Showbiz411

Friday night’s box office numbers were terrible. “The Dark Knight Rises,” predicted to do $19 million, only brought in $18 million. And “The Watch,” with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, did an atrocious $4.5 million. Audiences stayed out of theaters most likely to watch the Olympics opening ceremony. But there was also a warning from theater owners that 2o to 25 percent of people polled are still nervous because of the Aurora massacre. “Dark Knight Rises” is still making money hand over fist, and exceeding its predecessor, but it’s going more slowly than Warner Bros. ever would have anticipated. “The Watch” is also hampered by gettinfg dreadful reviews, and by its completely out of left field association to the Trayvon Martin shooting. “The Watch” is done, pretty much. The two films that have done nicely are “Ted,” which Ron Meyer and co. made into a Universal blockbuster, and “The Intouchables,” a solid foreign film hit for The Weinstein Company. Everyone loves “The Intouchables.” More later…

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.