Where's the Weekend Recap?

After a couple weeks of negotiations, long hours and too many Dominos pizzas, the Weekend Staff has decided that simpler is better when it comes to our recaplets. So instead of clogging up the main page with flashy graphics and mindless filler, we're just going to give you the bare bone facts. And you no longer have to go searching for the information you want. Over the weekend and the first part of the week, the box office and stock information will be located at the top of the sidebar. It's cleaner, simpler and requires about an hour less amount of work for me to do. And that, my friends, it news worth noting. (Hey, I had to work that graphic into here somehow.)

The Covenant wins the box office race

A few young men with mythological powers interested enough people this weekend to beat out the competition at the box office. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Weekend Recap, your source for the latest box office numbers. After all, the movies are one of the top ways people use for escapism over the weekend. So this is as much a lifestyle magazine as it is a entertainment sheet. At least, we feel less guilty when we think of it that way.

The supernatural thriller The Covenant managed to land at the top of the box office this weekend, despite some bad reviews for the flick. Though it landed at the top of the pack, it only pulled in $9 million, hardly anything to celebrate over. The George Reeves murder biopic Hollywoodland pulled in $6 million, proving that people would prefer to see unknown actors with magical powers rather than Ben Affleck in a Superman suit. The martial arts film The Protector, who is protecting ELEPHANTS, with ELEPHANTS serving as the plot of a MARTIAL ARTS FILM, pulled in only $5 million, showing that Americans have at least some sensibilities left in them. For the rest of the numbers, here's your weekly scoreboard:

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

Every Wednesday we bring you the Weekend Preview, your first look at the movies opening up at the box office that upcoming weekend. We give you a short summary of that film's plot, then later on we give our own predictions as to how well we think that film will do at the box office. Then here, during the Recap, we take those predictions and compare them with reality. Were the predictions that were made earlier Fact or Fiction? Let's find out right now.

We Said: 1. Hollywoodland, $10-$15 million.
The Truth: The Covenant, $9 million.

2. Invincible, $8-10 million.
The Truth: Hollywoodland, $6 million.

3. The Covenant, $8-$10 million.
The Truth: Invincible, $5.8 million.

4. Little Miss Sunshine, $7-8 million.
The Truth: The Protector, $5 million.

5. The Protector, $6-8 million.
The Truth: Crank, $4.8 million.

Conclusion: If it wasn't so fun to make the predictions in the first place I'd cancel this section of the Recap, because sometimes it's just too embarrassing to face the music. Sometimes.

And that's it! It's slightly different without the stock market feature, isn't it? We wish the Market Recap well on it's new endeavour. And we hope you have a great week as well. Come in a few days for the Preview, when we tell you what films are opening up at the box office this weekend. Until then, stay safe and remember: friends don't let friends sleep through second service. Whoops!

Movie season ends on an 'Invincible' note

Welcome to a special Labor Day edition of the Recap. Does the fact that it's being released on a Monday mean that there will be more treats? More Easter eggs? More features? Nope! In fact, you get even less than usual in this edition! After all, why bog down memories of Labor Day with financial statistics? It is towards that end that we give you the box office scoreboard and the Fact or Fiction? column, right. now.

Proving that sport films can be Invincible even in their second weekend at the box office, the Mark Wahlberg movie took top honors this weekend, pulling in a measly $12.1 million. In total, the box office grossed under $71 million for the top ten films, helping to close out this year's summer cinema with a whimper, not a bang. With X-Men: United and Pirates 2 being the only real clear box office hits of the summer, studios were mostly disappointed with their returns this summer. Was it the lack of originality? Was it the lack of big marquee names? Was it the lack of good scriptwriters? We can only guess. We now enter the fall period, where movie studios quietly release some not-too-great films under the radar while college students - the main movie demographic - hit the books once again.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

Every mid-week, we bring you the Preview, your first look at the movies opening up at the cineplex that upcoming weekend. We also make our own predictions on how well the films will do (financially, that is) that weekend. Will our predictions have a ring of truth to it, or it be poor man's fiction? Let's find out right now.

We Said: 1. The Wicker Man, $15-$20 million. It's smart, it's scary looking, and it's got a built-in fanbase from the original film. It'll get the top honors easily.
The Truth: Invincible, $12.1 million.

