We mentioned this behemoth of a boxed set a few days back. Here’s a package pic and more details. You can pre-order it now for $149.99 from Amazon (reg. 199.98)
From the creative mind of science-fiction and television legend Irwin Allen (“Lost In Space,
Recorded Live in the Tapa Room of the Hawaiian Village Hotel. Maybe you thought Hilo Hattie’s was just a chain store? From the liner notes: Hilo Hattie has long been known as the “Clown Princess of Hawaii.” For many years she has been spreading throughout the world her comedy versions of the lore and lure of the Hawaiian Islands. Although she is known and has been seen and heard by millions, this album is Hilo Hattie’s first LP and it is sure to add many more fans to her long list of international followers. This is her live comedy and music show opening for the Hawaiian Village Serenaders at the Hawaiian Village Hotel (later to be the Hilton Hawaiian Village). Hilo Hattie performed live all over the US and was a regular part of the Harry Owens TV show (yeah, I never heard of it either). She also appeared in several movies including “Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki” and “Hell’s Raiders.” And, pssst…her real name was Clara Nelson. This album is a fun little jaunt back in time to catch Hattie’s slightly risque comedy live and in person with a room full of fellow haole tourists. Sit back in your “noho” with a tall glass of “Okolehao” and imagine yourself in the Polynesian atmosphere of the colorful Tapa Room, and you will be ready to listen and enjoy this incomparable performance of Hawaii’s own and beloved HILO HATTIE. Hilo Hattie Does The Hilo Hop
Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With an 11-5 loss to the Diamondbacks last night, the Phillies stand at 9981 losses, only 19 away from 10,000.
It’s nice the Phillies know how this thing works. After thumping Atlanta in a three-game sweep this weekend, the Fightins have promptly come home and lost two straight to the Diamondbacks. The Phils are now 26-26, back at .500. With 42,000+ Monday night and 27,000+ last night, Phillies fans have returned to their doom-and-gloom ways. The Phils are now 8 games back of the Mets in the NL East.
Ryan Howard almost got hurt last night, too. While the Phils were down about 59-6, Howard dove for a grounder and came up limping. It’s just a cramp, however, so Ry-Ho just wasn’t drinking enough water or something. Meanwhile, backup catcher Rod Barajas is hitting .213 with a .361 slugging percentage. Chris Coste is at Double A Reading.
Bobby Abreu, however, has apparently aged 40 years overnight and is having the worst season of his career. “Finally, the Abreu envisioned by Tampa Bay when it traded him for Kevin Stocker shows up,” Jeff Passan wrote. Unfortunately for the Phillies, the man they traded Abreu for, Matt Smith, has an 11.25 ERA and is in the minors. Ryan Franklin has a 0.90 ERA for St. Louis. Oh, and 2006 first round pick Kyle Drabek is on the DL.
Blah blah blah 75 wins blah blah blah Charlie Manuel blah blah Pat Gillick blah blah Chris Coste blah blah DL blah blah bullpen blah blah Dollar Dog Night blah blah.
It’s amazing how quickly a Phillies fan’s opinion on the team can shift, eh?
