Jonas Brothers Road To Oscar?

The new Jonas Brothers concert film opened at number 3, making slightly more then $12 million dollars. This was not what Disney was expected. Clearly they'd like us to THINK the Jonas Brothers are more popular then they really are! The movie was outgrossed by "Madea Goes To Jail" (#1) and "Slumdog Millionaire" (#2). While it's doubtful their movie career is going to take off don't count them out of an Oscar just yet. There is at least one original song in this concert that was performed exclusively for this movie. That means they could get an Oscar nomination in the Best Song category should the Academy want tween viewers to tune into the show next year. Will it win? Doubtful, but if an original song is performed by a popular artist I assume it to have a good chance at garnering a nomination regardless of the quality. The Academy has done this before and they'll do it again.

Keep Your Day Job

There are three movies that are getting lots of attention this weekend. The first is "The Jonas Brothers 3D Concert" movie thing. The second is the new Tyler Perry film "Madea Goes To Jail." The third is "Slumdog Millionaire" because...well, because it just won eight Oscars, so suddenly people care about it. There is an extra movie that has come out though that isn't being talked about as much, and that is "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li." It's supposed to be a prequel of sorts to the critically hated "Street Fighter" movie that came out in 1994 with Ming-Na of "ER" fame starring as everyone's favorite female fighter. Since the first movie was such a bomb I was wondering why any sane studio head would want to make this film. Was the idea of a "reboot" too much to pass up? Either way the movie got made and it stars Kristin Kreuk of "Smallville" fame as the title character.

I haven't seen this movie. Apparently neither did a lot of the public. On opening day it grossed arount $1.7 million. That's $0.2 million less then what "He's Just Not That Into You" made in it's third or forth week in theaters. When we get the weekend numbers I expect it to be even lower on the list. The studios themselves didn't even seem to have any faith in the film as they declined to preview it for film critics. Not that it really mattered as several of them went to see it on opening day. The result: One of the rare 0% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.com. Chances are we're looking at another bomb, more inspiration for the Nostalgia Critic, and I can safely say we won't be talking about this movie come Oscar time.

Jonas Brothers: Bigger Then The Beatles (Possibly Even Jesus)

Okay, so they aren't as big as The Beatles and likely never will be, but they will be coming to IMAX 3D in about a month...

...which means all you girls who loved them in "Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds" can get ready to watch another manufactured band from the Disney tween machine. This is perfect timing because with "Hannah Montana: The Movie" coming out and rumors of Miley Cyrus opting out of a third season...well, the Jonas Brothers seem to be the perfect replacement. Wholesome, good looking, and easy on the ears. They may be instantly forgettable but with faces like that you can sell a lot of posters which will in turn kill a lot of trees (so much for kids going green these days). So if this is such a marketing ploy why am I bothering to blog about it in the first place (and on an Oscar site no less)?

Easy: Because this is Disney's first movie on the IMAX since they released "Treasure Planet" on it years ago. Yeah, I know they released a couple of hour long documentaries in the past few years, but this is the first real movie they are releasing on IMAX since they decided the format wasn't really that profitable. I'm hoping the sucess of this will lead Disney to release their 3D remasters of Best Picture nominee "Beauty & The Beast" and "Toy Story" on IMAX as well as conventional theaters. I saw "Beauty & The Beast" on IMAX about eighr years ago and I still remember the experience. I was crushed when I found out we wouldn't get the IMAX versions of "Aladdin," "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," or "The Little Mermaid" in this format. Hopefully this 3D thing will bring in lots of dough for Disney and convince them to give these films a second chance on the really big screen.