WAS IT WORTH IT? Shrykespeare grades the films of January

I used to do this on a monthly basis back on the old FM boards, and someone (geezer, I think) asked that I start it up again. So, doing a cost-analysis thing on the films of January (in Ultimate, anyway), here is the final grade that I give each film, based on what they cost in the Jan-Mar leagues.

(I threw out those films that were barely selected by anyone, like Not Easily Broken, Yonkers Joe, Of Time and the City and Donkey Punch.)

Inkheart - $17.2M, 0 PTA, 0 Top 5, 6.3 UR. Cost: $17. Grade: F
To think I picked this to win back-to-back weekends. Ouch, that's a bitter pill.

New in Town - $16.&M, 0 PTA, 0 Top 5, 5.2 UR. Cost: $8. Grade: D
Walk away, Renee. Your name does NOT belong above the title, and this proves it.

Killshot - 0 PTA, 7.0 UR. Cost: $2. Grade: D+
No PTA for Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane? What happened?

Bride Wars - $58.5M, 0 PTA, 4 Top 5, 4.9 UR. Cost: $18. Grade: C-
This one was suppoed to do much, much better.

Notorious - $36.8M, 5 PTA, 2 Top 5, 5.8 UR. Cost: $16. Grade: C-
And it only gets this good a grade because of the surprising 5 PTA points it pulled in.

The Unborn - $42.6M, 0 PTA, 3 Top 5, 4.6 UR. Cost: $11. Grade: C
This was much better as a Box Office pick, as it underperformed in every category but BO.

Hotel For Dogs - $71.3M, 0 PTA, 5 Top 5, 3.7 UR. Cost: $15. Grade: B-
Another great BO pick. In Ultimate, however, it was the lowest-ranked film on this list.

The Uninvited - $28.6M, 2 PTA, 3 Top 5, 6.5 UR. Cost: $6. Grade: B
A fairly cheap pick that basically did what was asked of it, and not much more.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - $45.8M, 4 PTA, 4 Top 5, 6.7 UR. Cost: $9. Grade: B+
Paid off in all four categories. Certainly wasn't expecting that.

My Bloody Valentine 3-D - $51.5M, 0 PTA, 3 Top 5, 6.3 UR. Cost: $5. Grade: A
The best performer of the January horror flicks, it outshined all others despite having the cheapest price tag.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $142.5M, 5 PTA, 16 Top 5, 5.5 UR. Cost: $11. Grade: A+
This one was not supposed to fly this high. But it did. Any other month, this would have been the best pick of the bunch. But...


And the best pick of January:

Taken - $137.1M, 7 PTA, 22 Top 5, 8.0 UR. Cost: $5. Grade A++
Seriously, has any pick ever this cheap ever done THIS well? And this sat on the shelf for over a year? WTF? Kudos to Liam Neeson... at least one thing went right for him this year.

Wow I did not have Taken on ANY slates. I had no idea it pulled in 22 frikkin Top 5. Wow! Dude that is like Iron Man TDK numbers for 5 dollars.

The only deal I can remember that even comes close to the bargain on Taken, was Superbad...which only cost $2 back when the FM site was still up...but the Top 5 points for Taken were out of control! And I still haven't seen it! WTF is wrong with me?

yay! my favorite column is back! if geezer hadnt asked for it back i was going to

22 Top 5 points...that's almost as much as TDK or Tropic Thunder. And a 8.0 IMDb to boot....damn.

Thanks Shryke. I always look forward to this.

You're very welcome. I'll do one for February before too long.

thswrestler160 wrote:yay! my favorite column is back! if geezer hadnt asked for it back i was going to

Don't you mean your SECOND-favorite column???

Only thing that I can think of that came close to Taken (At least for pure Price/Box Office) was Journey to the Center of the Earth which I think cost around $2 or $3

The strangers for $2 in Box Office was great too.

Nice to see a recap on the films. It even better now that we set the prices.