Audiences spent just shy of $36 million to give Hellboy II: The Golden Army the lead of the pack over the July 11-13 weekend, knocking Will Smith’s Hancock to the No. 2 spot in its second week.
In the battle of the new sci-fi kiddie flicks, Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring Brendan Fraser, with its $20.5 million take on 2,811 screens beat out the newest Eddie Murphy film, Meet Dave, which only brought in $5.3 million on 3,011 screens.
In the 980s it would be unheard of for an Eddie Murphy picture to open so small, although this may be good news for Fraser, who’s new big-budget action picture, The Mummy; Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens in three weeks.
Of all the Top 10 films of the week – all but the ninth spot ( ‘tween chick flick Kit Kittredge: An American Girl) were either science fiction, fantasy, horror or spy fi.
Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of July 11 -13, 2008.
RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]
Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.
Dragon*Con, the largest multi-media fan-run convention in the U.S. recently revealed a star-studded list of celebrities including authors, actors and artists of science fiction, horror, fantasy and other genres.
The convention runs over the three-day labor day weekend in Atlanta (four if you include Friday night’s activities).
Below is a partial list of celebrities attending the 2008 Dragon*Con or the full list: http://www.dragoncon.org/dc_guests_list.php
Lynn Abbey | Tracy A. Akers | Kevin J. Anderson | Jared Axelrod | Christina Barber | Sandra Anglin Chastain | Keith R.A. DeCandido | Carole Nelson Douglas | Darryl Elliott | Eric Flint | John L. Flynn | Laurell K. Hamilton | Raven Hart | Sherrilyn Kenyon | Bonnie Kunzel | Katherine Kurtz | Anne McCaffrey | Todd McCaffrey | Rebecca Moesta | Jody Lynn Nye | Mike Resnick | Stephen H Segal | Jeanne C. Stein | Harry Turtledove | Margaret Weis | Toni Weisskopf
Chace Ambrose | Linda Blair | Ami Dolenz | Micky Dolenz | Jerry Doyle | Robert Englund | Lou Ferrigno | Erin Gray | James Hong | Anthony Lewis | Kevin Sorbo | Adam West
Alien
- Carrie Henn, Lance Henriksen
Battlestar Galactica
- Jamie Bamber, Leah Cairns, James Callis, Aaron Douglas, Richard Hatch, Richard C Livingston, Tahmoh Penikett, Katee Sackhoff
Farscape
- Gigi Edgley, David Franklin, Virginia Hey
Buffy/Angel
- James Marsters
Harry Potter
- Matthew Lewis, Devon Murray
Heroes
- James Kyson Lee, Hayden Panettiere, George Takei
Lord of the Rings
- Sean Astin, Brad Dourif
Serenity/Firefly
- Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite
Smallville
- Erica Durance, Phil Morris, Michael Rosenbaum, Steve Scott
Stargate
- Erick Avari, Morena Baccarin, David Nykl, David Palffy, Robert Picardo, Cliff Simon, Jewel Staite
Star Trek
- Avery Brooks, Michael Dorn, Dominic Keating, Walter Koenig, Cirroc Lofton, Robert Picardo, George Takei
Star Wars
- Daniel Logan, Ray Park, David Prowse, Matthew Wood
Torchwood
- Gareth David Lloyd, James Marsters
Brian Bailie | Roger Dean | Stephen Hickman | Joe Jusko | Marrus | Ingrid Neilson | Brandt Peters | Rowena | William Stout
Pete Abrams | Mike Baron | Eric Basaldua | Christian Alexander Beranek | Pierre Bernard, Jr. | Gina Biggs | Greg Carter | G.W. Fisher | Cully Hamner | George Krstic | Rich Larson | Nathan Massengill | Charles D. Moisant | Eric Powell | Mark Texeira | Bernie Wrightson
Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of July 4 -6, 2008.
RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]
Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.
Below is a list of the top-grossing science fiction, fantasy, spy fi and supernatural horror/dark fantasy films first released in North America in 2008. They are listed in order of worldwide gross as of June 29, 2008.
KEY: Rank (Overall rank) Title [Genre] – Worldwide Gross | U.S. Gross (U.S. Rank)
COLORS: GREEN = still in theaters; RED = lost money; BLACK or BOLD ITALIC = Broke even or better
Source: Box Office Mojo, various press reports
Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of June 27-29, 2008.
RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]
Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.
Longtime fan Jack Speer passed away early in the morning June 28, 2008. A member of First Fandom (FF), he was inducted in the FF Hall of Fame in 1995 and was the FGoH (fan guest of honor) at the 2004 Worldcon.
He died as approximately 3 a.m. Saturday morning in his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as discovered by Ruth, his wife of many years.
In the mundane world, John Bristol Speer was a retired lawyer who resided in Albuquerque since 1962; previously, he was a Democrat state representative from the Bend, Washington area during 1959-1961.
Jack was a giant in science fiction fandom, a founding member of N3F, FAPA and the original historian of science fiction fandom.
His 1944 Fancyclopedia has spawned many imitators over the years (including one on this site) and his 1939 book, Up To Now: A History of Science Fiction Fandom, is still used as a reference almost 70 years after first publication thanks to its recently resurrected electronic form on efanzines.com.
Fellow science fiction historian Harry Warner credited Jack Speer as “the first to stress [fandom's] subcultural aspects. Single-handedly, he made fandom’s ayjays something entirely different from the mundane amateur journalism groups.”
During his early prankster days in fandom, Speer was also known by the fannish name, John Bristol (his first and middle name sans surname).
A fandom innovator, he is also credited with being the father of the fanzine mailing comment.
Jack was the second editor of N3F’s The National Fantasy Fan in the 1940s, after founding editor, E. E. Evans.
LINKS:
Please feel free to leave your remembrances of Jack in the comments section at the bottom of this article.
* Special thanks to Robert Lichtman for fact-checking details of Jack Speers’ life.