At The Box Office

Well, for the moment, at least, it appears that Over The Hedge won't be disappearing all that quickly from theaters after all, despite the "Wendy's Curse," as a manager at one Wendy's restaurant dubbed my theory that every movie Wendy's is involved in promoting bombs. (I don't call it a curse because I don't believe in curses.) Hedge took in over 37 million bucks to land at No. 2 in ticket sales for last weekend. The reviews I've seen have been pretty decent, so Hedge might just be sticking around for awhile.

Of course, we all know what's going to be the No. 1 film at the box office for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Yep, it'll be X-Men: The Last Stand, the (supposedly) final installment in the X trilogy.

I say "supposedly" because you can be sure that if Last Stand makes anywhere near the moolah the first two did, 20th Century Fox execs will be thinkin' sequel. Sure, director Brian Singer intended the series to be a trilogy, but Singer split the Xavier School for Metropolis, Krypton and points west to guide the cinematic comeback of a certain strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. (According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Singer is already signed for what is currently known as Untitled Superman Returns Sequel, due in 2009. I like that title. they should keep it.) With Singer gone, the backroom bigwigs could probably give less than a flying fig about his "vision" for the X series, and likely care more about milking that cash cow until it dries up. So get in line now for X4, coming in 2009 to a theater near you!