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| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| Paranormal Activity | $22.0M | $62.5M | At the week 5 mark, it's Blair Witch Project $107.3M, Paranormal Activity, $62.5M. |
| Saw VI | $14.8M | $14.8M | Has the indignity of getting crushed by $15K-budget movie, but with a mere $11M budget this pic is already in the black. |
| Where the Wild Things Are | $14.4M | $54M | Big Week 2 drop-off puts the financial viability of this big-budget pic into question. |
| Law Abiding Citizen | $12.7M | $40.3M | Small Week 2 drop-off keeps this thinking man's Saw in Top 5. |
| Couples Retreat | $11.1M | $78.2M | Critics hated on this movie but it's also in the black after its third week ($70M budget). |
Bomb of the Week: This week is a pick'em between Astro Boy and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. Both movies got very wide releases but didn't even crack the Top 5. "Animation fatigue" and "vampire fatigue" were cited.
Posted 10.25.09 by reelz -
The reviews for this Paul Weitz-directed adaptation of the popular comic-goth novels are kind of sucking, shall we say. Does this signal the end of the vampire craze?
"...a harmless bit of fluff with a very cool look, but there's just never enough bite."
— Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times / AP
"...tests its viewers' patience even as it strives to build their loyalty."
— A. O. Scott, New York Times
"...includes good Vampires, evil Vampanese, a Wolf-Man, a Bearded Lady, a Monkey Girl with a long tail, a Snake Boy, a dwarf with a 4-foot forehead and a spider the size of your shoe, and they're all boring as hell."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"All you need to know is that the movie is a setup for sequels that I hope never come. Jammed with story threads that don't cohere, Cirque commits the cardinal sin for a vampire movie: It's bloodless."
— Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"The vampire trend continues, but the only authentic bloodsuckers in Cirque du Freak are its producers and studio execs."
— Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
Posted 10.23.09 by reelz -
Actor John C. Reilly has played many roles in the more than 50 movies he has appeared in, but he's never really had the opportunity to "sink his teeth" into a role like the one he has in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. In director Paul Weitz's adaptation of the popular Cirque du Freak young adult novels by Darren Shan, Reilly plays Larten Crepsley, a vampire working in a traveling freak show. In a recent interview, Reilly said that it was Crepsley's humanity that attracted him to the role, rather than the character's supernatural abilities.
What drew me to the role was the fact that it was a real person, that he wasn't some supernatural mystical being that can turn into a vampire bat. The powers weren't so extreme that it was just another thing altogether, that this guy was a person who was alive in the 1800's who was essentially about my age.
So, I am like a 40-year-old who has been alive for 250 years or whatever ... that was interesting. You must have had really thrilling runs there. And then other times when it was just very dark. You almost wish you were dead.
Reilly said that he is "contracturally bound" to return in a sequel, if one is made, and that he would be interested in further exploring the world that Shan created in his books.
I really hope it does happen because there are some really exciting parts of these books yet to come. They go on these wild adventures. And once the War of the Scars is reignited between the two vampire clans, it really gets intense in the books, and Darren has to go off and be trained properly to be a real vampire warrior. There is a lot of cool stuff. There are some other really interesting characters that come in. And then Darren has to deal with what it is to be a vampire and go through some of the same heartbreak that Crepsley has been through. And you realize, "Um, if I don't make this person a vampire too and curse them with this, then I am going to lose them pretty quick."
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant also stars Salma Hayek, Willem DaFoe, Ken Watanabe, Orlando Jones, and Ray Stevenson
Posted 09.30.09 by BrentJS -
The first picture of actress Salma Hayek (Frida) as her character in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant has been released, and it's a hairy one. Hayek's character, Madame Truska, performs as a "bearded lady" in a traveling freak show with her lover, Larten Crepsley (played by John C. Reilly), the titular vampire. The movie is based on the popular Cirque du Freak young adult novels by Darren Shan.
When asked about playing such an unusual character, Hayek told Entertainment Weekly:
... she needs to be very comfortable with herself. I thought, of all people to have that problem, she'd be an interesting one.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant is directed by Paul Weitz (American Pie) and also stars Willem DaFoe, Ken Watanabe, Orlando Jones, and Ray Stevenson
Posted 08.09.09 by BrentJS