We Said: 2. Crank, $10-$15 million. Personally, I think this movie looks stupid. But I thought that about Beefest and that film still pulled in a lot of money.
The Truth: Crank, $10.3 million.

We Said: 3. Invincible, $10-15 million. It's a feel-good movie. Those stick around for a while on the top charts.
The Truth: The Wicker Man, $9.6 million.

We Said: 4. Talladega Nights, $8-$13 million. This is the film that just. won't. go. away. Ever.
The Truth: Little Miss Sunshine, $7.6 million.

We Said: 5. Little Miss Sunshine, $8-$13 million. It's the little-independent--film-that-could. Kind of. It'll still be popular enough to get on the top five. Probably.
The Truth: The Illusionist, $6.4 million.

Conclusion: We were right on the money about Crank. And that makes us want to cry. Seriously, does nobody else get headaches watching the commercials for that film? Even people with ADD must get dizzy watching advertisements for this thriller.

And that's it for this abridged version of the Recap. Stay tuned to TDIN for more news, information and special features. Until then, stay safe and remember: friends don't let friends punish hedgehogs for their own afflictions.

Where's the Recap?

It's late Sunday night and you're checking up on this site quickly to find out who won at the box office this weekend. Only? There's nothing! It surprised me, too. Tonya swears up and down that she sent me memos that there would only be a partial recap this holiday weekend, and even at that it would come a day later. Tonya lies.

Tonya did send this graphic over, though, and wants me to tell you all to stay tuned to this blog within the next couple weeks for some changes to our weekend coverage...

Sports movies remain "Invincible" at the box office

Not even the Box Office is Invincible from low ticket sales. Welcome, everybody, to this special edition of the Weekend Recap. Not only do we find out this week if anybody likes to watch kids eating Fried Worms, we also get to take a sneak peak at the least-anticipated Hollywood awards show, the Emmy's! Plus, our weekly fact vs. fiction column and a recap on "real world stuff," the stock market. It's disjointed, disorganized and disillussioned. It's the Weekend Recap and it begins right now.

Worries about what might-be kept the financial markets from having a second week in the positive category, with all three major players on Wall Street taking loses for the week. And computer giants Dell and Apple didn't exactly help matters, either. Both companies recalled lithium-ion batteries made by a Sony Corp. subsidiary, which were compromised during production and could short circuit, or, catch on fire.

All together, about five million batteries are being recalled. Sony is also making investors jittery after reports came out that they have yet to begin to manufacture the PlayStation 3, which is due to hit store shelves in November. The fear is that there will be a shortage which will result in Microsoft's XBOX 360 and Nintendo's Wii to get ahead in the market this holiday season.

Finally, America is eating more Spam. Hormel Foods Corp, the makers of Spam canned meat and Jennie-O Turkey announced that their fiscal third-quarter earnings rose 15%. The net income for the three months ending July 30 was $59.6 million, up from $51.8 million during the same period last year.

Notice something differnent? This week, we embedded the weekly stock report in the post, instead of having it as the final part of the financial recap. Did it make the whole experiance better for you? Or was it really a cruddy idea to begin with? Let me know in the comments, because embedding the stock report inside the text is something that I may continue to do in the future.

Now we move on to Act II of III, Movies! The Mark Wahlberg-vehicle, Invincible, took in top honors this weekend. The inspirational football drama based on the true story of Vince Papali took in an estimated $17 million over the three-day weekend, beating out Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights which took in $8 million. And you can just call it this year's My Big Fat Greek Wedding: The film Little Miss Sunshine jumped from last week's seventh place to third, bringing in an additional $7.5 million.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

Every week we bring you an extension of the Weekend franchise, the Preview. There too, we follow the three acts rule: stocks, movies and predictions. We give you a brief update on the stock market, we preview the movies coming out that upcoming weekend and we make our predictions for how well those movies will do at the box office. It would be well enough to just make predictions and call it good. But America demands accountability from it's internet authors! And as such, every week during the Recap we take a look at our earlier predictions to determine if they were fact or fiction.

We Said: 1. Invincible, $25-$30 million. "While the sports genre may be getting a little cliche, it's still a easy way for studios to turn a quick profit. This won't necessarily get the "movie regulars", but rather, the people who don't go to movies that often, ie parents, or, people who actually remember Vince Papale."
Fact: 1. Invincible, $17 million.

