
do? Let’s look at the weekend US box office chart…

1. Batman Begins (watch out for the octopus bomb, Batman!) $26,770,000

2. Bewitched (Nicole Kidman slowly realises that all her witch movies are rubbish) $20,200,000

3. Mr & Mrs Smith (The funniest film about domestic violence ever) $16,750,000

4. Herbie: Fully Loaded (Lindsay Lohan shrinks her boobs for the kids) $12,750,000

5. George A Romero’s Land Of The Dead (Zombies are brilliant) $10,233,000

6. Madagascar (Ali G plays a zoo animal) $7,300,000

7. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith ("Noooooooooo!") $6,250,000

8. The Longest Yard (Will Ferrell abuses some children in shorts) $5,475,000

9. The Adventures Of Sharkboy And Lavagirl In 3-D (From the man that brought you Sin City) $3,425,000

10.
Cinderella Man (Having no communications devices to pummel people with,
Russell Crowe resorts to good old punching) $3,270,000

So, there we have it. Half of the ten most popular films in America
right now are either remakes or sequels. Keep it to yourself, but maybe
the cinema slump is down to a lack of original ideas.

[story by Stuart Heritage]