Other number ones for the week ending 8/11-8/17/08
The number one movie over the weekend of 8/8-8/10/08 was…surprise…again The Dark Knight in its fourth weekend atop the box office chart with $26,117,030, bringing its overall total to $441,628,497, putting it in third place of the all-time film grosses. To become the second highest grossing film of all time, it will have to make more than the $460,998,007 gross of 1977’s Star Wars IV: A New Hope (a.k.a. the “original” Star Wars), but analysts are saying that there is virtually no chance of beating the $600,788,188 gross of the number one movie of all time…1997’s Titanic. Coming in second place for the weekend was Pineapple Express…the R-rated, violent, Judd Apatow comedy starring former “Freaks & Geeks” co-stars Seth Rogan and James Franco. I’ve noticed that every production Apatow has done since 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin has been R-rated, with the exception of this year’s Drillbit Taylor (which was rated PG-13.) I’ve seen all of them, and Drillbit is the only one that I didn’t think was hilarious…so Apatow should only be making R-rated comedies, because Pineapple was a black stoner comedy that cracked me up (and I’ve never smoked the wacky weed before in my life.) Franco was practically channeling Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli from 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Rogan proved again that an overweight, schlubby guy can lead a movie effectively. My girlfriend didn’t like the end, but I did. Bonus: the greatest rock band of all time (in my mind)…Huey Lewis & The News…sings the theme song of the same name! I’m so getting the soundtrack!
The #1 TV program, according to the Nielsen Ratings for the week of 8/4/08-8/10/08, was NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing (Sunday’s coverage of the Olympic games was #2 and Saturday’s coverage was #3.) Since I don’t like sports, and I’m not in the cult of Michael Phelps, I will discuss my observations of the #4 program…“America’s Got Talent 3.” It was the Las Vegas callbacks on Tuesday (8/5.) The most disappointing elimination for me was Victoria Jacoby, an 11-year-old contortionist. See her original audition that passed her through to Las Vegas:
The stupidest act to pass through to Hollywood were the Zooperstars, oversized animal mascot versions of various sports celebrities. Since The Olympics will be taking over NBC for the next three weeks, I’ll have to comment on the next non-sports original show on the Nielsen ratings list.
The #1 Fiction book according to the New York Times Bestseller Lists is still Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva, but the #1 Non-Fiction book this week is The Obama Nation by Jerome R. Corsi.