David James/Warner Brothers
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Just when it looked like summer movie season was about to turn up the heat (See what I did there? Summer? Heat? Get it?), two potential blockbusters fizzled big time, leaving room at the top for last week’s leftovers. Both ‘Madagascar 3’ and ‘Prometheus’ held strong at one and two with $35.5 million and $20.2 million respectively. Good for them. They’re movies. People seem to like them. Well, I guess some people didn’t really like ‘Prometheus’ that much (It was fine, but how did Idris Elba figure everything out so easily?!). Either way, they liked it more than ‘Rock Of Ages’ and ‘That’s My Boy,’ that’s for sure.

A lot of people want to blame the failure of ‘Rock Of Ages’ on Tom Cruise’s diminishing drawing power, but those same people are forgetting about ‘Ghost Protocol.’ That movie made a ton of money, you guys. The big difference between ‘Ghost Protocol’ and ‘Rock Of Ages’ is that one was the best action movie ever made (sorry ‘Die Hard’ ya got beat) and the other was just a plain ole’ terrible movie. It has nothing to do with Tom Cruise. There aren’t movie stars anymore. No one sees any movie anymore because of whose in it. Take ‘Mirror Mirror’ and ‘Men In Black III.’ Aside from Cruise, Julia Roberts and Will Smith were the last two bankable movie stars, now people don’t care. If the movies stink (to be fair, though, MIB III was okay) people aren’t going to pay to see them. Easy as that.
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We are becoming more discerning and this is an excellent development. Make good movies and we’ll see them. Make junk and ya get burned!
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Next week, ‘Brave.’ Finally.