AstraZeneca Stroke Drug Fails in a Clinical Trial By ANDREW POLLACK Published: October 27, 2006 An experimental drug that AstraZeneca had hoped could protect the brain from the damage caused by a stroke has failed in a large clinical trial, the company said yesterday. The setback dashed the hopes not only of the drugs developers but also of stroke specialists, who thought that success might at last be at hand after countless past failures of such drugs. AstraZeneca, which sponsored the clinical trial, said yesterday that it would halt development of the product, called NXY-059. Shares of AstraZeneca fell $4.99, or 7.5 percent, to $61.38, despite the companys simultaneous announcement of a 33 percent increase in earnings per share in the third quarter. Shares of Renovis, a small California biotechnology company that developed the drug and had licensed it to AstraZeneca, lost more than 75 percent of their value, plunging $10.77 to close at $3.43. Renovis has no other drugs in clinical trials. Pharmaceutical companies and other medical researchers have tried for years to develop so-called neuroprotectant drugs, created to help shield brain cells from the damage caused by a stroke. But all those drugs have failed, in part because scientists lack knowledge of what happens in the brain after a stroke and because animal tests do not always predict what will happen in people. A paper published in March in the Annals of Neurology said there had been 1,026 neuroprotectants tested so far, 114 in people and 912 only in animals. Despite the long odds, hopes were riding on NXY-059, because last year it had apparently achieved the first success ever in a late-stage clinical trial, when it reduced disability in stroke patients as compared with a placebo. But the results of a second large trial, announced yesterday, showed no effect. The trial involved 3,200 patients. Its not an understatement to say were shocked by the negative outcome, Corey S. Goodman, the chief executive of Renovis, said in a conference call with analysts. Mr. Goodman said he could not explain why the drug had seemed to work in the first trial but not in the second. Dr. Justin A. Zivin, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, who helped design the trial, said that in the first trial the drug had been significantly better than a placebo by one scale used to measure disability, but not by another one. The results of the first trial were marginal, and obviously the drug was just not sufficiently potent, he said. Still, I think there was a real expectation, Dr. Zivin said. I had thought it would work, too. Its a big setback for the field, but it shouldnt be that the whole field dies. There is one drug approved for stroke, Activase or tPA, from Genentech. It breaks up the blood clots that cause most strokes. But it is given to only a fraction of stroke victims because of restrictions on its use. The neuroprotectants like NXY-059 are designed to prevent damage over a wider area of the brain. The drug traps free radicals highly reactive molecules that cause cell damage. AstraZeneca executives tried to put the failure in context. Development of drugs in the field of stroke is a very high risk endeavor, John Patterson, the companys head of drug development, told analysts. Still, this is yet another setback for AstraZeneca. Earlier this year the company dropped work on Exanta, a blood-thinning drug, and Galida, a diabetes drug. AstraZeneca said its profit for the third quarter rose 29 percent to $1.59 billion, or $1.01 a share. That was up from $1.23 billion, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose 13 percent to $6.52 billion. Sales of Crestor, its anticholesterol pill, rose 62 percent to $536 million. Sales of the heartburn drug Nexium rose 13 percent to $1.28 billion. The company also said yesterday that it had received subpoenas from regulators in California and Alaska seeking information about its marketing of Seroquel, a drug for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Sales of that drug rose 19 percent in the third quarter to $848 million. AstraZeneca also said the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an informal inquiry about payments made to doctors and government officials in certain countries outside the United States. It did not identify the countries.
Fresh from the ever-excellent, cost-free BAILII case law database is the ruling of Mr Justice Lewison yesterday in Green Lane Products Ltd v PMS International Group Ltd and others [2007] EWHC 1712 (Pat). Although it’s a Patents Court ruling, the topic under judicial scrutiny was the Community design right.
Green Lane sold laundry balls (a product of which, to his embarrassment, this member of the IPKat team had no prior knowledge). These laundry balls, which are apparently placed inside a tumble dryer in order to soften fabrics without the need for chemicals, were packaged in pairs of spiky blue and pink pastel plastic balls, one of which had square nodes, the other round nodes. They were also reputed to reduce drying time by 25%. A selection of laundry balls is depicted (above, right) for illustrative purposes.
Green Lane registered its designs as Community registered designs under Council Regulation 6/2002 on Community designs in August 2004, the certificate of registration described the products for which the design was registered as ‘flatirons and washing, cleaning and drying equipment’. In August 2001 PMS ordered a company in China to create a tool for making spiky plastic balls; PMS then marketed balls made from that tool extensively in the European Union and elsewhere from 2002, though they were sold as “massage balls”, not laundry balls. In October 2006 PMS realised that their tool could also be used to make balls sold as laundry balls and as “massage, hand exerciser, easy-catch toy, dog trainer” balls. Green Lane said PMS would infringe their design rights if they continued to sell their product for anything other than use as massage balls. PMS were unconvinced that Green Lane’s design registrations were valid since spiky balls were a known phenomenon well before the date of Green Lane’s registrations.
Article 7 of the Regulation deprives a design of protection if it had already been made available to the public at the time when registration was sought. In this context:
“(1) … a design shall be deemed to have been made available to the public if it has been published following registration or otherwise, or exhibited, used in trade or otherwise disclosed, before the [date of the application], except where these events could not reasonably have become known in the normal course of business to the circles specialised in the sector concerned, operating within the Community. The design shall not, however, be deemed to have been made available to the public for the sole reason that it has been disclosed to a third person under explicit or implicit conditions of confidentiality”.In this context a preliminary issue arose as to what was the “sector concerned” in this case? According to Green Lane it was only the sector covered by the product class specified in the registration. PMS disagreed: in their view the relevant sector consisted of or included the sector of the alleged prior art.
