Showbiz411

Arnold Schwarzenegger did say “I’ll be back” when he left the movies to become governor of California. But his return to film is not a celebration. His first movie since returning full time to the big screen is a bomb. “The Last Stand” made just $2 million on Friday night. It’s projected to do $6.7 million for the long weekend and finish in 10th place. Is Arnold finished? He very well may be. His autobiography, published last fall, called “Total Recall,” was a total dud, too. Schwarzenegger’s age isn’t helping at the movies. Neither is his personal behavior in public. His lack of contrition for the terrible things he inflicted on his real life family has come back to haunt him in the commercial market place.

Meantime at the box office: Jessica Chastain must feel pretty good this morning. She’s starring on Broadway in “The Heiress.” On film, she’s in the number 1 and 2 movies– “Mama” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” She has an Oscar nomination. What else could she want? Maybe– sleep!

And “Silver Linings Playbook” finally went “wide” on Friday, to over 1,700 theaters, after weeks and weeks (months!) of playing a limited run. The David O. Russell serious comedy is a serious crowd-pleaser. It also has a big number of Oscar nominations and should be the Best Ensemble film at the SAG Awards next Saturday. This movie has become the little engine that could. Now its box office is booming. Very good news indeed. It could do another $11 million this weekend.

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.