(1)  Bruno ($30.4 million, $11,040 per screen):  As a de-facto sequel to Borat — which made nearly as much in its second weekend as this one did in its debut– there is simply no way to look at this as anything other than a disappointment.  Consider the fact that its Friday numbers accounted for nearly half of its overall weekend, and I think it’s clear that Bruno is little more than a blip on the summer-movie radar, destined to be all but forgotten by this time next week.  Move along, nothing to see here.

(2)  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($28.5 million, $6948 per screen, $120.5 million total):  Down roughly thirty percent this weekend, it’s a solid hold for the toon, for — as I believe I said last week, too — I can’t shake the feeling that Fox must have wanted more.  If nothing else, this offers proof that summer really isn’t the be-all, end-all of blockbuster release dates; the previous two films in this series opened in the spring, and this one is only doing about as well as those did; clearly, at least in this case, it’s the movie, not the release date.

(3)  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($24.2 million, $5637 per screen, $339.2 million total):  Dropping only about forty percent this weekend, the Autobots continue to chug along, damn their hollow metal souls.  They’re likely to suffer a bit at the hands of Hogwarts next week, though.

(4)  Public Enemies ($14.1 million, $4230 per screen, $66.5 million total):  Down 45% this weekend, that’s not bad, but neither is it an omen of particularly good word of mouth.  Look for this movie to top out at about $85 million and enjoy a long, comfortable life in the home market.

(5)  The Proposal ($10.5 million, $3327 per screen, $113.7 million total):  Down less than twenty percent this weekend, Ryan Reynolds has considerable cause to celebrate this weekend; between this and the news that he’s been cast as the Green Lantern in that movie, he’s doing okay for himself the past few days.

(6)  The Hangover ($9.9 million, $3308 per screen, $222.4 million total):  If someone had told you on May 1 that The Hangover would make close to $250 million, would you have believed them?  Yeah, me neither.

(7)  I Love You Beth Cooper ($5 million, $2691 per screen):  That’s a miserable debut, but Fox dumped the movie, so it probably could have been even worse.  Clearly, Hayden Panettiere is going to have to wait to become a star.

(8)  Up ($4.6 million, $2115 per screen, $273.7 million total):  It doesn’t appear that Up is going to be able to make it to the $300 million mark, but it’s still got an outside shot.  Definitely one of this summer’s biggest success stories, and probably its best movie.  Until G-Force comes out, that is.

(9)  My Sister’s Keeper ($4.1 million, $1710 per screen, $35.8 million total):  Yawn…

(10)  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($1.6 million, $1434 per screen, $61.4 million total):  …so sleepy…

Wednesday brings us Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and if the reviews are any indication, it’s not only the best film of the series, but it’s the best by a large margin.  Advance ticket sales are through the roof, so look for the record for midnight-show openings to possibly be toppled.  This is a perennially strong series, so who knows how high the opening weekend could go.  I don’t think the five-day record being broken is in the cards … but … those advance sales are awfully strong.

My prediction: from Wednesday through Sunday, $185 million.

The casting could end up being somewhat unorthodox, as Reynolds has already played one filmic superhero — or more correctly, a supervillain, Deadpool (in X-Men Origins: Wolverine).  The success of that movie has led to Fox actively putting a Deadpool spinoff film, with Reynolds attached, in development.  Unless I’ve got some early-onset Alzheimer’s developing, there has never been an actor play two different lead roles in two different comic-book-movie franchises.

The casting news caps a summer movie season that may well have seen Reynolds finally emerge as a major star, first appearing in Wolverine, then co-starring with Sandra Bullock in the hit rom-com The Proposal, and now landing the lead role in a studio tentpole film.

(1)  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($112 million, $26.453 per screen, $201.2 million total):  America, you got a “what the fuck” from me once already this year after the opening weekend of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but this time, you’ve really done it.  Honestly, what the fuck?!?  As a giant fan of the movie industry, I’m thrilled to see any movie pull in $200 million in five days, but I am genuinely mystified and unsettled for Revenge of the Fallen – a movie with virtually no actual value — to be the one to have done it.  There are positives I am going to choose to take away from all this: one, that the industry as a whole is still quite strong in terms of its potential; and, two, that this is probably a good omen for how future sequels such as Iron Man 2 and Star Trek 2/12 will perform.

