Horton Hears a Who

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my picks below, you can also bring home the complete series of The Wire (one of my must haves for the month) as well as Deadwood in its entirety.

The Dark Knight
Oh my gosh, I kind of can't believe this movie is finally out on DVD and available to watch whenever I feel like it. Having loved it on the big screen (especially for Heath Ledger's mesmerizing — and bittersweet — performance), I definitely want to own The Dark Knight for myself.

As you'd expect, the special features are, as the kids say, off the hook. Among other things, they include a look at how director Christopher Nolan and his team developed the new Bat-Suit and the Bat-pod, and a chat with composer Hans Zimmer on musically characterizing the Joker's reign of chaos.


Two more up next, so read more

Maybe it's that time of the year, or perhaps there was a strong nationwide desire to see a scary movie, but whatever the reason, horror flick Prom Night was crowned queen at the box office this weekend. Variety reports that the movie's $22.7 million marks the best opening for a horror picture so far this year, possibly due to the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.

Though Street Kings is loaded with bloodshed and big names like Forest Whitaker and Keanu Reeves, it was still no match for the teen screamfest, earning second place with an estimated $12 million. 21, on the other hand, is still performing well, taking the third spot with $11 million. It was followed by Nim's Island, Leatherheads, and Horton Hears a Who.

Little family comedy Smart People starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Dennis Quaid came in No. 7 earning about $4.2 million. The overall box office is still experiencing a slump compared to last year. I wonder if Forgetting Sarah Marshall will get more folks to the theaters next weekend?

And if you're curious about Prom Night, head over to movies.ivillage.com for the trailer and video clips.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

For the second weekend in a row, Jim Sturgess and gang were No. 1 at the box office — though the overall March slump continued. 21 was down a bit from the weekend before but held on to the top spot with a weekend take of $15 million.

As for the No. 2 spot, Variety is calling it a "virtual tie" between George Clooney's Leatherheads (with an estimated $13.5 million) and the Jodie Foster-Abigail Breslin family flick Nim's Island, which brought in $13.3 million.

Horton Hears a Who came in fourth place followed by the big horror film opening of the weekend, The Ruins, which took in $7.8 million. The Rolling Stones documentary by Martin Scorsese, Shine a Light, opened in limited release and brought in $1.5 million.

What did you see at the theaters this weekend? Did you give George and Renee a chance despite so-so reviews?

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

• Tennis star Andy Roddick is engaged to swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, whom he started dating last year. — People
• Food Network chef Giada de Laurentiis and her husband Todd Thompson welcomed their first child, a girl named Jade, on Saturday. — lilsugar
• 21 took the top spot at the weekend box office, followed by Horton Hears a Who and Superhero Movie. — BuzzSugar
• An Australian newspaper is reporting that Heath Ledger may have fathered a child at 17 during an affair with a 25-year-old woman, who has raised the child with another man. — The Daily Telegraph
• The unions representing television and film actors, which have a long history of working together, have split and will now negotiate with producers separately in their contract talks. — AP
• U2 has signed a 12-year agreement with Live Nation, which will handle the group's merchandising, branding, and touring. Live Nation recently inked a similar deal with Madonna for around $100 million, and U2's package is said to be in a similar range. — Reuters
• Kathy Lee Gifford will cohost the fourth hour of The Today Show with Hoda Kotb. — MSNBC

Bauer-Griffin Online

Well, it looks like 21, the film about MIT students who take Vegas by storm, was a safe bet as it easily won the top spot at the box office. However, the overall weekend box office total was down 17 percent compared to last year, Variety reports. 21 earned an estimated $23 million, beating Horton Hears a Who and firmly establishing Jim Sturgess as a viable leading man.

Compare these results to another new release this weekend: Stop-Loss, starring Ryan Phillippe, who is a household name. Another box office casualty in a long line of Iraq War-related film flops, Stop-Loss only earned $4.5 million, coming in at No. 8.

Which brings me to the other box office disappointment this weekend, Superhero Movie. Could it be that Round One of Harvey Weinstein vs. Fanboys' fanboys goes to the geeks (more on the feud here)? Protesters gathered on both coasts where Superhero was playing, though in LA it appears Weinstein was prepared with guards. One protester told the Hollywood Reporter:

Guards were everywhere. At one point, I counted nine, no joke. They hired a whole force and whenever someone showed up looking around for the protest, they were surrounded by guards and told to leave instantly or be arrested. I guess you can't really hold a protest on private property.

Ultimately the film came in the third spot with a measly $9.5 million. Is this a little bit hilarious to anyone else?

