The only thing surprising about the box office for Scooby Doo is that everyone seems to think it was so surprising. 

Stunningly, the Scooby final of $54.2 million is only the seventeenth best opening ever.  Of course, all but one of those openings (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) happened in the last three years.  Of the top thirty-five openings of all-time, only nine were from before 1999 and of those nine, only six are more than five years old – Batman Returns, Jurassic Park, Batman Forever, Independence Day, Mission Impossible and Men in Black, in that chronological order.  The eldest is from 1992.  Of the now forty-two total $40 million starts, the eldest is Batman, way, way, way back in 1989.

Thirty-three films have opened with more than $40 million, but less than $60 million… only a dozen of those have reached the $200 million mark domestically.  Eight didn’t even reach $150 million.

Even if Scooby Doo does “just” $135 million domestically and even if the foreign is kind of soft for an American cartoon, WB will do very in video.  No one can claim that the film flops, even if the numbers drop like a stone. 

For me, the movie that Scooby most reminds me of is Disney’s Inspector Gadget.  It opened back in 1999, when the opening weekend frenzy was really just getting going.  It opened to only $22 million and held up, despite virulent reviews and adult word-of-mouth, until it made $97 million domestic.  Fast forward to today and Scooby opens to around two-and-a-half times the number… but I don’t think anyone expects it to go on to make four-and-a-half times opening.  If Scooby gets to triple the opening, WB will be happy. 

ON EMBARGO DATES:  When the internet started making it’s mark on the film business, there was a lot of jostling about, with the studios trying to figure out how to deal with web-based writers and vice versa.  One of the biggest issues has always been review embargo dates.  At first, the trade critics, who had always been first to review everything, were pissed.  Why were they getting scooped?  But how could anyone call a review of Movie 137 of each year a scoop?  Of course, there were also the real scoopers… the test screening reviewers.  They pissed off the studios when they were negative and quietly pleased the studios when they were positive. 

Fast forward to 2002.  Harry Knowles has been around for more than five years.  Other web sites, columns like mine, fan sites, etc., etc. etc. have been around for years.  And not only are trade critics pissed, but everyone is getting in on the game of trying to be first.  Time and Newsweek are battling for covers, as are the entertainment magazines.  Companies like LucasFilm are controlling the release flow of the reviews of their movie by not doing big screenings early and by doling out opportunities to get early looks with thick strings tightly attached.  And critics of long standing are bending rules they’ve lived with for years.  How else can you explain Richard Schickel allowing a heavily praising comment about Clones to appear in Time under his name and with a “we” attached, even before he saw the movie… and, later, allowing Fox/Lucas to use that quote as a centerpiece of their advertising? 

And as I write this, I face another dilemma.  I saw Minority Report on Friday night and really liked it.  But Fox had been very specific about a June 21 embargo date.  Then, it turns out that Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Time, Ebert & Roeper and others have already reviewed the film.  How can Fox expect anyone to hold to an embargo date?  I mean, I never understand why any studio would want the trade review to be the first voice out there.  No one trusts them if they are positive and everyone trusts them if they are negative.   But if you are being reviewed in the trades and on TV and in a major news weekly… what are the rest of us waiting for?

The rules on Ebert are that they don’t go out early unless there are two thumbs up.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.  But once the wraps are off, they should be off, the same way a festival presentation generally eliminates the embargo rules because there has been a public screening. 

It’s a weird place to be.  I believe that the studio and filmmakers have a right to set some rules.  I believe that test-screening reviews are immoral and destructive.   I respect the fact that studios have made huge investments in their movies and don’t want the negative buzz on a film to fight against their marketing budget.  But I don’t believe that the rules can or should be changed with every single movie and with the mood of the publicists. 

If a studio told me that the trades weren’t any of my business and that I could review anything they were willing to show me as soon as any major consumer outlet released its review, I would say, “Fine.”  And I am happy with the structure that some studios stick with in my case, which is “write now if you like it, hold the review if you don’t.”  I have no need to be the first person to rip a film.  But we could use some consistency here.

FUNNY SITE:  I ran into “Die Critics Die” when looking up the right spelling of Schickel.  I don’t necessarily agree with everything they write, but it’s pretty funny.

