By now you’ve probably heard that the saccharine puppy comedy, “Marley & Me” with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston has come out in front for this extended holiday weekend box-office. Obviously the “weekend” is not over yet, but estimates so far have ‘Marley’ out front with a Christmas day record of $14.5 million. “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” is not far behind with a $11.5 million total so far and Adam Sandler’s “Bedtime Stories is third with $10.3 million according to Box Office Mojo (though according to Nikki Finke, ‘Ben Button’ fell to #3 today and her box-office gurus are projecting a total no bigger than $25 million).
Blah, blah. More interesting to is the fact that a Philadelphia man shot another man for talking to his son during a screening of David Fincher’s ‘Button.’ According to Philly.com, James Joseph Cialella Jr., 29, of South Philly has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons violations. The man was shot in the arm and thankfully, not killed.
That’s a little excessive, especially around the holidays, but we do hope this encourages people to STFU during movies already. People who talk and or answer their cell phones during movies is total grounds for shooting someone with impunity, or at least a sweet shot to the kisser. Ushers should immediately kick out anyone talking on cell phones in our opinion (texting is pretty awful to, but there is a way to be discreet about it, but most people aren’t so we don’t endorse it).
Meanwhile in related ‘Ben Button’ news not quite as violent, the screenwriter Eric Roth has sued his investment manager after suffering “massive losses” as a result of a Ponzi scheme (pyramid scam) according to TMZ.