We Said: 2. Beerfest, $25-$30 million.
Fact: 2. Talladega Nights, $8 million.

We Said: 3. Talladega Nights, $15-20 million.
Fact: Little Miss Sunshine, $7.5 million.

We Said: 4. How to Eat Fried Worms, $15-20 million.
Fact: 4. Beefest, $6.5 million.

We Said: 5. World Trade Center, $10-$15 million.
Fact: 5. Accepted, $6.5 million.

We Said: Total Box Office Earnings: $105-$110 million.
Fact: $75.4 million.

Conclusion: It's too bad my predictions don't translate into reality, else I would be a studio's best friend. Apart from accurately predicting Invincible taking the top spot, I got nothing else right. NOTHING. For pete's sake, How to Eat Fried Worms debuted in twelfth place with $4 million. TWELFTH! Inbetween this and my Emmy predictions, I better rethink this third act feature...

And that's going to do it for this week's installment. Stay tuned to this site and your local news stations for the latest breaking, noteworthy and boring news and features imaginable. And remember, friends don't let friends nominate a 14-second cameo for a Emmy award.

Stocks soar higher than "Snakes on a Plane"

Welcome to the Weekend Recap, your one-stop shop for a summary on how the markets did during the week, plus a look at how the box office performed over the weekend. We give you perspective for the business week ahead, plus box office candy for the watercooler. In this weeks' edition, we take a look at what spurred the major buying frenzy among investors. Also, we take a look to see if the hype surrounding Snakes on a Plane translated into box office income or if it was all hiss and no bite. Finally, we take a look to see if our mid-week predictions were Fact or Fiction. And it's all right in front of you, right now.

Stocks were surprisingly popular this week with all three major markets experiencing terrific gains for the week's end. On Tuesday, it was reported that the core-PPI in July fell 0.3%, beating expectations that called for an increase of 0.2%. Additionally, the CPI was reported to have increased 0.2% after four consecutive months of 0.3% increases. Add that to declining housing sales, the market is optimistic that the Fed will keep the interest rate locked when it meets again on September 20. And if they persistently keep the interest rate locked in, we just may have prevented a huge inflation after all. Understandably, investors were ecstatic at this outlook and went on a buying spree this week, scooping up stocks like they were gold. On a gasoline note, Crude oil futures closed the week at $71.10, 4.4% lower than what they opened at Monday morning.

To find out exactly how optimistic traders were this week, please refer to the scoreboard below for more information.

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

It had more internet buzz about it than Superman Returns, X-Men: United and Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest combined. Despite the catchy title, Snakes on a Plane failed to impress movie-goers this weekend. The horror/thriller pulled in an estimated $13.9 million over the weekend, failing to make enough to come into first place. This weekend, the top honors went to Talladega Nights once again, pulling in a modest $14.1 million. All in all, it was a really slow weekend at cineplexes everywhere, with no single film even topping the $20 million mark. To see the estimated tallies for the weekend, please refer to the scoreboard posted below.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

During our mid-week Weekend Preview, we take the liberty of making a few predictions about how well the top five films will do at the box office for the upcoming weekend. But we don't just make baseless predictions without owning up to them. That's why we've dedicated the third act of the Recap to facing our cinema forecasts, to tell you if what I wrote earlier is closer to fact or fiction. We don't even use a fancy graphic like Acts I and II use to give you the meat of the information, mainly because we hate glorifying our losses like that. (Plus, Tonya says that she won't make a graphic for this segment. And Josh isn't that prolific in computers yet, so, we're pretty much stuck using regular text.) But also we want to lay it out very simple for you. If we're wrong, we're wrong. If we're close to right, well, we're close to right.

We Said: 1. Snakes on a Plane, $40-45 million.
Fact:Talladega Night, $14.1 million.

We Said: 2. Talladega Nights, $20-$25 million.
Fact: Snakes on a Plane, $13.9 million.

We Said: 3. Accepted, $20-$25 million.
Fact: World Trade Center, $10.8 million.

We Said: 4. Step Up, $15-20 million.
Fact: Accepted, $10.1 million.

We Said: 5. Material Girls, $15-20 million.
Fact: Step Up, $9.9 million.

Conclusion: Fiction. We got absolutely nothing right. To call this weeks' predictions a work of fiction would be a tremendous understatement. Perhaps this is a sign to order that box office predictions correspondence class.

