The Hot Button by David Poland

Weekend, 16 May 1998

WEEKEND WRAP-UP
Well, it was a good weekend for my box office picks, but then again it was a pretty easy weekend to handicap. Deep Impact fell 43 percent and $23.3 million. (Just off my mark.) The Horse Whisperer rode into second place (a slot it is unlikely to ever improve on) with $14 million (I guessed $18 million). The soft opening for Quest For Camelot, which Warner Bros. admits disappointed them, was $600,000 worse than my $7 million prediction. And the fourth place finish for City of Angels was right on top of my guess with a $3.2 million weekend. He Got Game held up a little better than I expected in week three and Titanic a little worse as they took fifth and sixth place, flip-flopping from my prediction. And in a bit of news that shocked even me, my prediction of a tie between Woo and Paulie for seventh and eighth with $1.7 million each was exactly right. OK. I'm done bragging now. Except that Les Misérables did take ninth with $1.5 million. I blew off The Big Hit prematurely. It took 10th place with $1.4 million by dropping only 39 percent after a 59 percent drop last weekend. (Must have hot the drive-in circuit.) Hope you all did as well as I did. Box Office Challenge results are due in Wednesday's Hot Button.
THE GOOD: The weather in New York was incredible, all three films I was there to check out (Godzilla, The Truman Show and Last Days of Disco) were at least "good" and the actors who were there to talk about their movies were all pretty cool.
THE BAD: Gwyneth Paltrow didn't show up in New York to promote A Perfect Murder (she did it by satellite), Jim Carrey didn't turn up for The Truman Show (though you will see him on TV interviews) and movies in New York City now cost $9.50 a shot.
THE UGLY: Not much ugly from the work weekend. Getting around NYC while Vice President Gore and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu were in town was like swimming in molasses. (Godzilla is ugly, I guess, but I wouldn't want to take a chance pissing him off. He's a ornery varmint!)
TWO MOVIES EQUAL: Bulworth + The Horse Whisperer = The Bull Whisperer. Warren Beatty stars as a guy who can B.S. almost anyone, and he does it really quietly. "Fox really likes my film. Shhhhh." "I'm only using soft focus because it makes my wife look better. Shhhhh." "I respected Madonna for her mind. Shhhhh." Sequel to The Whisperer, which starred Robert Redford as a really good looking guy who starts mumbling quietly at the age of 45 and can't stop himself.
BAD AD WATCH: I'm not a big fan of running unconfirmable reportage from readers, but Steve Chien-Wei, Weng of Taiwan offers some really interesting world views. Here is his e-mail on a really bad ad. "Maybe you won't believe this, but it's true. There are photos of Mr. Bill Clinton in the Primary Colors poster which is being used in Taiwan (redesigned by local distributor, Spring Cinema). It just looks like another Face/Off move, only with John and Bill, not John and Nicholas. Because Face/Off was No. 2 in the box office of 1997 in Taiwan, they want people feel like it's another Face/Off or something."
LIVE CHAT: It's the first ever The Hot Button live chat, today at 3 p.m. EST/Noon PST. Join me and be the first to talk Godzilla with someone who's seen it. Also, The Truman Show, the weekend box office and anything else that floats your boat.
READER OF THE DAY: I gave credit to the wrong reader for Thursday's ROTD comment. My apologies to John N. And now, Eric J.: "I'll see Deep Impact, but I'm really looking forward to Armageddon, which I can't understand because, in some ways, I'm getting tired of special effects movies. But for some reason Armageddon has become my No. 1 must-see action flick. Must be because Bruckheimer always brings one wild ride to the table, plus you have to love Steve Buscemi after his hilarious turn in Con Air."

E ME: I'm back. Tell me what I missed!