apropos of nothing

Success of ‘The House Bunny’ a Clear Mandate for Someone to Write a Non-Crappy Movie for Anna Faris

By , a features writer for New York Magazine.  He was previously the magazine’s culture editor and one of the original editors of Vulture.

Courtesy of Columbia


On Friday, we asked if over-the-top critical exuberance over her movie-salvaging performance in the not-great The House Bunny could turn Anna Faris into a star. And maybe it can! Bunny was the feel-good box-office story of the weekend, earning a near-budget-recouping $15.1 million and placing second, just behind Tropic Thunder, whose $16.1 million brings its cumulative gross to just $65 million, a good deal short of the movie’s $100 million production cost (and the untold billions they spent on offensive viral marketing). Faris also trounced Death Race ($12.3 million) and Rainn Wilson’s awful-looking The Rocker, which bowed at No. 12 with a hilarious $2.8 million. If people will pay this much to see her in The House Bunny, just imagine how much they’d pay to see her in a movie that isn’t borderline terrible!

Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Earlier: Can America’s Film Critics Make Anna Faris a Star?