And now you know the cliffnotes version of what happened this past week. You know what drove the markets to close on a happy note and you know how well Snakes on a Plane fared at the box office. Plus you get to gloat that your own personal predictions for the box office were much better than my own. (I cry on the inside when people do that. A lot.) We hope you enjoyed this week's installment of the Recap. Be sure to come back mid-week for the Preview when we run down the movies opening next weekend! And stay tuned at the Epsilon Institute next weekend for pictures from an exclusive Grand Rapids, MI-area party. Until then, stay safe and remember: friends don't let friends become anorexics.

The box office favors Ricky Bobby, again

Welcome to the Weekend Recap, your once-a-week source for financial and box office information. In this weeks installment, we'll be taking a look at why the financial markets took notable losses for the week. And it's not just because of the London plot! Then, how did Oliver Stone's World Trade Center do at the box office this weekend? We give you the estimated gross for the weekend. Plus, did our mid-week box office predictions match reality? It's all inside this week's edition of the Weekend Recap.

The financial markets took quite the beating this week. At first investors were relieved when the Fed decided not to raise interest rates, leaving them at a high 5.25%. But jitters over the current war in the Middle-East, and the uncovered terror plot originating from the United Kingdom, put investors in a buying mood. Also occurring this week, there was a stronger than expected Retail Sales report for July and a weak showing from transportation and semiconductor stocks.

Due in part to the strong sales report, investors next week will keep a close on inflation data to help indicate whether or not the Fed will keep the interest rate paused at its September meeting or if it will resume hiking the rate. In the week to come, several retailers are expected to release reports on Tuesday, including Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Staples. Finally, we would like to introduce your brand-new Weekly Stock Report graphic. It's bolder, yet simpler. In our opinion, it's much easier to read than before, though it's still taking us some time to get used to the new look. (This is the fifth incarnation of the weekly stock report and the first to do away with the "floating boxes" that have become prevalent over the past months.)

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

In a rather slow and unimpressive week at the box office, Will Ferrell's racing comedy Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby managed to speed into first place again, beating out leading favorites Step Up and World Trade Center. While the top three films definitely are the clear leaders of the pack this week, the gains are hardly anything to get excited about; the top three films grossed an estimated $63 million, combined. What happened to the summers when the leading film could make that much money all on it's own? What happened to all the fun, energizing films? Well, they've moved down the calendar to the holiday season, closer to all the award ceremonies. And as such, December has become the new July. So if you want to see a lot of high-quality films opening up at the same time, you'll have to wait a few months.

But you've had enough commentary from me! You just want to know how much the movies grossed over the weekend. Well, we've got quite the treat for you. As part of the Weekend department's graphic overhaul, we built a brand new box office scoreboard from the ground up. It's wider, cleaner and easier to read. And now, all new releases are in tan, while all previously-released films are in a light blue. The art department nerds hope you enjoy this new look, because they say that there is no chance whatsoever than we can go back to the "floating boxes" format again. (Thanks alot for ruining the graphics archives, Phillip.)

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

In the third and final act of the Weekend Update, we revisit the box office predictions we made this past Wednesday and see if they match up with fact or if they're the closest thing to fiction that you'll ever find.
We Said: 1. Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, $30-35 million.
Fact: 1. Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, $23.0 million.
We Said: 2. Step Up, $25-30 million.
Fact: Step Up, $21.0 million.
We Said 3. World Trade Center, $20-25 million.
Fact: World Trade Center, $19.0 million.
We Said: 4. Pirates 2, $20-$25 million.
Fact: Barnyard, $10.1 million.
We Said: 5. Zoom, $15-$20 million.
Fact: Pulse, $8.5 million.

Conclusion: While we got 3 out of the top five films in their correct spots, we were completely off on the money front. In fact, we were anywhere between $28.4 to $53.4 million dollars short! So while we may have an adequate knowledge of what films will be popular, we need to take some correspondent's classes on how much a film is estimated to make. With only 3/10's of the predictions being accurate, we're going to have to say that our predictions were a nice, fanciful work of fiction.