All ire aside, it’s a phenomenal debut, and once the final figures are released, there’s a possibility that The Dark Knight could be unseated as the top five-day earner in movie history.  The question now is, how much more will Revenge of the Fallen make during its run?  It’ll almost certainly be well past $300 million by the time I write this column again, and $400 million would seem to be a lock.  Past that, frankly, I don’t care to think about.

(2)  The Proposal ($18.4 million, $6039 per screen, $69 million total):  The rest of the top 10 seems almost irrelevant considering how well Transformers did, but let’s soldier on anyways.  The giant robots threw everything for a loop, but The Proposal held up relatively well, considering, and now qualifies as a genuine hit.  It’s going to make $100 million, and for a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, that’s awesome.  Both are suddenly bankable, at least on paper and in contract negoatiation meetings.

(3)  The Hangover ($17.2 million, $4884 per screen, $183.2 million total):  Dropping 36% this weekend (steeper than has been the case, but still good), The Hangover continues to chug along.  It’ll pass the $200 million mark sometime around the 4th of July, marking a time of celebration for missing-toothed dentists and roofie salesmen everywhere.

(4)  Up ($13 million, $3741 per screen, $250.2 million total):  It’ll take a big hit this week when Ice Age 3 opens and takes away most of its 3D screens, but even if Up earned nary another dime in cinemas, it’s had an awesome run.  And the fact is, it’s not finished.  It’s a long, long way to $300 million, but Up might have what it takes to get there.  Then again, it might not: it was down nearly 45% this weekend, a steeper drop than it has been experiencing, which suggests that families opted for Autobots instead of Octogenarians this weekend.  With Transformers and Ice Age on screens, and the kids at Hogwarts just arund the corner, the competition may simply be too fierce for Pixar to hit $300 million with Up.  If so, nobody will feel it was a let-down.

(5)  My Sister’s Keeper ($12 million, $4616 per screen):  I’m nt sure anybody expected much from this movie, so with that in mind, My Sister’s Keeper actually had a pretty good weekend.  Per screen, it made more than Up, in fact.  With the choices for adults still pretty slim, this might be able to stick around for a few weeks and end up being a mild sleeper hit.

(6)  Year One ($5.8 million, $1918 per screen, $32.2 million total):  Plummeting 70% this weekend, Year One is clearly not a well-liked film.  It’s going to make even less than Land of the Lost, probably putting an end to comedies set in ancient times for a while.

(7)  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($5.4 million, $1803 per screen, $53.4 million total):  Dropping another 55%, this movie is simply not doing very well.  It isn’t an outright bomb, but it was misplaced in the summer, and Sony is probably kicking themselves for it.

(8)  Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ($3.6 million, $1619 per screen, $163.3 million total):  Down 53%, the museum-comes-to-life movie was obviously hurt by the robotic-cars-come-to-life movie.  Of the two, I’d pick the one with Amy Adams, but hey, that’s just me.

(9)  Star Trek ($3.6 million, $1978 per screen, $246.2 million total):  Given that Transformers 2 will make as much in something like ten days, it’s hard to get too impressed by Star Trek‘s total gross.  But it is fairly impressive, and the movie continues to play well from week to week.  It made more per screen this weekend than the three films above it in the top ten, which is a good sign of how devoted people are to it.  I continue to wonder, though, if it’s new fans finding it each weekend, or if Trekkies are just going to see it nine times each.  I’m hoping it’s about half and half.

(10)  Away We Go ($1.6 million, $3390 per screen, $4 million total):  Making a surprise appearance in the top 10, the Sam Mendes dramedy expanded to semi-wide status this weekend, and got decent results.  Clearly, this is no Little Miss Sunshine or Juno, at least not yet, but if Focus can continue to get good results from the larger cities, maybe the smaller burgs will follow suit.  It’s going to be hard to get those screens freed up, though.  Netflix will be the beneficiary of this one.

Next weekend should be an absolute barnburner.  With one Optimus Prime-sized colossus already in theatres, the industry also offers up a 3D sequel to a very popular animated series.  Oh yeah, and some Johnny Depp gangster movie, too.

