“Sensing a historic victory, a massive crowd of supporters that included celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt gathered in Grant Park to hear Obama speak later in the night, a fitting final event for a campaign that has drawn eye-popping audiences across the country. Evening temperatures were in the 60s — rare for Chicago in November.”

The secret ingredient, June 8, 2008
By Amanda Richards “Modest to the extreme” (Georgetown, Guyana) – See all my reviews

You have to try to understand a
Noodle eating lazy panda
Who should be serving noodles faster
But dreams that he’s a kung-fu master

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. Noodle eating lazy panda, Po (Jack Black) dreams of becoming a kung-fu master.
2. He’s really a waiter at the family noodle shop
3. A new Dragon Master is about to be named to battle the fearsome Tai Lung (Ian McShane), just in case he succeeds in breaking out of his escape-proof prison
4. The front runners for the job are the members of the “Furious Five” – Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Master Crane (David Cross), Master Mantis (Seth Rogen), Master Viper (Lucy Liu) and master Monkey (Jackie Chan)
5. Po drops in on the ceremony, causing an upset
6. The soup hits the fan when Tai Lung escapes
7. Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) has to make a martial arts master out of a panda bear, and fast!
8. With the right motivation, Po learns the secret of the sacred Dragon scroll
9. Crouching Leopard meets Lazy Panda with hidden Dragon
10. Exciting fight scenes ensue

Take the kids out for a treat
This kung fu cartoon’s really neat
Despite his metabolic rate
This panda is a heavyweight

This is a spectacular animated action film for all ages. Big name actors, non-stop action and with a moral to the story to boot. Who could ask for more?

Well….actually……

We COULD ask for a sequel!

boxofficemojo’s and boxofficeprophets’ analyses of weekend numbers

Changeling rang up $9.4 million on around 2,000 screens at 1,850 sites. The Clint Eastwood-directed period drama, for which both grieving mother and fighting-the-system angles were pushed in its marketing, ranks as Angelina Jolie’s best start as the top-billed lead in a drama. According to distributor Universal Pictures’ exit polling, 68 percent of Changeling’s audience was over 30 years old and 61 percent was female.

boxofficeprophets:

Finishing fourth is Changeling, a film that proved to be excellent counter-programming against such a strange weekend. Changeling earned $9.4 million from a very small venue count of 1,850. It had the best venue average in the top ten, coming in at $5,085. From director Clint Eastwood and current it-girl Angelina Jolie, Changeling had the goods to draw audiences. Changeling had an internal multiplier of 4.1, which tells us it was not ignored on Friday night.

This opening is a huge success for Universal, Eastwood and Jolie. Clint Eastwood’s last English language film was Flags of our Fathers, and it opened to $10.2 million in October of 2006. However, it was surrounded by a lot more fanfare, and the opening weekend was considered somewhat of a disappointment.

Changeling, on the other hand, has not been embraced by critics. Reviews are currently split down the middle on this one, with a 54% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes. Unlike Flags, Changeling isn’t a director’s follow-up to an Oscar winner (Million Dollar Baby).

For Angelina Jolie, this is a respectable start, considering she’s carrying the film and no one is being blown up. She has already bested the gross of her previous Oscar bait, A Mighty Heart, as the story of Daniel Pearl’s widow finished with a domestic total of only $9.6 million.

Variety, Hollywood Reporter: “Universal got spectacular results from 15 runs of “Changeling” in nine markets. The Clint Eastwood-helmed pic bowed with $502,000, or $33,441 per house (the highest of all the LIMITED RUN movies).”

Variety: Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” from Universal, grossed a NOTEWORTHY $9.4 million from 1,850 as it went nationwide to place No. 4. Drama posted a per location average of $5,085, THE BEST OF ANY FILM IN THE TOP 10 CHART.

The Hollywood Reporter: “Changeling jumped 16 places to No. 4 with $9.4 million in its first weekend of wide release. Including its haul from a limited opening last weekend in nine markets, the total stands at $10.1 million – **more than A Mighty Heart’s domestic total.**