Madea still doing jailhouse rock, though Jonas Bros. show power of teen rock and 3-D
By Keith Williams

Jonas impressive in film premiere

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/1/09 — Three-dimensional singing virgins, the type you need special glasses to see, brought screams, hysteria, and palpitating hearts to 1271 digital multiplexes across America as The Jonas Brothers: 3D Concert Experience snatched an estimated $12.7 million from outstretched teenage hands, a surprisingly so-so figure that wasn’t strong enough to stop Madea rocking the jailhouse at no 1 with $16.5 million despite a 59.8% reduction in her sentence.

The Jonas Brothers keep getting compared to The Beatles. What is your opinion? Ours is the Fab Four’s music has lasted for generations, while temporarily-hot bands compared to them like the Bay City Rollers have come and gone. Feel free to post if you think Lennon-McCartney’s songs will be beat by this trio.

With 3D coming at us from all directions these days (horror, CGI animation, claymation and documentaries for starters), the concert performance would seem to be ideal for this format, giving moviegoers the opportunity to see their favorite rock stars/artistes up close in a way they’ve never seen them before. Hannah Montana’s 3D outing back in 2008 opened to $31 million on 683 screens en route to $65 million domestic, though that was decidedly a front-loaded affair as Disney claimed it would only be around for a week (as if). The relative disappointment of the Jonas Brothers’ excursion into the third dimension could be down to any number of factors – ticket prices too high for its target audience, not as popular as Madame Montana as one might have assumed, even the possibility it’s crap. Surely this lattar aspect would not have deterred hard-core fans of the Christian trio? Could perhaps the reason for its fateful and not-too-distant demise be, gulp, that 3D isn’t the ultimate attraction the studios are praying for it to be? If you listen to Jeffrey Katzenberg and James Cameron, EVERYTHING should and will be in 3D whether you want it or not. Maybe the audience thinks otherwise?

Basking in the glow of its 8 oscars, including Best Film, Danny Boyle’s triumph, with the help of 699 extra screens, rose to 3rd position in the charts to win another $12.1 million (US gross – $115 million). With Hollywood now officially in bed with Bollywood, can we look forward to future productions embracing the values of both institutions? Films such as Gone With the Vindaloo, Pilau Talk, and When Curry Met Sari may well be shooting as we speak, but personally I can’t wait for Hello Bolly.

In 4th position, the unstoppable TAKEN took $9.95 million on a barely visible 11.8% decline, He’s Just Not That Into You fell 31.4% for $5.8 million, the ever dependable Paul Blart: Mall Cop arrested another $5.6 million on a 17.9% slow fade, leaving Coraline to plunge 54% to no 7 with $5.2 million (that’s $61 million in clay so far).

The last time someone tried to turn the incredibly popular videogame Street Fighter into a feature film ended up derided by fans back in 1994, despite opening to $6.8 million and a worldwide gross of just under $100 million. And them was 15 years ago, when a buck was a buck and went much further. Street Fighter – Legend of Chun-Li, the new version debuting at no 8 to $4.6 million at 1136 karate gyms, suggests all plans for a franchise have been swiftly chop-sueyed, taking its place alongside the recent attempt to revive The Punisher in the Reboot Hall of Shame. Is it the character, the familiarity of the action in the trailer, or the fact that fans now prefer the cold indifference of pulp pix like Taken from whence to extract their thrills? Or should it have brought back Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue from the original for camp value?

Lurking in the shadows at the bottom of this week’s top ten, Confessions of a Shopaholic lost 33.4% of its business, selling $4.49 million dollars of misguided fantasies, while Fired Up lost 30.7% of adolescent steam, groping $3.8 million for a grand total of $10.1 WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, FEBRUARY 27-March 1, 2009

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate)
$16.5 million | 2,052 | $64.9 million | 2

2. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (Buena Vista)
$12.7 million | 1,271 | $12.7 million | 1

3. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)
$12.2 million | 2,943 | $115.1 million | 16

4. Taken (Fox)
$10.0 million | 3,089 | $107.9 million | 5

5. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros. (New Line))
$5.9 million | 2,858 | $78.5 million | 4million to date.
Weekend Estimates courtesy of boxofficemojo.com