My prediction for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is that for the five-day, it makes over $100 million and ends up in first place.  This could easily fail, however, if Transformers manages to hold its audience.  I’m betting half of it evaporates, but if that doesn’t happen, it’ll be on top for a second straight weekend, and Ice Age will have to settle for the silver.

As for Public Enemies, it’s a dark horse, but also a bit of a wild card (if I may be allowed that many metaphors in a single sentence).  The appeal of Johnny Depp shouldn’t be underestimated, and neither should the perpetual appeal of the gangster flick.  Also, there haven’t been too many movies lately for grownups.  If all of those factors come together just right, John Dillinger will be culturally relevant again; if it doesn’t, then we’ve got a movie that is going to fail to make much of a dent.  Personally, I think the latter scenario is the likeliest: I’m predicting $30 million for the five-day.

Hah-hah-heh-hah-hah!  Get it?  Hang over?  Ooh-eeh-hooh-hah-hah!  (EDITOR’S NOTE: Ting-tang, walla-walla bang-bang…?)

You know, like the movie The Hangover!  Is big hit!  You like!

(1)  The Proposal ($34.1 million, $11,163 per screen):  No, they did not hang over to a third consecutive #1 performance.  Top of the heap this weekend belongs to Sandra Bullock (having a career-best opening weekend) and Ryan Reynolds (possibly cementing his status as an A-lister).  The writing was on the wall for this one when sneak previews did extremely well last weekend, and while The Hangover – a de facto date movie — might have hurt it in Spock Prime’s universe, in this one it doesn’t seem to have hurt it a bit.  Legs could be long, because they usually are for romantic comedies.

(2)  The Hangover ($26.8 million, $7575 per screen, $152.9 million total):  Down a measly 18% this weekend, this movie is starting to look less like a word-of-mouth hit and more like a word-of-mouth phenomenon.  For stinging red fuck’s sake, Hollywood, please pay attention to this: a movie that isn’t a superhero flick or a remake CAN still be an enormous hit.

(3)  Up ($21.3 million, $5568 per screen, $224.1 million):  Speaking of which … please take notice of Up.  Actually, don’t.  Unless you actually are Pixar, you ain’t Pixar, and I’d truly hate to see what Hollywood aping Pixar would look like.  It’s down 31% this weekend, and will likely take some abuse from both Transformers and Ice Age over the next couple of weeks, but its status as a classic and as a big old fat hit is already in the bank; everything from this point on is gravy.  And there may yet be a lot of gravy.

(4)  Year One ($20.2 million, $6684 per screen):  Not nearly as bad an opening as it might have had, when you consider how bad the reviews were, and how well the considerable competition (specifically, from The Proposal and The Hangover) did this weekend.  Where will the movie go from here?  My inclination is to say straight to the $5 bin at Wal-Mart, but I didn’t think it would open this well, so maybe I’m not the best judge of Year One‘s appeal.

(5)  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($11.3 million, $3672 per screen, $43.3 million total):  Yikes.  Down 52% this weekend; not good for an adult-centric movie.  Unless this thing levels out quickly, it’s not going to make even $75 million.  And if that gets Tony Scott to stop making movies, then I’m all for it.  People: go see The Hangover or Up instead!

(6)  Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ($7.3 million, $2465 per screen, $155.9 million total):  With summer in full swing, parents are getting desperate to get their children out of the house … so desperate, in fact, that they’ll stoop so low as to take them to see this movie.  It’s down only 24% this weekend, which is really quite good.  Fox is doing extremely well with this movie in its later weeks, and while it’s still not going to get close to the performance of its ancestor, it’s doing okay.

(7)  Star Trek ($4.7 million, $2037 per screen, $239.4 million total):  Ah, yes, Star Trek.  This movie is doing extremely well at this point in its run.  This weekend, it dropped a best-in-the-top-ten 14%(!), and managed to sneak past Star Trek: The Motion Picture to become (arguably) the most successful Trek movie of all time.  Until somebody does a better job, J.J. Abrams has set the bar for how to properly do a remake, or a reboot, or a reimagining, or whatever you want to call this.  I can’t wait to see where it goes from here (not just for the franchise, but for the director and his new superstars).  Here’s hoping Chris Pine can avoid Shatner’s mistakes, and that Zachary Quinto’s agent can get him out of that Heroes contract, stat.