And that's going to do it for the recap this weekend. I hope you enjoyed it at the very least as much as I did. And I hope you like the brand new look at the graphics department gave the recap! The box office scoreboard looks dramatically better and the weekly stock report is a lot more readable. All in all, I think the new look is a step forward for this segment. In other good news, the graphics department promises that the mid-week feature, the weekend preview, will have a separate color scheme and slightly different look to differentiate itself from the recap. That will be very useful when trying to determine if this site has actually been updated recently or not.

So until the next update, that's going to do it for your host, Charles Jurries. Please come back soon for more stocks and movies, and remember: friends don't let friends vote for rappin' grannies.

Talladega Nights races to victory

It was a pretty good week for your stocks and for your entertainment. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Charles Jurries, your host for The Weekend Recap. For those of you who are new to this site, I'll explain the format. First, we give you a very brief recap of the stock market. Honestly, if you blink, you'll miss it. Secondly, we give you a look at the box office receipts for the weekend. Finally, we match those box office receipts with predictions that we made earlier on in the week to see if I'm a psychic - or a poser.

The stock market closed mostly flat for the week. One impressive note is that Q2 results from companies were pretty good, despite the fact that economic growth is clearly slowing down. On Friday, the July employment data was released. In it, there were a reported 113,000 addition nonfarm payroll jobs added. While those numbers are good, the numbers were below the 125,000 to 150,000 jobs expected. All eyes are now on the Fed, which meets Tuesday, August 8th, to determine whether or not to raise interest rates again. Right now, the consensus is that the Fed will keep the rate at the current levels, as the economy seems to be halting. Here now is your weekly stock scoreboard for the week.

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

And now we enter the movies phase of the Recap. Look carefully... Hidden inside this recap is the 29th glyph! (We jest, we jest. Rachel Blake would never stoop that low as to hide something on this site.) This weekend at the box office, the NASCAR-themed Will Ferrell comedy vehicle Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby raced into first place, winning an estimated $47 million over three days. (I'm such an Alias geek. I laugh whenever I see the number 47 anywhere!) The film also has a much too-long title. Honestly, look at how cramped it is in the scoreboard below! It's terrible! It's even worse than The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, or even The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! We'll shut up for a second so you too can lament the squished letters on the box office scoreboard.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

It's time for Reality vs. Predictions! As we know, anybody can make predictions. But can anybody face the music when reality comes to play? We do. Of course, it's slightly unfair, because we made the predictions, we're judging ourselves and we're defending ourselves too... It's a court of one! (Click here to read the predictions)

We said: 1. Tallageda Nights: T.B.O.R.B., $30-$35 million
The truth: 1. Tallageda Nights: T.B.O.R.B., $47 million.
We said: 2. The Descent, $20-$25 million
The truth: 2. The Barnyard, $16 million.
We said: 3. Pirates 2, $20-$25 million
The truth: 3. Pirates 2, $11 million.
We said: 4. Miami Vice, $15-$20 million
The truth: 4. Miami Vice, $9.7 million
We said: 5. John Tucker Must Die, $15-$20 million
The truth: 5. The Descent, $8.8

The Verdict: I need to get a clue as to what on earth I'm talking about. I got 3/5's of the movie titles in the right spot, I didn't come to accurately guessing the box office intake. As most people say when they're having a bad week as well, live and learn, and hopefully next week's predictions will be truer to life than to fiction.

And that's it! Yup, it's that painless. Well, maybe not completely pain-less... The Reality vs. Predictions section was pretty brutal to read. Oh well. For a fresh batch of predictions, a snarky look at the new releases at the box office, plus a quick update on the stock market, come back next week Wednesday when The Weekend Preview goes live! Until then, stay safe and remember: friends don't let friends get outer-ear infections!

The name "Miami Vice" still attracts eyeballs

Weekends. It seems like they only come once a week. Maybe Congress could change that. Hi there, everyone. I'm Charles Jurries, your writer this week for The Weekend Recap. Have you noticed that since this weekly feature was re-launched with new graphics that we have not tweaked them once, in terms of fonts, colors and backgrounds? Not once. That is possibly a new record for this site, a place where graphics seems to have an expiration date hidden on them and must be replaced accordingly.

Say, this week we're going to keep up with the traditional Weekend theme, where we bring you a stock update, then we give you a report on what happened at the box office. The stocks encompass the work week, while the box office encompasses the weekend. So in this tiny little feature, you get a weeks' worth of material summarized for your personal convenience. Go ahead, print this feature up, fold it into a neat little square and tuck it away in your shirt pocket. The convenience of an entire week is now in your power, right in reach of your fingertips.