Lewison J, holding for PMS, agreed that the “relevant sector” was the sector that consisted of, or included, the sector of the alleged prior art. In his view the definition which Green Lane argued for could give rise to several surprising consequences, it being most unlikely that any of those consequences had been intended.
Left: Laundry balls, from The Straight Dope
The IPKat says, you can read these at paras 22 to 25 of the judgment: while the fact that an interpretation of a legislative provision may have surprising consequences does not mean that it is wrong, when that interpretation lacks support from background legislative materials it is unlikely to be followed where an interpretation with less surprising consequences can equally be adopted. Merpel adds, the learned judge has been having a go at one of our national treasures, The Modern Law of Copyright. He says:
“14. … The authors of Laddie Prescott & Vitoria The Modern Law of Copyright and Designs hedge their bets (para 44.30). They tentatively suggest that the relevant sector is a single sector comprising both the sector of the registered design and the sector of the prior art (although somewhat confusingly they refer to the latter as “the sector in which infringement is asserted”). They go on to suggest that a registration might be partially invalid in that it would not apply to certain commercial sectors, while remaining valid in relation to commercial sectors in which there was no prior art.
…
31. I must now explain why in my judgment the solution of partial invalidity proposed by Laddie Prescott and Vitoria is erroneous. What they appear to contemplate is that a design may be valid as regards some sectors and invalid as regards others. The reasoning is founded on a reading of Article 25.6 (or its equivalent in the Directive) which says that if a design has been refused registration or been declared invalid, it may be registered in an amended form. The registration may be accompanied by a “partial disclaimer” by the holder of the CRD. But what this contemplates, in my judgment, is not that the whole design can be registered with a disclaimer of its application to certain product classes. Rather it contemplates that part of the design itself may be disclaimed. Any other reading would be inconsistent with Article 10 which does not allow for differentiation between different classes of product.
32. Moreover, even assuming that Article 10 did allow for differentiation between different classes of product, the problem is still not cured. The effect of the disclaimer would be to narrow the scope of the registration. But Articles 5 and 6 are concerned with designs in the prior art irrespective of product. Since they cannot be rewritten, the problem remains”.Will laundry balls wash? Click here and here to find out
Indian lawyer and Pharma Patents blogger Feroz Ali has just told his friend the IPKat about his new book, The Law of Patents – With a Special Focus on Pharmaceuticals in India, published by LexisNexis Butterworths, India. A copy is on its way to the IPKat, who will subject it to his usual stern scrutiny. In the meantime the Kat is delighted to see, among the book’s bibliographic details (ISBN 978 81 8083 150 8. Price Rs 1595. Hardback, xliv + 1161 pages), the information that the rupture factor is not critical.
Right: no need to go into training to lift this book.
I know the majority of people look to escape to posh resorts and upscale boutique hotels as an ideal getaway destination. But I’ve always found those one-size-fits-all accomodations often create a disconnect between the city and traveler. What’s the use of traveling all the way around the world to be surrounded by the very amenities and recognizable decor you can get at home?
Traveling to me has always been about making a home, albeit a temporary one, in the spirit of the country/city you’re staying at however foreign. And for that, barring staying with a native friend or family, renting a vacation home is one of the best ways to experience a city/town’s true charm and heartbeat without the artificial bubble a hotel creates.
And with this in mind, I’ve spent countless hours romantically fantasizing about travel on Vacation Rentals By Owner , a website with over 82,5000 vacation homes in every state and throughout Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and those tempting South Pacific Islands. The site lists details and photos of each home, and going rates per day, week and even per month (a month long vacation sounds about right, doesn’t it?). It’s basically a website of dreams yet unfulfilled.
My personal favourite currently is this storybook 17th-Century Flemish home in Brugge. In my opinion, it beats any fancy boutique hotel, with a fair 567-651 euros/week price, and it’s pleasantly decorated in a style completely foreign to my LA life. Perfect.
Ignoring a nationwide call for a goofiness cease-fire, Joe Morgan has decided to hold another chat.
