Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Before the weekend started, early predictions were that THE SOCIAL NETWORK would debut on top with approximately $27 million. That seemed a little low for me. Everyone I knew wanted to see this movie but apparently couldn't pull themselves away from Facebook to see the film opening weekend. It still debuted on top but came in on the lower end of expectations with $23 million. Still, the response to the film has been phenomenal from both audiences and critics alike so the David Fincher film should have strong legs in the weeks ahead. Last week's champ, WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS suffered a sizable 46% drop with this new kid in town.

Other debuts this week might as well not have bothered. Considering it was being dumped anyway, the Renee Zellwegger dud, CASE 39, shouldn't mind coming in 7th place. That said, coming in below that is pretty embarrassing for Matt Reeves' LET ME IN. I would say that purists refused to see the remake but it wasn't made for them anyway.

Below the Top 10, CATFISH (+34%), WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (+192%) and YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (+45%) saw solid increases follow their modest expansions. BURIED and NEVER LET ME GO slowed somewhat. Both pictures are still expected to go wider next week, much wider.

NEXT WEEK: What a dreadful week to go to the movies next week. Catch something you missed because I see no reason to get excited about the Katherine Heigl comedy, LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (3100 screens) or the Diane Lane horse movie, SECRETARIAT (2500 screens). Of course you could catch MY SOUL TO TAKE in 3D. Who doesn't love horror flying off the screen at you? Even the art house crowd gets shafted with the big disappointment, IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY. Better luck the week after I guess.

Source: Box Office Mojo

LET ME IN

Written and Directed by Matt Reeves
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins

Abby: Just so you know, I can’t be your friend.

I have a reasonable amount of sympathy for Matt Reeves, the director of LET ME IN. He made a perfectly adequate and genuinely authentic remake of Swedish filmmaker, Tomas Alfredson’s LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, but there was no way for him to come away from the experience as a winner. Fans of the original, of which there are many, and of which I count myself among more or less, see no reason to mess with success. And so, to appease these fans, Reeves remains as true to the original vision as possible. As well intentioned as this is, it renders LET ME IN even more pointless as a result.


It begins with a children’s choir singing ominously over a humming that is eerily chilling. It continues with the same slow, quiet pace that allowed the supernatural elements of the original to appear fully natural. Owen and Abby (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz), the American counterparts to Oscar and Eli (Kare Hedebrant and Lena Leandersson), meet on what looks like the same jungle gym, in the same courtyard, behind the same low income housing where Oscar and Eli met. He is the same loner kid who gets picked on regularly at school and she is the same little girl, hiding her vampirism from those around her. Both are ostracized and both find understanding in each other. Their relationship, in great part thanks to these two fantastic, young actors, is just as tender and terrifying as Oscar and Eli’s was. Is there any point in retelling the exact same story the exact same way though?


I’m all for remakes; at their best, they can take already brilliant screenplays and reimagine them visually in all new manners, with sometimes all new meanings. At their worst, they are embarrassments that can be so big, they even tarnish the reputation of the original. LET ME IN falls directly in the middle of this spectrum. As dark and delicious as it can be at times, it never manages to give any reason for its existence other than to make it more accessible for audiences uninterested in subtitles. If you’re going to make a remake, you should have a good reason to do so, perhaps a new take on the subject that makes remaking it relevant. Pandering is not one of these reasons.