Box-Office Monday: Carrey Hears a Hit
There he was, Jim Carrey, a $25 million a movie star, sitting in the audience at last week’s American Idol results show, in an elephant costume. It was a pandering plug for Carrey’s new animated film Horton Hears a Who in which the comic voices the elephant title character created by Dr. Seuss. The movie debuted big at $45 million, making it No. 1 for the week, the best opening so far this year for any movie (driving Cloverfield to second place), and the fifth biggest opening ever for animated film, behind Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Cars and Ratatouille. No bitching from me. Horton is better than decent family entertainment. What made me sad was seeing Carrey reduced to selling himself out for a Fox movie on a Fox TV show. Carrey’s had a tough time of it of late with such flops as The Majestic, Fun With Dick and Jane and — yikes! — The Number 23. But does he deserve this — being forced (I hope) to shill for a kids flick on a massively popular TV show? If I’m being honest, to quote Simon Cowell, it was a pathetic sight. Carrey is a gifted actor who deserved Oscar nominations that never came for The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. You could probably think of other examples of primo Carrey. Let’s do it, just to wipe way away the bad taste of the Idol debacle.