Battle of the box office: It’s a draw

Each of the two most controversial films of the weekend can claim victory of a sort: An American Carol earned the higher total, Religulous the higher per-screen average. Both of them just made it into the weekend top ten, at ninth and tenth respectively. And the talking chihuahua won the weekend. Karen Hall tells me, via Facebook, that Beverly Hills Chihuahua actually turned out better than it looked (not that that would be hard), so I won't begrudge it its success. Kim and her husband and I showed up at the theater in Georgetown on Friday night for the American Film Renaissance Film Festival screening of An American Carol, only to be informed by a theater staffer that the theater had told the AFR to take the movie elsewhere because it didn't "fit with their [the theater's] billing." Judging by the marquee, however,... [read full story]