Welcome back to your weekly stock update. I'm still Charles Jurries, your host for this week. (Budget cuts, you know. We can't afford a whole range of correspondents and guest writers anymore.) Stocks as a whole were great this week. There seems to be a overall sense that the economy is slowly, but surely, improving. In a surprising announcement, General Motors actually had a good report this week. ExxonMobil and other oil companies revealed very strong numbers (not surprisingly), while other manufacturing firms reported strong earnings as well.

On another note, I don't quite understand GDP growth yet, but according to analysts, a recent report suggest that there is no indications of a sharp slowdown in the economy. As a whole, stocks closed on a positive note for the week, with the Dow Jones taking in some major gains over last week's numbers. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 were also in similar situations. Here now is your fancy graphic for the week:

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

This weekend at the box office, nobody saw movies. Honestly. If you divide the estimated ticket sales for the top-selling film, Miami Vice, by $7.41 (the estimated average price for a movie ticket in America), you get somewhere around 3.4, maybe 3.5 million people who went to see the no. 1 film this weekend. (TV shows with viewership that low are easily cancelled.) In fact, there are low numbers all across the board this week. And it speaks volumes about the quality of new films being released when Pirates 2 is still in the top two, even after being out a month. Is it because it's just that great of a film? Sure, maybe. Or maybe there's just not that many alternatives that look more appealing. We'll let you decide for yourself, by letting you look at the scoreboard for the weekend of July 28 through July 30, 2006.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

Here's the part where we use syngergy with The Weekend Preview, published mid-week. I did accurately predict that Miami Vice would get between $25-30 million. I just expected it to come in second place. All my other numerous predictions for the weekend, all of which seemed fairly reasonable? Total and complete junk. Let us not be discouraged, however, for such blind predictions have proven true before. So please join us again later on when we predict how well next weekend's releases will fare at the box office. Until then, I'm Charles Jurries, wishing you a safe and happy weekend. And remember, friends don't let friends mail letters without proper postage!

Big Story: The Dow Jones gains points for the week

It's another week, another time to look back on the weekend that was, courtesy of your friendly weekend recap team, The Weekend Recap! (If only there were some way to make our name more memorable...) We are among the most self-absorbed entertainment newsletters you will ever come across, and that's why we love ourselves so much. We pretend to actually care about what actually matters - stocks - while we give you what YOU actually care about - box office receipts. And we mock you and ourselves equally in the process. And yet, no one's called for cancellation, yet! So until then, we'll continue our venom, our poison, our torture, our Richard Simmons workout video, whatever you want to call us.

Stocks! In a bit of remarkable news, the Dow Jones closed up for the week. Same with the S&P 500! It's been about a month since I've had to change a red banner, which indicates a loss in stock, with an attractive blue banner, which indicates gains. By this point, though, you and you alone are the only one reading this. Recent market studies show that more people glance over the stock report more than anything else on TDIN. And if I close the paragraph off by talking about stocks again, no one will ever know that I just wasted a whole paragraph saying nothing. I love this job. The NASDAQ saw marginal losses for the week, while the S&P 500 gained 40 points for the week.

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

Johnny Depp is still the most attractive actor at the box office right now. That's the big headline from the box office receipts this weekend, with Pirates of the Caribbean pulling in a respectable $35 million from movie-goers pockets. But that's not important. Nor is the fact that Clerks II, though it by all accounts bombed, actually turned a profit for the studio because of it's $5 million budget. No, the biggest revelation is that the At The Box Office scoreboard looked like a trading card. Seriously! Just step away and imagine that you are holding it in your hand. Suddenly, the heartaches and egos of Hollywood finances surge through your arm as you feel the pain from Little Man still attracting new viewers this weekend.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

That's it! Seriously, that's it. Thank goodness this online newsletter is free, eh? Otherwise, I'd be getting a LOT of returns. Not that I blame them. Especially seeing how wrong I was on my predictions for this weekend. Clerks II didn't open at no. 1, it opened in sixth place. And it made under $10 million, not $40 million. Pirates and Monster House DID, however, pull in what I estimated they would.

