The great William Goldman defines a movie star as an actor who can generate a big opening weekend gross. After the opening weekend, word of mouth can sink or lift a movie, but for that first weekend it’s most often the star that puts people in the seats.

Using this definition Goldman posited in the mid-’90s that Jim Carrey was the biggest star in Hollywood–as opposed to, say, Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis–because he was able to generate big opening weekends for movies that, without his presence, would have barely registered a blip. Goldman believed that Adam Sandler succeeded Carrey as Hollywood’s biggest star for the same reason in the mid- to late-’90s.

I’d posit for discussion that Tyler Perry might be on the verge of becoming a giant movie star, maybe the biggest in Hollywood. Last weekend his Why Did I Get Married? opened to $21.3M. It was his third-consecutive #1 opening. The other two movies opened to $21.9M and $30M. None of these films opened in more than 2,200 theaters.

To give some perspective, here are Carrey’s early opening-weekend successes, with their theater counts:

12/16/94 Dumb and Dumber $16,363,442 2,447
07/29/94 The Mask $23,117,068 2,360
02/04/94 Ace Ventura $12,115,105 1,750

Here’s Sandler’s:

2/13/98 The Wedding Singer $18,865,080 2,821
2/16/96 Happy Gilmore $8,514,125 2,022
2/10/95 Billy Madison $6,639,080 1,834

And here’s Perry’s:

10/12/07 Why Did I Get Married $21,353,789 2,011
02/24/06 Madea’s Family Reunion $30,030,661 2,194
02/25/05 Diary of a Mad . . . $21,905,089 1,483

If anything, I’d say that Perry’s short run is even more impressive given that his budgets are a fraction of even what Carrey and Sandler’s cheap movies cost and while I don’t have the numbers on it, I’d bet Perry’s studio, LGF, spent less money on advertising support. Probably a lot less.

Perry’s have a great run. It’ll be interesting to see what happens for him next.

If you didn’t go yesterday, you’re only hurting yourself, baby. Today Labash mounts a credible case for theism based on Angie Harmon.

So hot.

Dan McLaughlin antes up and gives us a really excellent discussion of the Rockies’ streak by delving into Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein’s book Baseball Dynasties, which has a list of the ten greatest stretch runs of all time.

I don’t want to spoil his conclusions, so go read it. It’s great stuff.

Pursuant to my question yesterday about the strange clip of Han Solo in the Wilhelm scream compilation, Galley Reader P.G. sends us this, the lost Star Wars Holiday Special:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJlG-BumBHM&rel=1]
People will have their own opinions, but for me the worst moment was Carrie Fisher’s musical number, which managed to not only be terrible on its own terms, but to bastardize part of the original John Williams score, too.

The best moment, oddly, is the plug for the toys at the end. God, I loved the landspeeder and the X-Wing. And, I don’t want to brag or anything, but I had the AT-AT. Yeah, that’s right. Thanks mom!

ABC News has a great story on the Wilhelm Scream:

The scream was recorded in 1951 for “Distant Drums,” a western directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gary Cooper as a captain who leads a group of soldiers on a mission to defend 19th century Florida settlers from Seminole Indians.

During one scene, a soldier is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator and he screams the whole way down. The soldier may have died, but a new star was born.

After “Distant Drums,” the scream stayed quiet for a couple of years until 1953, when a soldier named Pvt. Wilhelm (played by Ralph Brooks in “The Charge at Feather River”) got shot in the leg by an arrow. Sound editors needed a good scream and decided to reuse the one from “Distant Drums.”

AICN now has a couple of compilations of Wilhelm screams from movies ranging from Star Wars to Howard the Duck.

Update: Okay, here’s one of the compilations, but it has one clip in it that has me completely mystified, at the 1:37 mark:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YDpuA90KEY&rel=1]
That’s Harrison Ford and Chewbacca, and a real Storm Trooper, but I have no idea where that scene is from. Some lost TV special, maybe?

Help me, readers, you’re my only hope . . .

Mike Carminati runs the numbers, and they’re pretty impressive.

Meanwhile, Philly sportswriter Todd Zolecki reports on the Phil’s minor league prospects, who are playing fall ball:

Click here to see how some Phillies prospects are performing in the Arizona Fall League. Third baseman Mike Costanzo is hitting .059 with 10 strikeouts in 17 at-bats.

Awesome. Some day all of this will be ours!

Bonus: 10 strikeouts in 17 at-bats? He’ll fit right in with this Phillies roster. Only girls work the count.

Matt Labash, bringing the Jesus Funny, at Slate.

Enjoy.

Some fodder for Red Sox Nation (I’m looking at you, A.W.):

When you give up 7+ runs a game, that’s on your pitching staff. But when you give up 7 runs in an inning, twice, isn’t that on the manager? You can’t blame a manager if his team gives up, say, 4 runs at a time. But isn’t his job to keep a firm enough grasp on the game, the opposing lineup, and his bullpen, to be able to hold keep the bleeding from becoming a hemorrhage? Particularly in the playoffs?