July 14, 2003

Cow Wars Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has suggested the use of sanctions as the next step in Canada’s fight to get the United States and Japan to permit the import of Canadian beef following the discovery of a single mad cow nearly two months ago. I’m surprised this was not suggested before – in particular with regards to Japan as it won’t even say what actions Canada needs to take to get their ban lifted. 11:20:54 PM

The LA Times has another article on the less on stellar box office receipts of some of this summer’s sequels. The article states: The most troubling performance to date has been that of Sony's "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." The picture, which cost $144 million to produce and tens of millions more to market, opened to just $37.6 million in ticket sales its first weekend, then rapidly fell off in the face of torrid competition [..] Hollywood's current case of nerves grew over the Fourth of July holiday with the big — but perhaps not big enough — opening of the hugely expensive "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." The independently financed action saga, which cost about $175 million to make and more than $50 million to market, has taken in about $110.5 million since its release by Warner Bros. on July 2. This weekend, however, ticket sales dropped more than 55%, meaning the climb toward profitability for the picture's various financiers will be tougher than hoped for. Other softer-than-expected sequel performers include New Line Cinema's "Dumb and Dumberer," Paramount Pictures' "Rugrats Go Wild," MGM's "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" and Universal's "2 Fast 2 Furious," which opened to an impressive $50.5 million in ticket sales, but fell off precipitously. On the other hand X2: X-Men United was both financially and reasonably critically received, indicating it is less the fact that a movie is a sequel then the usual issues of story, script and acting that determines a feature’s fate. Furthermore as shown by The Hulk’s poor box office performance not being a sequel does not guarantee success. 11:20:25 PM