SHOW BIZ: Weekend Movie Box Office Update: August 7 - August 13, 2009

Weekend Movie Box Office Update
August 07 through August 13, 2009

Rank	Film	Distributor	Weekend Total	# Of Screens	Weeks Playing	Cumulative Box Office
1	G.I. Joe	Paramount	$54,713,046	4007	1	$54,713,046
2	Julie & Julia	Sony	$20,027,956	2354	1	$20,027,956
3	G-Force	Disney	$9,870,594	3482	3	$86,183,076
4	Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince	Warner Bros.	$8,928,349	3455	4	$273,848,633
5	Funny People	Universal	$7,986,435	3008	2	$40,537,755

For more information, access the complete chart on Variety.com.

1. "G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra" is an American live-action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy franchise. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and co-written by Stuart Beattie, based on a 1998 screenplay by John Paul Kay. G.I. Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise. Filming took place in Downey, California and Prague's Barrandov Studios. The film was released on August 5th, 2009, in France and Belgium, August 6th in United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and August 7th in the United States and other English-speaking countries.

2. Adapted from two best-selling memoirs, Julie Powell's Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, and Julia Child's My Life in France, Nora Ephron's film, "Julie & Julia" is the first major motion picture to be based on a blog. The film follows Powell, a temp secretary who spends one year attempting to cook every recipe in Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Intertwined with Powell's story, Child's follows her and her husband, Paul's life in 1940s and 1950s Paris while he was working as a foreign diplomat. In August 2002, Powell started documenting online her daily experiences cooking each of the 524 recipes in Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she later began reworking that blog, The Julie/Julia Project, into a book, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Little, Brown, 2005). The paperback was retitled Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (Back Bay Books, 2006). The film stars Meryl Streep as Julia Child, Amy Adams as Julie Powell, Stanley Tucci as Paul Child, Chris Messina as Eric Powell, Linda Emond as Simone "Simca" Beck, Jane Lynch as Julia Child's sister, Mary Lynn Rajskub as Helen, Powell's best friend, Vanessa Ferlito as Cassie, and Casey Wilson as Regina. Julie & Julia opened in the US August 7.

3. Action-comedy "G-Force" is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Walt Disney Pictures. The film is produced in Disney Digital 3-D, and represents Bruckheimer's first foray into the form. Written by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, the film features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Jon Favreau, Penélope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, and Will Arnett. The latest evolution of a covert government program to train animals to work in espionage, G-Force follows a group of highly-trained guinea pigs who discover that the fate of the world is in their paws. G-Force was released in the US on July 24, 2009.

4. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the sixth film in the massively successful 'Harry Potter' franchise. The first five movies based on the books by J.K. Rowling have already been made into huge cinema hits with stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the sixth film in the series. J.K. Rowling's books, on which the movies are based, have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 67 languages. 'Harry Potter' opened domestically in 3,003 runs on July 15th.

5. "Funny People," the latest from Writer-Director Judd Apatow, features a cast led by Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. George Simmons (Sandler) is a famous stand-up comedian who learns that he has a terminal illness and less than a year to live. When, he meets Ira (Rogen), a struggling comedian at a comedy club where both the comedians are performing, George hires Ira to be his personal assistant and opening act at his performances. The two forge a close friendship as George helps Ira with his career and Ira helps George find closure in his legacy. However, when George learns that his disease has gone into remission and an ex-girlfriend re-enters his life, he's inspired to reevaluate what is important to him and what truly gives meaning to his life. Funny People also features Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill. The film was released domestically July 31st.