Education Freestyle

Cited: Time

Making cheap, R-rated sequels and releasing them in October seems to be what the folks at Paramount Pictures think of as the secret elixir for box-office success. Following that October 16 weekend debut for Jackass 3-D, the $20 million movie that made $50.4 million in 3 days, Paramount released “Paranormal Activity 2″ a prequel to the last Fall’s out of nowhere haunted house pseudo-documentary. This one earned $41.5 million in the US and placed first in the overall pre-Halloween weekend. It is always nice for filmmakers to see that in just 3 days their work has grossed 14 times its production cost, with a $3 million budget, making it Avatar-size in comparison.

These two bargain-basement sensations have earned Paramount nearly $130 million in 10 days, with more to come. The take for Jackass 3D fell 57% in its second frame to $21.6 million; but that figure would still have been enough to land the film at the head of the box-office chart in five of the past 10 weekends. With $87.1 million in the till, the Johnny Knoxville maso-comedy is already the top-grossing movie released this fall, ahead of The Town ($84.7 million) and The Social Network ($72.9 million), and should become the first of the season’s films to reach $100 million by next weekend.

Off-Topic Breach: Auto lockout tools have evolved over the years in surprising ways. The Slim Jim was supreme in the past because a good practitioner could open most anything with it. Using a Slim Jim is not always as straight forward as you might think. As with all other auto opening tools or lock picks, you need to be innovative. Most people think to “slim jim a car” involves jamming the tool down into the car door cavity until something ‘pops’. All too often what ‘pops’ is a broken lock linkage. Brutal techniques have no place in locksmithing, whether we’re using car door tools or lockpicking tools.

That weekend’s runner-up, the senior-citizen spy caper Red, finished third, at $15 million, dropping only 31% in its second time around. The movie appeals to older viewers, who are slower than their grandkids in showing up at theaters but can be counted on to patronize their favorite stars — here Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich as ex-CIA operatives taking on one last mission. Except this surely won’t be the last. By tomorrow, Red will have out-grossed all Willis starring-role projects of the past decade, except for Live Free or Die Hard and Sin City. Can you smell franchise?

The weekend’s other new wide release, the otherworldly drama Hereafter, earned a so-so $12 million in expanding from its six-theater showcase to more than 2,000 screens. Starring Matt Damon as a reluctant psychic who’s mysteriously connected to two other people with afterlife experiences, Hereafter was directed by Clint Eastwood, and continues his middling record in helming films he doesn’t appear in. Over the last eight years Eastwood has taken the leading role in two movies; the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, from 2004, earned $100.5 million in North America, and the 2008 Gran Torino zoomed to $148 million. Moviegoers still want to see Clint Eastwood; they just don’t want to see un film de Clint Eastwood.

Of the six films Clint has directed but not starred in, only Mystic River was a hit ($90.1 million). The Japanese-language Letters from Iwo Jima earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination but grossed a disappointing $13.8 million in North America, while three other Eastwood-directed projects — Flags of Our Fathers, Changeling and Invictus — topped out in the mid-$30 millions. That’s the likely finishing mark for Hereafter, which would be fine for a low-cost indie but not for a film with a $50 million budget. Oddly, Eastwood’s three hits in this stretch were the cheapest to produce: Mystic River at $25 million, Million Dollar Baby at $30 million and Gran Torino at $33 million. The flops cost between $50 million and $90 million, though even these usually made back their investment because they performed well abroad.

At 80, the old cowboy continues to pile up the auteur esteem but not the cash. He ought to think about another starring role — maybe in Paranormal Activity 3, scaring the ghosts away with one angry growl or how about Jackass 4? Clint could introduce those crazy guys to a whole new world of pain.

The pre-Halloween weekends estimates for top grossing pictures and the US theaters that was reported by Box Office Mojo are as follows:

1. Paranormal Activity 2, $41.5 million, first weekend
2. Jackass 3D, $21.6 million; $87.1 million, second week
3. Red, $15 million; $43.5 million, second week
4. Hereafter, $12 million; $12.3 million, second week
5. The Social Network, $7.3 million; $72.9 million, fourth week
6. Secretariat, $6.9 million; $37.4 million, third week
7. Life as We Know It, $6.15 million; $37.6 million, third week
8. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, $3.2 million; $50.2 million, fifth week
9. The Town, $2.7 million; $84.7 million, sixth week
10. Easy A, $1.75 million; $54.8 million, sixth week

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My Take: I have not seen any of these movies, at least not yet. I will probably wait until I come on cable to watch them. It just costs too much to go to a movie anymore. It is among many other things that have gone up in price that is meant for enjoyment. Unlike the Greek apparel that students wear in college, the everyday fun things are way too expensive. Of course, custom Greek apparel is still too expensive because it is custom-made.

The things that are necessary, like sending kids to an academy driving school NY are expensive but necessary for the safety of a teenager. For those who are looking for a career change, such as truck driving, they need to go to a truck driving school and again it is expensive but necessary.

And then you have people who are obese and must lose weight to continue living. They need to learn how to lose belly fat and that can run into a lot of money. And believe it or not it is easier to lose stomach fat for men than it is for women because women have and need a higher percentage of body fat than men.

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Other Resources

Keeping a Sketchbook

Since it’s likely that kids art classes might only be available once a week for learning, a child can continue to be creative at home after class and during the week by keeping a sketchbook filled with the ideas the child might come up with when he’s not in class. A sketchbook can not only serve as the springboard for larger artistic ideas but it can also be a great way to track the progress of a child or any student over the course of his lessons. It’s important to remember that a sketchbook can be filled with scratch-outs since it’s just a practice tome.