Alfonso (Boston): Hello Joe. How much does Manny Ramirez’s defense hurt the team? Would they be better off trading him in the offseason so Jacoby Ellsbury could play everyday.
Joe Morgan: It seems like when we bring young people up at the end of the year and they get off to a good start, people tend to believe they will play that way for an entire season. You know what you get with Ramirez, a great hitter. And Manny’s defense does not hurt them as much as his offense helps them. It is hard to replace players that drive in runs the way Manny does.
Ken Tremendous: Joe’s not entirely wrong here. I have resisted drinking the Ellsbury Kool-Aid — although it looks effing delicious — due to his less-sugary minor league numbers and the fact that historically there is zero correlation between a player’s first 40 MLB at bats and his career statistics. (See Pedroia, Dustin.) However. It should be noted that Manny is currently having his worst offensive year since 1994; that he is on the wrong side of 35; that he costs 20m a year; and that while his defense does not quite completely wipe out his offensive contributions, it sure takes the sheen off ‘em.
I don’t know what the point of all of this is, except that just saying “Manny’s a great hitter” isn’t quite good enough to pass muster anymore. On a side note, isn’t it crazy how little anyone has talked about Barry Bonds since he hit 756? Does he even play baseball anymore?
Frederick (Jackson, Mississippi): Who is more clutch? Gary Sheffield or David Ortiz?
Joe Morgan: That is a difficult question because –
KT: — I’ll finish your thought here, Joe. It is difficult because “clutch hitting” is not an ability, per se, but a random correlation of very few data points whose importance is enhanced by the humanistic inclination to remember the extraordinary and not the mundane. That’s what you were about to say, right?
– both have done a great job in tight situations, but Ortiz has proven to be the best big-game hitter in baseball. I think he has risen to the occasion more than anyone else. I would have to choose Ortiz at this point over anyone else in the game.
KT: Oh. Okay. Well, that’s another way to go.
I say this a day after Ortiz hit a walk-off 2-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat the DRays (an .840 WPA, for those of you who love WPA): most evidence seems to suggest that there is no such thing as “clutch hitting ability.” There is “clutch hitting”. There is the abstract concept of “ability.” But there is no “clutch hitting” skill you can learn, in the way that you learn how to hit for power, or control the strike zone, or throw a slider two inches off the black to induce a groundout. Sorry. Take it up with people who are smarter than I am.
Quick example: I was just now poking around the FoxSports site, and I found this in an old Ken Rosenthal column:
While center fielder Carlos Beltran is probably the Mets’ best offensive player, the most important might be left fielder Moises Alou. “He’s one of the very best clutch hitters in our game,” one rival executive says. “He doesn’t care about the situation or who is on the mound. If he gets his pitch, he’ll beat you.” Alou’s career numbers with runners in scoring position: .307 BA, .391 OBP, .513 SLG.One of the best “clutch hitters” in the game — .307/.391/.513 with RISP! That’s clutch. Except that career, overall, he is: .302/.369/.517. That’s basically the same. In fact, it might be the case that he is simply a better walker with men on base. And his SLG is actually lower with RISP.
Enough of that. Let’s get to some classic Joe comedy, courtesy of his last sentence:
But Sheffield is one of the best offensive players in the history of the game.
Again, he’s not wrong, I guess. Gary is tied for 49th all-time in OPS+. I just like it when Joe gets all hot and bothered about Gary Sheffield.
George (Boston, MA): The White Sox are bringing back essentially the same team next year, and now they’ll have the same manager too. Meanwhile they’ve pretty much mailed it in on this season over the past several months. If nothing changes, what’s the chances that they’ll play any different next year? Thanks.
Joe Morgan: That is a decision that Ken Williams hgad to make. It was amazing to me that their offesne went dormant to start the year, and then a lack of pitching followed. They are counting on Contreras to rebound, and for Dye, Thome, Konerko to turn it around. What I see them doing is bringing this team back because they have so much money invested in these players. I think they are going to see how the first half of next year’s season plays out and then react accordingly to how the team plays.
KT: They’re going to see how the team plays, and then react accordingly to how the team has played. This innovative strategy of baseball management is called: “Baseball Management.” The White Sox invented it.
John (Chicago, IL): Joe, who do you think, in your opinion, is going to represent the AL in the World Series this year and why? I like Boston because they have the best run differential in baseball and their pitching top to bottom has been statistically the best all year. What do you think?
