10 January Movies That Ate Your Money
by Reg Seeton

BACK TO THE BUFFET (not bad, but room for more):

The Bucket List (January 11):
You know that a movie's going to be a hit with a wide audience when your mom calls to urge you to go see the latest theatrical release. It's like your little sister calling and begging you to go and see the new Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert movie, only in reverse. As far as the older generation is concerned, how can you go wrong with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? When thinking of today’s generation, The Bucket List is a safe movie to check out with the parents or grandparents. It's one of those films that you can walk away from feeling relatively satisfied knowing you got something out of it, whether it was time spent with your girl, your dad, your grandma, or your kids. Come to think of it, The Bucket List is one of those movies that could run for an entire year and still make money as a safe alternative for the family. Since January 11, The Bucket List has raked in over $58 million domestically, and $10 million was this past weekend, two weeks after going wide.

27 Dresses (January 18):
Poor Katherine Heigl. If it wasn't for Cloverfield, we'd still be hearing about the success of 27 Dresses. Hell, if it wasn't for Cloverfield it's safe to say a lot of guys would have been going to see 27 Dresses with their girls. Although the much-anticipated release of Cloverfield completely overshadowed Katherine Heigl as a never-ending bridesmaid, 27 Dresses went on to become one of the best January movie releases ever. While guys got their monster fix with Cloverfield, the overall audience for 27 Dresses was 87% female, unfortunately making the female demo the real bridesmaids of the month. However, now that January comes to a close, with Cloverfield sinking like a rock in second and third week receipts, it's looking like the girlfriends of the world just might have the last laugh in terms of weekly box-office endurance... and undoubtedly their own sequel alongside the inevitable Cloverfield II. Look for 27 Dresses II vs Cloverfield II sometime in 2009 or 2010.

Meet The Spartans (January 25):
Didn't these movies die off when they were called Hot Shots? It's amazing that Meet the Spartans beat Rambo at the box-office. Well, Sly Stallone IS 61, but still... Would a movie like Hot Shots have killed Rambo back in the '80s or '90s (even though it parodied the one man killing machine)? At any rate, the 300 spoof Meet the Spartans became a hit on the scale of the mindless Epic Movie, raking in an estimated $18.7 million on its opening weekend to Rambo's $18.2 million take. You know what that ultimately means? You guessed it... a safe lock for Meet the Spartans II. With all of that said, it was clear that Spartans was the best bet for a few laughs in a month filled with monsters, bridesmaids, Asian remakes, and missed calls. Does that really mean Meet the Spartans was that great of a movie? We'll see you at the buffet for a second helping since we still have room for a few more chicken balls.

10 January Movies Page 3: Completely Full