The Pigeonhole Box Office

Fifty-two weeks in a year, but there's usually, typically not fifty-two different blockbusters at #1 for the year.  The only two examples that come immediately to mind... okay, three, are 1990's Home Alone, 1997's Titanic and 2009's Avatar.  No offense to Spielberg; I mean, 1993's first installment of Jurassic Park was a rather substantial hit... but for how many weeks?  I used to keep better track of such trivia on a weekly basis myself, but one computer crash or another made me lose my knack for it, what can I tell ya.  Lemme check... okay, according to my extensive records, the 2012 installment of the Hunger Games franchise was #1 for four weeks.  In between 2015 and 2016, the new Star Wars was #1 for five weeks.  Of course, when one of those weeks involves making $238 million or so, well... Which brings me, sort of, to the current incarnation of Halloween, which is only in its second week at #1.  Looks like ol' Jamie Lee will be able to write her own ticket now for this, let's say the tail end of the 2nd Act of her career.  Maybe a role in an Expendables reboot, but she won't have to do an About Schmidt-type indie vehicle, that's for sure.  A more typical fallen star has to do that kind of pic these days.
The only new film this week is the latest Gerard Butler juggernaut, which debuted at #5.  It's called Hunter Killer, and it seems to be a slight twist on The Hunt for Red October.  Just a slight twist.  A team of U.S. Navy Seals has to partner up with a submarine captain to rescue the Russian president, of all people.  Not Putin, that's for sure.  No one's going to mess with that guy, but he could probably get all kinds of American resources to help out if he ever did get kidnapped by someone.  Welcome to the new global reality.  I'm too exhausted to even comment on our current president, but I can't help but wonder... is this job fun anymore?  I mean, we've found out his real name is Drumpf, he cheated on his third wife with a porn star, he's used the National Enquirer to bury stories, he funnels money through law firms, he owes the government 500 million in back taxes, he won't condemn David Duke because he doesn't know who he is... did I leave anything out?  I guess he's like Leon Schlesinger, in a way, who once said he's not going to be kind to anyone on the way up because he ain't coming back down.
So, there's only one debut this week, but I'll give a brief shout out to the latest Jonah Hill project.  He's old school, and he still wants to play the silver screen game... even though he's got a Netflix (TM) (C) (R) project as well.  That thing with Emma Stone, right?  Anyway, he's got a thinly-veiled autobiographical project at #10, which seems to have debuted at #11 or lower last week, and it's called Mid90s... he didn't expect it to be a hit.  But I'll go ahead and suggest it anyway... Oscar sweep in five months?  Best screenplay, cinematography, what have you... Emmanuel Lubezki worked on this, right?