KT: Hey kids! New to our site and want to know why we think Joe Morgan should be fired? Check out this fun answer!
Joe Morgan: Well the run differential means nothing. It is like OPS, it mean nothing in the grander scheme of things. (…)
Run differential “means nothing.” The number of runs a team scores, as compared to the number of runs it gives up, means nothing. Nothing at all. It has no bearing on how good a team is. How could it? After all, it is simply a measure of how many runs a team has scored and how many runs the team has given up. What could that possibly tell anyone about anything? I mean, let’s look at the teams with the best run differentials in the AL.
Boston
New York
LA Angels
Cleveland
The four worst teams in the league!
Look, run differential isn’t perfect. Every year, teams have terrible run differentials and make the playoffs. The Padres and Twinkies had no business winning their divisions last year. The Snakes have no business winning this year, based on RD. But in general — let’s just all use common sense, here — the number of runs a team scores and the number it allows should roughly correlate to how successful that team is. Just as, say, a statistic that combines a player’s on-base percentage and his slugging percentage should correlate to how good a fucking hitter he is. Why is that controversial?
BTW: if you guys are super into math and want to read about Poisson distributions and revised exponents in the Pythagorean theorem application to ExWL, go here. (Warning: NSFW!!!!)
Francisco (Jalisco, Mexico): The A’s have had a little success in the past, but wouldn’t you say that this year proves that Billy Beane’s approach simply doesn’t work?
KT: Hmmm. Legit question or Joe-Baiter?
Joe Morgan: I do not think you can just take one year and prove it. But I have never thought anyone could reinvent the wheel as far as how the game is played. Once you get on the field, everything that has gone on for 100 years does not change; and that means outscoring your opponent and pitching well.
And since you are more likely to outscore your opponent if you don’t do stupid stuff like bunt and hit-and-run and stuff… it seems like you and Billy Beane are on the same page, Joe!
I do not think this one year proves anything, but the As playoff failures over the years demonstrate that you cannot win it all under that approach.
A. What approach?
B. Four division titles in seven years.
C. The A’s playoff failures do not demonstrate anything except that once you get to the playoffs, anything can happen. Anything. The Reds swept the A’s in 1990 despite the A’s being hugely favored. Billy Beane had nothing to do with that. Kirk Gibson hit a home run off Eck. Dan Gladden hit a grand slam. Ozzie Smith and Scott Podsednik won games with HR. The A’s have a payroll of just under eleven thousand dollars every year, and given that, are far more competitive than they should be. Because of the way they put their team together. How can anyone dispute this?
This year just proves that they lost a lot of good players over the past few years and it has finally caught up to them. But I think they have been reevaluating their approach. At one point they only wanted to draft college players, but this past draft they have drafted some high school players, and I think that is a good approach.
KT: They didn’t only want to draft college players. They looked at some motherhumping data and concluded that college pitchers tended to be better bets to succeed than high school pitchers, so they erred on the side of drafting college pitchers.
You didn’t read the book. You hate the book. You think Billy Beane wrote the book. Shut up about the book unless you man-up and read it, you dummy.
Andrew (Hoboken, NJ): Hi Joe - Always a pleasure reading these chats. I was wondering what you thought about Robinson Cano’s future development? He has shown he can put up some great power/rbi numbers for a second baseman.
Joe Morgan: He is one of the guys that since the first time I saw him play I knew he was a great player. I do not see him everyday, but for him to be a superstar he needs to keep a high level of concetration, and some people seem to think he does not always concetrate as much as he should.
KT: dak yelled at me for being too priggish in my assault on Mike Pagliarulo’s grammar and syntax. But I have a for-reals question: does Joe think the word is “concetrate?”
Eric (NYC): It seems like there aren’t any more “great” teams out there this year, just a lot of mediocrity. In your opinion, what was the last truly great team?
KT: Definitely a Joe-Baiter, I think. “There are no more great teams” is one of Joe’s go-to nonsenses. Along with “Gary Sheffield is great,” “They need to be consistent.” “I am on the Hall of Fame Committee so I don’t like to talk about who should and should not get into the Hall of Fame,” and “Dave Concepcion should definitely be in the Hall of Fame.”