So what will I estimate for next week? And on that note, just what does open next weekend? Stay tuned to TDIN later on this week for the Weekend Preview, with an all-snark-included look at movies opening this weekend! Until then, this is the Weekends staff, hoping you'll have a safe and happy weekend. And remember, friends don't let friends overuse caps lock!

"Dead Man's Chest" still filling up with gold

Hello there. Welcome to The Weekend Recap, our signature weekly feature. In this feature, we steer clear of the other posts of the week, and in it's place we create our own, unique brand. This isn't The Delta Institute Newsblog, this is The Weekend Recap. (Think of it as Nick & Nite on Nickelodeon, or Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.) And as such, we can make as very little sense as we want and get away with it: we're not trying to uphold the integrity of a "newsblog", whatever that is. (Or maybe it's a chance for the author to develop Online Multiple Personality Disorder. But we don't think that's the case.)

The first thing that we want to recap for you is the stock market. In bold letters. Because we can. (Please save all complaints for the comments section at the end of this column.) This past week the markets panicked and sold. Alot. One large factor was slower-than-expected retail sales, further indicating that we're living in a stalled economy. (A known fact for a few months now.) The recent upsurge in violence in the middle-east certainly didn't help matters at all.

But none of that matters, because nobody pays attention to the stock market portion of The Weekend Recap. Nope, nobody. Not even me. How can I say that, you ask? Because I just noticed that for the NASDAQ and S&P 500, I did not have a comma in them, so 2,000 read like "2000". After all these months - MONTHS! - of running this report on the TDIN network, how could no one have noticed that? We feel ashamed, but only slightly. After all, it only makes the graphics package for the stock report look that much better. (Yeah, we're boasting.) To see the now-corrected stock report, look down. Down the screen, you doof!

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

And now, to movies. On Wednesday, we predicted that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest would pull in a "respectable $55-60 million" for this weekend. And for once, we were actually close; the film took in an estimated $62.2 million for the weekend. The Weekend Recap staff is stunned that Little Man managed to beat You, Me & Dupree. As far as comedies go, we would much rather suffer through Dupree than watch Little Man. Of course, we'd rather see another film, period.

Of note on the list is no. 10's A Scanner Darkly. By now, I'm sure most people have seen the commercials for this extremely trippy movie. The independent film is only playing in 216 theaters across the nation, but managed to bring in $1.2 million, which sadly is all it takes nowadays to get onto the top ten movies list. Our sources tell us that the knockout star of the movie is Winona Rider, who steals each scene that she's in. (Thank you, I'll be here all week.)

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

And that does it for The Weekend Recap for another week. We hope you'll join us again when we're back on the TDIN network on Wednesday night for our Preview, where we bring you up to speed on what's happening in the business world. The report is then capped off with a whiny pithy look at what's opening up in movie theaters this weekend. Thanks for clicking back, and come back soon for another look at the week that was.

Box office finally saved, but by pirates

Welcome back the the Weekend Recap, your exclusive look at the stock market and the box office. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you actually read the stock report. After all, it's far more casual to mention the box office in a conversation than the Nasdaq. The business angle, though, captivates you in a way that nothing else has. While you're very curious to see how many dollars Jack Sparrow scurried away over the weekend, you want to know more about the stock market. And here we are, ready to supply your fix, right now.

The big news this week in the world of business was the June jobs report. According to the Labor department, about 121,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were created in June, well below the forecasted 185,000. Outside of government hiring, June job creation rose by 90,000, and private hiring was below 100,000. On the flip side, if you do have a job you're wages have probably increased. In addition, June's unemployment rate was 4.6%, keeping up a 7-month streak of employment below 5%. (Ha, I said the word "streak" in a post.)

The stock markets closed the week on a mixed note, with the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq loosing a noticable amount for the trading week, while the S&P 500 gained about thirteen points.

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

By now, everybody and their mother has heard that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had the best-selling opening weekend of all-time, bringing in an estimated $132 million in ticket sales. However, there is something else unique that transpired over the past couple days. Every film on the top ten chart last week moved down one spot each. Normally, you'd have a film at #4 move down to #7, while the #9 film drops off the chart, and so forth. But not this week. This weekend, every single film moved down exactly one spot. To me, that is just as remarkable as the biggest opening in Hollywood history. (Which means that I find just about everything to be "remarkable," sadly.)

