Weekend B.O.: Claws and Effect

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" racked up a very healthy $87 million over the weekend, despite being no damn good. All right, I exaggerate: it's reasonably proficient franchise big-bam-boom with a star who doesn't disgrace himself, coming out at a time when people desperately need entertainment to distract them from the woes of their tattered and dreary lives (I speak of Boston Globe employees, of course), and who cares if you come away feeling like a pinball who's made it through a particularly deafening and soulless Bally machine?

So, yes, the "X-Men" hair extension opened at over 4,000 theaters and averaged a hulking $21K per theater. Good eats. The summer is officially on. And what are these people going to do next weekend, when they get a look at "Star Trek," an origin story that has the distinction of actually being a really, really good movie? (Check back tomorrow for my review.)

"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" went down whimpering like the pathetic chick-flick mongrel it is: $15 million at 3,100 theaters. See you on On Demand -- next week. It's worth noting that due to Hugh Jackman's talent with the ladies, "Wolverine" probably played a lot more broadly than is usual for a summer action movie. At the very least, he'd whup Matthew McConaughey on all fronts: acting, singing, dancing, fighting, believable tan. (On a completely unrelated note, I had the great pleasure this weekend of revisiting "Dazed and Confused" on DVD. My God, who isn't in this 1993 Richard Linklater classic about the last day of high school, 1976? Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Rory Cochrane, Milla Jovovich, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, Cole Hauser, Renee Zellweger as an extra, and McConaughey as Wooderson, the sleazy guy who graduated but never really left. All of them look like zygote versions of their older and more famous selves, and all of them look to be having the time of their lives. Of course Linklater's talking about a sequel now -- sigh -- and McConaughey may be a part of it. Well, it couldn't be worse than "Fool's Gold," could it?)

More box office numbers from Box Office Mojo and Leonard Klady at Movie City News.