T’SAW RIGHT:  What will Sony do now that they have the right to exploit the films of Cantinflas?  Well, they can give them to Mike Schlesinger, who will clean them up and get them out into the classics marketplace.  Or they can start remaking them as Rob Schneider vehicles.  Or both.  (Read the story on the lawsuit here.) (P.S. I know… that’s Senor Wences… relax…)

READER OF THE DAY:  Enrico’s Grandson writes:  “I'm afraid I may have to cheat to complete this list but here goes (In no particular order)

Spider-Man:  This is an easy choice.  I have yet to find anyone who does not like this film.  Even those who find it's special effects to be cartoony like the other aspects of it.  A month after seeing it for the second time, it just it sinking in how well this film will hold up.  It's not flavor of the month filmmaking, just smart people working on something they are passionate about.

Insomnia:  A remake that works.  Al Pacino hasn't been better in years.  I've had a couple days driving home on two days without sleep.  They did an excellent job of conveying the confusion that sleeplessness brings.  A truly original thriller.

The Bourne Identity:  I love a film that has a serious car chase, where the impact of errant crashes doesn't bring hyperbolic explosions but realistic crunches.  Doug Liman creates a strong yet surprisingly small film about one man's attempt to discover and then forgive himself.  Sure it's the entry to a series of films, but I like how it doesn't attempt to reconcile and explain everything.  And the moment between Matt Damon and Clive Owen in the field is classic.

Undercover Brother:  Ok, I didn't like it as much as you did.  But it's rare to see a comedy take this many risks.  The mayonaise jokes are old though, but it's rare to see a film have this much fun (and include the audience).

Star Wars: Episode 2:  I don't think it's a great film by any indicator, but it's fun.  It's Lucas' best action work to date.  I just wish he had centralized the stories a little bit.  There's no point of view to the story,

it just feels flat, like a history lesson.

The Sum of All Fears:  The best compliment about this film is that I did not think about September 11th during the entire film.  It's that enthralling a thriller.  There are a couple of cliche scenes in the film (did they really need the "bad guy drops out of the cadre and the kill him" scene used in Batman, James Bond and myriad other films?), but it worked for me otherwise.

Here's where I had to cheat:

Blade 2: It's not a summer movie, but heck, it feels like one and it's still playing... somewhere.  The special effects in this one make Spider-Man seem photo-realistic, but it probably has the best energy of any of the summer films.  Just pure fun.

Adaptation:  Now I'm really cheating.  But it saw it in the summer, so it counts.  This a film a lot of people will "get" and still hate.  It all depends on your opinion of Charlie Kaufman as a character.  Half the people will find him just plain self-absorbed and annoying, the other half will either identify with him or forgive him his faults because of his brilliance.  The latter half will love this film.  It's a film about perception and getting out of your own head, and treats these theme much more inventively than A Beautiful Mind ever did.

Signs:  So far the best movie I've seen this summer.  This film is the scariest film I have seen in a long, long time.  Most people I saw it with acknowledged that it is the most frightening film since the Exorcist.  This film hits all the right notes in depicting real characters, so that when the crazy stuff happens, we identify and as a result, I can never look at a baby monitor the same way again.  This film is going to be huge when it opens.

Shoot, that's only nine.  Well it IS only June.  This is the best summer I've experienced in years, and from all accounts, Minority Report will easily fill out the other spot next week, and come the end of august, I will have to fight to pare down the list to ten.  This is a great time to be a filmgoer.”

And a theory that I’m not so sure I agree with, but that seems worth airing out comes from Paulie Peni:  “This past TV season has been one of the best in years, especially with some of the great new shows that came out. This parallels the surprisingly good summer fare we are being treated to as pointed out in Monday's column.

In my opinion, the answer to these mysteries may have something to do with the entertainment headlines from last year. There was some threats of strikes of both Actors and Writers that would have paralyzed Hollywood.

Studios greenlighted projects and TV shows they probably wouldn't have, and because so many productions were going on to beat the strike deadlines, studio bosses did not have time to micro manage.

With writers and directors left to their own devices, they end up creating better products to our benefit now.

Too bad this could not be standard operating procedure.

E ME:  Are you ready for some good movies?  Are you ready for some reviews of some good movies that I’m not supposed to write until Friday?