Finally, Run Fat Boy Run starring Simon Pegg came in 13th and only earned an estimated $2.3 million here in the US. The movie grossed $22.6 million in the UK last Fall.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

After shattering 2008 box office records last week, Horton Hears a Who once again took the top spot over this Easter holiday weekend. Variety reports that Good Friday was the strongest day for Dr. Seuss' Horton which took in $25.1 million over the weekend in addition to the movie's opening weekend earnings of $45 million.

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns also performed well, coming in second place with a respectable $20 million.

Plagued by poor reviews and a lack of promotion for the film, the Judd Apatow-produced Drillbit Taylor earned a disappointing $10.2 million, putting the movie at No. 4 behind the thriller Shutter. Compared to how Apatow's comedies like Knocked Up performed last year, this kind of opening indicates that Apatow's attachment to a project doesn't guarantee box office gold. The top five was rounded out by 10,000 B.C. which dropped several spots from the No. 2 spot it held last week.

This weekend will bring several openings that will likely shake up the box office including Kevin Spacey's 21 and the war drama Stop-Loss.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

• Rhys Ifans' mother has confirmed that her son is engaged to Sienna Miller, saying "they adore each other and I am so pleased for them." —The Sun
• Horton Hears a Who took the top spot at the weekend box office for the second week running, followed by Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns and Shutter. Owen Wilson's Drillbit Taylor came in at a disappointing fourth place. — BuzzSugar
• An ex-con who was briefly jailed last week for allegedly stalking Tyra Banks showed up at her TV studio carrying a large duffel bag stuffed with Tyra-related newspaper clippings. The police removed him from the premises but he returned later. — Fox News
• Rick Salomon is now also claiming fraud in his divorce proceedings against Pamela Anderson. — People
• Kevin Federline celebrated his 30th birthday in Las Vegas on Friday night with his family and friends, including exgirlfriend Shar Jackson, and he topped the evening off by making a profanity-laced speech. — The Scoop
• Amy Winehouse's jailed husband Blake Fielder-Civil has apparently asked her to make deposits into the account of a heroin dealer who can provide him with drugs behind bars. In other Winehouse news, Amy's mother Janis, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has said that she needs to keep her distance from Amy's problems in order to preserve her health. — The Sun
• Jason Rae, husband of singer Corinne Bailey Rae, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose at the couple's apartment in the English city of Leeds on Sunday morning. — BBC

Bauer-Griffin Online

Opening to the tune of over $45 million in box office sales this weekend, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who has nabbed the best opening weekend so far in 2008. The title previously belonged to the January release of Cloverfield which raked in $41 million. Twentieth Century Fox's senior VP of distribution Chris Aronson quipped about Horton's success, "It's a who-mongous opening."

In second place, pulling in way less than Horton's giant pile o' cash was last weekend's holdover, 10,000 B.C. with $16.4 million, followed by Never Back Down, a martial arts drama that took in $8.6 million. College Road Trip was No. 4, with oldie-but-goody Vantage Point rounding out the top five. New release Doomsday did poorer than was expected, coming in at No. 7 with $4.7 million.

This weekend it'll be interesting to see if any of the newbies will be able to knock off Horton's crown: Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns and the Joshua Jackson thriller Shutter will be the only real competitors.

Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Turning a classic children's story into a mass-market, big-screen movie is always a risky proposition. So many never live up to the promise of the original — or, worse, change it into something unrecognizable. But luckily, Horton Hears A Who is on the other end of that spectrum. 20th Century Fox's animated adaptation balances Seuss's sweet story with stunning visuals, deftly sharing its message ("a person's a person, no matter how small") with only brief interludes of cheesiness.

In case you were more of a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish fan, here's the story of Horton in a nutshell: In a magical jungle, there lives an elephant named Horton, who one day spots a little speck on a flower. Thanks to his big ears, he can hear the noises coming from the speck and finds a way to communicate with the Whos of Whoville, who have lived their entire lives unaware that their universe was nothing more than a precarious resting spot on a flower somewhere. Horton wants to get the Whos to a safe place, but the jungle's bossy kangaroo doesn't believe Horton (and certainly doesn't want all the other jungle creatures imagining there are worlds on their flowers, too) and tries to thwart his mission. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Whoville — the only person who can communicate with Horton — has some doubters of his own who want to make a fool of him for suggesting their universe is merely a speck. Will the two worlds ever find common ground? Well, it's Dr. Seuss, so I suppose it's no spoiler that the answer is yes — but the way it plays out on film is fun to watch, so read more