(8)  Land of the Lost ($3.9 million, $1350 per screen, $43.6 million total):  Fading fast, the Will Ferrell-led sci-fi comedy is going to go down in history as a grave misstep for all involved, except for composer Michael Giacchino, who’s got Star Trek and Up to keep him warm at night.

(9)  Imagine That ($3.1 million, $1030 per screen, $11.3 million total):  Somehow, this movie managed to add three screens this weekend.  Seriously…?  Who looked at its performance last weekend and said, “Yep, better get me some o’ that”?  Regardless, it’s a huge dud for Murphy and Paramount, and will be long gone two weeks from now.

(10)  Terminator Salvation ($3 million, $1599 per screen, $119.5 million total):  Continuing to slink off in disgrace, McG’s magnum opus spends one final week in the top ten in America.  No word yet on how it did overseas this weekend; it’s been doing admirably outside the states, though, so maybe all is not yet lost for the franchise.

(17)  Whatever Works:  Opening on nine screens and averaging $31,222 per, Woody Allen’s latest comedy got mostly good reviews and did standard opening-weekend Woody business.  It likely won’t go much further from there, but hey, you never know.

Next week — Tuesday around midnight, in fact — brings us the much-anticipated Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  Yawn, says I.  “Sure, we’ll be thrilled to part with our $175 million,” says America by the time Monday has arrived.

Also opening, for some unknown reason, is My Sister’s Keeper, a Cameron Diaz/Abigail Breslin movie.  It hits on Friday, and I’ll be surprised if it cracks the top ten.

You know, a lot of money gets spent making a movie as high-profile as this one.  I’m amazed at how such a vast sum of money can be spent without someone at some point stepping up and insisting that the product resulting from all that squandered currency actually be, you know, good.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t necessarily what I’d call a bad movie, but it’s so mediocre in so many ways that I simply can’t help but wonder the specifics of how such mediocrity passes all the hurdles of the filmmaking process.

The basic concept is relatively sound.  That’s one hurdle cleared, and that one I get.  The idea, essentially, is to explain the following: (1) where Wolverine came from and how he got his amnesia and (2) how this ties in to the origins of the group called the X-Men.

The rationale for this project was to make a solo Wolverine movie, shorn of the encumbrance of having an entire cast of characters taking screen time away from Hugh Jackman, who was certainly the breakout character from the first three films in the series.  And since there’s a reason Wolverine has consistently been one of the most popular characters in all of Marveldom since his introduction, I can’t seen any reason for Fox not to have given him his own movie.

Why would you then go right on ahead and encumber that film with a large cast of super-powered supporting characters, many of them making their first film appearance?  That’s a decision that has no logic behind it whatsoever.  I can hear it now: “Yeah, boy, our solo Wolverine movie is going to be great!  Know how it could be even greater?  Let’s add in Deadpool and Gambit and Agent Zero and Wraith and The Blob and Bolt and Silver Fox and Emma Frost and Cyclops!”

Truth be told, even that idea could have worked if it had been better executed.  If the results had been exciting, I’d still have thought it was weird to bring all those characters into a supposed solo story for Wolverine, but I wouldn’t have actually minded.  As it is, it’s one mis-step after another.  Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood brings no sense of style, no confidence, no ability to create a cohesive whole out of the various elements he’s forced to contend with.

Hugh Jackman, of course, is Wolverine, but the only thing we really learn about the reasons for his personality is that he killed his father at an early age.  And frankly, that killing is understandable; it’s a little silly that he gets as upset as he gets over killing a man he’d never met, a man who seconds before had murdered the man Logan thought was his father.  From that point on, what do we find out about Logan’s character and personality except that he is apparently even easier to track down by the military than Rambo seems to always be?  Not much.

For an origin movie, this is a problem.  Fellas, this type of shallowness won’t fly in the era of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and if you’re going to even attempt it, you’d better have some damned distracting smoke and mirrors to keep my mind occupied.

There are a decent number of action scenes, but none of them take flight, and some of them are just silly.  For example, Agent Zero’s Equilibrium-style gun-fu skills are laughable; when you’re stooping to ripping off Equilibrium, you know you’ve taken a turn for the worse.  Deadpool’s superior bladesmanship — he enters a room full of men who are firing automatic weapons at him, and uses his two swords to either deflect or slice apart each and every bullet — looks ridiculous in the extreme.

