'Shutter Island' wins weekend box office with $40.2 million

Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" dominated the box office with a $40.2 million take because there were no other wide releases to challenge it. It's a career best for the director and Leonardo DiCaprio. The victory is sweet for studio Paramount. The studio blamed the slated October 2009 release date on marketing expenses along with suspicion about the movie's quality. The switch generated curiosity among the fans of DiCaprio, Scorses, and horror pics. All fans packed the theaters. Coming in second was "Valentine's Day" which managed another $17.2 million despite the lose of love from the audiences. The movie droped a 69.5% from its holiday debut. This won't effect Warner Bro's plans to make more holiday-themed movies in the future. "Percy Jackson" (number 4) dipped 51%. "The Wolfman" (number 5) lost 68.7%. "Avatar" managed another record-breaking performance in the 10th weekend, dropping only 31.8% for a 3rd place finish. In 4th place "The Ghost Writer" banked a decent %179K thanks to media attention about the director's continuing legal troubles.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/21/boxoffice.ew/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

As I have said in another blog, you cannot out beat the box office, but I do think that a movie can win the weekend box office because the movie was just released and it was appealing to the movie goers who have already seen the other movies out in theaters. I am glad that, although there was a confusing about the release date and the quality of the movie, "Shutter Island" appealed to its viewers the same way the movie would have if it have been released earlier. I still find it odd that a lot of people put the movies into a sort of peeking order of which one is selling the most. Some people may see that a movie is selling out at the box office and is gaining a lot of money, so they go to see the movie and may not like it at all. I think that when they tell how much a movie is making they also need to put in a description of the movie, so people will know if they will like the movie or not and if the movie is selling out because it is a new movie or because so many other people have gone to see it.

Teens shot during California church service

In Richmond, California a church service erupted into chaos. Three gunmen opened fire on comgregants. They injured two teens. At about 12:30 p.m. after three hooded men shot at the churchgoers, police headed to New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ. Bisa Frech, police spokeswoman, says that they are unsure if the two victims were targeted, but someone in the area of the victims was. Filled with more than 100 people, police don't know why the church was attacked. The victims were both male ages 14 and 19. Both are expected to make a full recoveries. The assailants were described as being in their late teens to early 20s.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/14/california.church.shooting/index.html?hpt=Sbin

I think that this is a very sad story. The people in the church were just there to worship and grow in their faith and religion. It is sad that the gunmen would target a person while they are in church. I think that for the gunmen to even want to kill someone is very horrible and unhuman. I think that anyone who wants to kill someone and will go to great lengths to kill someone is not in the right state of mind. I am glad that the two people will be okay and be able to go about their lives, but they must be wondering, was I the person he was targeting? I hope that the three gunmen are found, so that no one else will die and so that the two victims know that they will be safe and that the targeted person has nothing to worry about.

'Dear John' beats out 'Avatar' at the box office

"Avatar" has dominated the box office for the last seven weekends. The romantic drama "Dear John" won the weekend with an estimated $32.4 million. "Avatar" out-grossed every movie in cinema history with am astounding $630 million. "Dear John's" success can be attributed to a marketing campaign that targeted women, who were 84% of the audience. Based on Nicholas Sparks' novel, the movie was entirely financed by Relativity Media, and Sony's Screen Gems distributed it.

The top ten are

1. Dear John - $32.4 million
2. Avatar - $23.6 million
3. From Paris With Love - $8.1 million
4. Edge of Darkness - $7 million
5. Tooth Fairy - $6.5 million
6. When in Rome - $5.5 million
7. The Book Of Eli - $4.8 million
8. Crazy Heart - $3.6 million
9. Legion - $3.4 million
10. Sherlock Holmes - $2.6 million

The records were broken for the top film, but the weekend performed beneath last year at this time when "Gran Torino," "Paul Blart Mall Cop," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Taken" dominated the frame.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/07/boxoffice.dear.john.ew/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

I know that each movie wants to be the best movie out in the theatres when it plays and it wants to sell the most when it comes out on blu-ray and dvd, but I think that say that "Dear John" beat out "Avatar" is a strong statement. The movies are for our entertainment and some to get a message across, not to try and 'beat out' another movie. When "Avatar" first came out a lot of people wanted to see it, so that is why it was the movie that got a lot of money. Now that "Dear John" is out, many people want to see that to, so those people are going to see it. Sure a movie can make more money on ticket sales, but a newer movie will get more viewers then a movie that has been out for seven weeks. That is because most of the people who want to see the older movie have probably already seen it and want to see a different movie.