The first installment in the Pirates series, The Curse of the Black Pearl, took in $46.6 million - nearly a third of Dead Man's Chest's intake. The previous record-holder for the best-grossing weekend was 2002's Spider-Man, which took in a suprising $114.8 million. On Friday, Dead Man's Chest took in $55.5 million, beating the previous single-day record of $50 million set by Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. With an addition $44.7 million on Saturday, the sequel also became the first movie to ever top $100 million in just two days.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

After a few weeks of testing, we've decided to discontinue the On the Twin Institutes portion of the Weekend Recap. As much fun as it was to negate the need to scroll your mouse down the homepage was, we figured it would be a better use of our time if we, say, took a nap instead. Although, falling to sleep is hardly difficult. Just read The Weekend Recap word-for-word, and you'll be well on your way to nighty-night land, where Jack Sparrow and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke can conspire a way to get you into the movie theaters and create jobs, preferably of the swashbuckling variety.

Well folks, it's that time of the week again. It's not that we didn't enjoy our time together, it's just time for you to go away. Come back in a few days for The Weekend Preview, when we'll laugh at any movie that thinks it can come even close to topping Dead Man's Chest!

Superman's Super Weekend, So Far

It may be an extended weekend holiday for pretty much the whole nation, but we're not taking the weekend off. We've got good news from Wall Street to bring to you. Plus, how is Superman Returns faring at the box office? We figured you would want to know the answer to that question, plus, we'll bring you up-to-date on what's happening on the Twin Institutes, Delta and Epsilon. This. Is. The Weekend Recap.

We finally, finally had all three stock markets gain points this week. The Dow Jones even gained over 150 points. The markets rallied on Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter of a percent and seemingly moderated its interest rate policy statement. For the month of June, the Dow gained 2.38%, the S&P gained 0.01%, and the NASDAQ lost 0.31%. For Q2, the Dow was up 0.37%, the S&P was down 1.90%, and the NASDAQ lost 7.17%. Without further ado, here now is your weekly stock report.

(Source: Yahoo! Finance)

"You wrote that the world doesn't need a saviour, but every day I hear people crying for one." - Superman, Superman Returns

Superman may hear the people crying out for a hero to save the box office, but he may not necessarily be the one to do the job. From Friday to Sunday, the action movie pulled in an estimated $52.1 million. (Since Wednesday, the film has pulled in an estimated $84.2 million) Meanwhile, The Devil Wears Prada came *this* close to matching our prediction by pulling in an estimated $27 million. The weekend according to the calendar may be done, but as far as Hollywood goes, it's just passed the halfway mark. Due to July 4 falling on a Tuesday, the box office weekend has been extended. As a result, expect a special mid-week "At the Box Office" during The Weekend Preview, which is usually published Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

(Source: BoxOfficeMojo)

The Delta Institute Newsblog:
Consumer confidence is up, but spending is expected to be kept to a minimum over the summer. (Read)
On the Weekend Preview, we compared Meryl Streep's Prada character to Cruella De Vil. Hopefully we don't think of a Disney character to compare Johnny Depp to for next week's edition. (Read)
The re-designed Freedom Tower was unveiled, and it's even shinier than before! Though we can't help but wonder how much Windex it will take to clean the building each year. (Read)
We took at look at the Annie E. Casey Foundation report on safety for American children, and the findings are incredible. (Read)
French lawmakers approved a law against Apple's iTunes, sparking even more debate in the digital rights movement. (Read)
Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson are now legally single. Don't worry if you find yourself weeping in public; we're all trying to move past this. (Read)
It's a chocolate factory, but without Willy Wonka! And no plans to include Oompa-Loompa's! Be... excited? (Read)

The Epsilon Institute:
The Spider-Man 3 teaser goes live, but if you haven't watched it yet, don't worry; you have a full year to watch it before the film comes out. (Read)
We set up a poll asking for viewer input concerning the future direction of the Institute. Here at the Delta Institute Newsblog, not only did we give the site new graphics (ie, "fresh paint"), but we also widened the site in order to fill out most browsers. (Sorry, 800x600'ers...) So while I'm trying to find the right art scheme for Epsilon, please send in your input! Trust me, it'll help. (Read)

And that's it for this week's edition of The Weekend Recap. Thanks for clicking on, and come back throughout the week for more updates on news, stocks, entertainment, sociological studies, and more!