Quarantine won this week's Box Office Power Rankings, and my first thought was that, with Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores of 61 and 54, respectively, the horror flick would have done even better a few weeks ago. Sure enough, those scores would have secured an additional five points for Quarantine because of weaker competition.
In this campaign season, what can we learn from the performances of An American Carol and Religulous?
Late afternoon Tuesday, the Christian drama Fireproof had unofficially won this week's 
If you glance at the box-office top 10 this week, you might think that the supernatural romantic comedy Ghost Town was a bomb, finishing last among the four major new releases and eighth overall. But the movie's title was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Paramount/DreamWorks only exhibited it in 1,505 theatres - a sure sign the studio doesn't believe in the movie. (Its opening-weekend competitors - Lakeview Terrace, Igor, and My Best Friend's Girl - were all released in more than 2,300 theatres.)
Much has been written over the past 18 months about the death/irrelevance of film criticism in print media, as newspapers scaled back their movie coverage and Premiere stopped publishing a print edition.
Mamma Mia! isn't a massive hit, but it has staying power. With $136 million in domestic receipts since its release on July 18, it's at ninth place in the summer's box-office race, yet it's been a steady earner. This marks the movie's eighth week in the box-office top 10 (and hence the Box Office Power Rankings), equal to Iron Man and The Dark Knight and one more than WALL•E, Kung Fu Panda, and Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That's pretty impressive however you cut it, but especially in the absence of a huge opening weekend.
If Tropic Thunder repeats as Box Office Power Rankings champion this weekend, it will match The Dark Knight with titles in four consecutive weeks. (Iron Man topped the charts for five straight weeks earlier this summer.)
How badly has George Lucas damaged the Star Wars franchise? At 
It's not a surprise that Tropic Thunder unseated The Dark Knight last weekend after four-week reigns atop the box-office charts and the 
Because nobody has pushed The Dark Knight off its perch (either in the weekly box-office-receipts charts or in the Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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