Now, speaking of silly, I know it’s odd to criticize a superhero movie for having characters whose powers aren’t realistic.  It’s not lost on me that this is nothing to complain about.  From a storytelling standpoint, I’m not; rather, it’s the filmmaking that is in question here.  Actually, it’s not in question; I have no doubts that it’s shitty, and since good filmmaking is what is required to sell concepts like these, in this particular case I’m not buying.

Hood does a better job with Gambit than with Agent Zero and Deadpool.  I have to confess, it’s kinda cool seeing those energized playing cards sailing through the air.  But Gambit is mostly wasted, and Taylor Kitsch — if you’ve seen him on Friday Night Lights, you know he’s an actor of tremendous charm — is almost totally misused.  I don’t want to say he’s bad in this role … but he is bad in this role.  I like the guy, so I’m going to blame the director and the editor and hope that this doesn’t sink his career.

They don’t do much good for most of the rest of the cast, either.  Danny Huston is a bore playing General Stryker; Dominic Monaghan is about as wasted as wasted can be; Will.i.am seems like acting is not for him; Lynn Collins (formerly of True Blood) seems uncomfortable in many of her scenes.  Ryan Reynolds does pretty well in his very limited role as Wade; poor guy, when the character is reintroduced later in the film as Deadpool, he’s played by a stuntman in makeup.

The only actors who truly impress here are Jackman (of course) and Liev Schreiber, who is great as Victor.  Schreiber is one of those guys who you feel ought to be a big star; this role won’t hurt him, but I think he’s going to have to keep on waiting for his real breakout role.

The movie has gaps in logic big enough to get a raised eyebrow from a Kolinahr graduate.  We find out that Stryker has an island full of captured mutants, which is fine; we learn that Gambit escaped from the island, which is also fine.  But what sense does it make that Stryker hasn’t put any effort into recapturing him?  Stryker doesn’t seem the type to let things go, or to leave loose ends lying around.  Logan finds Gambit in about three minutes; presumably, so could Stryker, and the fact that the screenplay ignores this is a particularly poor piece of writing.

Not as poor, though, as the big Logan and Victor reunion during the film’s climactic battle.  Victor comes to Logan’s assistance while Deadpool is whoopin’ his ass, lamely asserting that nobody else is allowed to kill him.  Sure, Victor has been screwed over by Stryker, I get that … but that’s not enough to explain a sudden burst of sibling devotion, if if it is disguised.  The way Victor has been played out during the movie, the implication is that as he gets older and older, his wildness and bloodlust become more dominant.  (This, presumably, is also how we’re supposed to think Victor becomes the hulking brute Sabretooth as seen in the first X-Men movie.)  This drive toward murder and rampage is how Stryker is able to use Victor: by giving him an outlet for those instincts.  Now, you’re expecting me to believe that Victor can put all that biological instinct aside for a while just because Stryker pisses him off?  I don’t buy it.

Lest it seem like I’m totally sandbagging the movie, I will say that some of it works for me.  For example, the credits sequence — in which Logan and Victor fight their way through the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Vietnam — is cool.  Some of the locations are impressive.  The explanation for Logan’s amnesia is fitting, and I’m also fond of the Professor X cameo toward the end (though my goodness, that is some shitty CGI de-aging).  And as much time as I spent earlier carping about the oversized cast, the hints of a larger world of superheroes and supervillains are fun.

But all in all, this is a good idea overburdened by a lack of focus in the plotting, which is then made worse by poor dialogue and mediocre filmmaking.  Only the least discerning of audience members are going to genuinely enjoy the movie.  Everyone else is likely to either enjoy it in an utterly disposable way, or be disappointed; some will be flat-out scornful.

That’s two such disappointments in a row for 20th Century Fox in their X-Men franchise.  Between this, the relative failures of Daredevil and Elektra, and the outright lousiness of the Fantastic Four films, Fox’s ability to get any lasting value out of these potential goldmine franchises seems to be practically nonexistent.

Wolverine may or may not have a big opening weekend, but either way, this is not a film that is built for the long haul.  There’s a reason these characters have been popular for decades, but so little of it ends up in this movie, you’d have a hard time telling it.