Paul Dergarabedian Weekend Quotations

We have an up weekend - 5% over the last New Year's weekend. Propelled by these two blockbusters, it's really moving the box office.

This was not a weekend destined to be a blockbuster weekend. Really, really slow. Audiences seemed somewhat indifferent again. That's the scary part for the industry. It really takes a lot to get them out there to see a movie. It seems like any competition, like baseball, really cuts in big-time.

This was the worst weekend of the year at the box office and the slowest start to summer we've seen in years.

What didn't go wrong? That's the question. This was a summer that really could be characterized as under a cloud from the beginning. Usually, the first weekend in May, you have a big film that kind of kicks off the summer. It didn't happen that way this time, and that was sort of an indicator of things to come.

Definitely not a weekend we'd want to see repeated.

You don't want a repeat of what happened last year. It's still early in the year to call it, but every weekend it's down is chipping away at the advantage we had early on this year.

It was quite an underwhelming week, ... This is theoretically the first weekend of the summer and It doesn't feel like one.

It's somewhat ironic in the final weekend of one of the worst summers ever that we have a strong showing. Hopefully, this sets a positive tone heading into the fall and holiday season.

Not every weekend can be a blockbuster. This weekend definitely was not.

It was a fairly unremarkable weekend at the box office. August usually is a slowdown month.

In all fairness, this was more of a typical late-October weekend, as opposed to a year ago, when 'The Grudge' surprised everyone and made this weekend look pale by comparison.

But I think this is a movie that's going to perform well this weekend and be in this for the long term, because it's a really good movie, and that will hold it in good stead and generate great audience reaction. So this is just the beginning for this film.

By programming two films that aren't chasing the same audience, you can really build a pretty good weekend for two movies at the same time.