Joe Morgan: It did not just start this year, it has been this way for a bit. A lot of good teams out there, but not many great teams. An great team has no weaknesses. All teams these days have weakensses, most of the time it is starting pitching. The last great teams I think were the Yankee teams that won all those titles. I think Boston, when they won the title were clsoe to beaing great. But I do not see any teams out there right now who I would call complete. The Yankees look great at times, but then they hit these big loosing streaks and that is not what great teams do. So I agree with you that there are not any great teams out there.
KT: Wonderful. A Gettysburg Address for a new generation. Bumbling, ramble-y, riddled with typos (sorry, dak), fact-less, nonsensical, exclusionary (didn’t the 2002 Oakland A’s win 103 games with some pretty good starting pitching?), halting, and bafflingly choppy. Well done, all-around.
Jerry (Red Bud, IL): Are the Cards officially out of it? Will this weekend’s series with the Cubs only give them the ability to play spoiler?
Joe Morgan: I do not think anyone is out of it.
KT: Hear that, Astros?
And they are in a position where they have to sweep the Cubs, and Milwaukee has not been consistent, so if they can sweep the Cubs who knows what can happen.
The first “consistent” in the whole chat. He’s improving.
The Cards have hot a rough spot but it is still not impossible. But going back to Yogi, you just never know.
All of Joe’s answers could be pictorially represented by a picture of himself shrugging with the caption, “Who can tell?”
Joe Morgan: Yesterday I was asked if A-Rod hits 62 home runs would he be considered, in my mind, the legitimate HR season record holder, because he would have done it without any suspicion of steroid use. My answer would be no. It is what it is, and those number that were put up by Bonds and McGwire are there. There has not been any proof about what these guys did, only speculation. So until there is proof I cannot take those numbers away from those guys.
KT: Grand jury testimony, delivered under oath, does not count as proof. Our judicial system has been upended.
Great chat today. I really enjoyed your questions. I am looking forward to next week, when maybe we can discuss this A-Rod question then.
KT: Why not discuss it now? You’re already chatting now, why not–
…
Joe?
…
Joe?
By Rebecca Tapscott
South Seattle
In national surveys, Seattle has consistently been ranked with the lowest rate of pedestrian-motorist collisions per capita among major metropolitan U.S. cities.
However, we
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Spring is here, which means that movies are opening in fast, furious fashion, to clean out the crap from winter and lead audiences into funny, intelligent movie experiences.
In theory, of course. Your actual funny, intelligent movie experience may vary.
This week, there are six movies opening, on at least 1500 theaters each:
TMNT (3110 screens). Yes, that’s the official name of the movie. For some reason, studios think kids love initials more than actually saying “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Anyhow, this looks dumb, and it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to see it aside from little boys. It’ll still probably make around $16 million, but who knows, could be a lot more.
THE LAST MIMZY (3017 screens). I’d like to believe that families would be smart enough to take their kids to this rather than TMNT, but The Last Mimzy is a real stupid title, the commercials don’t do a very good job bringing across the movie, and reviews haven’t been good. I think it’ll do some cash from the we-have-to-take-the-kids-to-something-they-are-driving-me-crazy-no-not-those-damn-turtles market, but I can’t imagine this is really going to break out. $6.9 million.
SHOOTER (2806 screens). I think this will be number 1 for the weekend. It looks entertaining, Wahlberg’s a likable actor, and the reviews have generally been good. $26.2 million.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 (2447 screens). They don’t have my eyes. $12.7 million.
REIGN OVER ME (1671 screens). I love Don Cheadle, and I like Adam Sandler, and I want to see this movie, but… I don’t know. It looks like a downer; you know that if they can’t find a funny scene to put in the commercial to at least make you think it’s a funny Adam Sandler movie, then this must be really serious. Which can be a good thing, if the film is great, and the reviews have been decent. Though I saw Mike Binder’s last film (Man About Town, with Ben Affleck) and wow was that bad. So… I don’t know. $8.1 million.
PRIDE (1518 screens). I’m not sure what the audience is for an earnest little movie about black swimmers, and I think there’s way to much competition out there right now for this to do well. $4.7 million.
Sadly, all these new movies mean that some older films are being bounced out of theaters; the big victim is Zodiac, which is losing two-thirds of its screens in its 4th weekend. It never did catch on, though I bet it’ll find ots audience on DVD.