These were my Top 5 hits exactly 20 years ago this weekend – Sunday March 29TH 1998.
The # 1 pop smash nationwide on this date was Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic”. I actually saw “Titanic” on March 12TH 1998 in Fort Worth Texas with coworkers during a military trip. We saw it rather late – nearly 3 months after its box office release. It was still # 1 when we saw it.
(For fun I maintain a database of every movie I see at the box office. I’ve been doing this since 1989.)
I’ve been producing my own personal weekly hit music chart off and on for the past 30+ years. Next Friday I’ll go back another 10 years to the 2ND weekend of April of 1988.
This Sunday I’ll be back with Scripture. I’m leading my church family in Communion on Sunday, and I’ll be using Matthew 28:1-10 as my guide. Today and tomorrow I’ll continue building my May 2018 sermon on “Pride & Prejudice” from the end of Chapter 1 and the start of Chapter 2 of the Book Of James.
That’s all for now. Keep moving forward towards God’s bright light. Remember that it’s Friday now, but Sunday is coming !
I’m currently between sermons right now. I preached a full sermon on March 04TH, and I’ll possibly be preaching again on April 08TH. Last night I finished writing my next sermon on “Light & Dark”. It’s all about living in the light – and constantly moving towards the source of the light – God’s light – and away from where I came from – the dark – Satan’s dark. My new sermon continues my message series on the Book Of James; although, this particular message contains much Good News from First John Chapters 1 and 2. I tweeted this verse yesterday:
If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister – that person is still living in darkness. (1 John 2:9 NLT)
“I Can Only Imagine” shocked the box office this weekend. Initial estimates suggested that it could possibly make $2 to $4 million this weekend in box office receipts. When I saw that I said, “NO WAY ! This movie will be HUGE. This movie will make $15 to $20 million this weekend. You’re underestimating the power of God and His people.”
It ran out of the gate with $1.3 million during its Thursday night previews and nearly $5 million on Friday, $6 million on Saturday, and $5 million today. That’s over $17 million this weekend. It was the # 3 or # 4 movie on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – just behind the big budget Hollywood blockbusters “Black Panther” and “Tomb Raider”. It was the # 1 movie of the weekend in per theatre average. That means it was the most crowded movie to see this weekend. That’s God’s Glory shining His light at the movie theatres from coast to coast.
I’m seeing it this upcoming Thursday. Later that same day – Newsboys LIVE in concert !
I saw “Chernobyl Diaries” at the movie theatre this afternoon. Anyone who knows me knows that there are two types of movies that I love – hilarious gutbusting laugh-out-loud screwball comedies – and horrifying bonechilling suspenseful thrillers. Yesterday I saw the long-awaited sequel to the instant cult classic “Piranha 3D” – “Piranha 3DD”. That flick qualifies for both types of movies that I love. It was hilarious and horrifying. It’s also a box office disaster. It played in a mere 86 theatres over the weekend (compared with 3,000+ for the typical movie), and it made less than $0.2 million. In 2010 the original movie made nearly 60 times that amount in wide release.
But back to “Chernobyl Diaries”. This movie made me shake and shiver all over. It frightened me to bits. It’s perhaps the scariest movie I have ever seen in my entire life. (Then again I have medium-term memory loss.) I also get scared quite easily. Any movie that keeps my eyes popped and glued to the big screen is a great movie. This one did so with an extremely limited budget – barely $1.0 million. Apparently I’m not alone. The movie is a modest success. It’s made nearly $15 million so far. It’s my kind of movie ! [A+]
I’m on track to shatter my all-time personal record for seeing movies in a movie theatre in a single year. 2003 is the benchmark thus far having seen 30 movies that year – 14 of them by the first weekend of June. “Chernobyl Diaries” was my 15TH movie of this year, and “Piranha 3DD” doesn’t even count because I didn’t see it in a movie theatre. I saw it at home on AT&T U-Verse On Demand. Keep in touch with my blog. I’ll review future movies that I see.
LET’S KICK IT with another ‘Weekend Blast-Off’ here on my big bad blog !
WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
This afternoon I kicked-off my weekend at Southland Mall. I saw “Unstoppable” at the Regal Cinemas. This is its first day at the box office. Due to a whole bunch of reasons I don’t go the movie theatres nowadays as often as I used to, so seeing a movie on its very first day of release is definitely rare for me. This is only the 7TH movie that I’ve seen in 2010. At this point in 2009 I had seen 12 movies (the same in 2008). I wish Hollywood made more movies like “Unstoppable”. This was a suspenseful ‘edge-of-my-seat’ action-packed thriller from start to finish. My eyes were wide open during the course of the movie, and I never once looked down at my watch in boredom. I was rooting and cheering on the heroes to come through, and I had moist eyes at the end of it all. I was also exhausted at the end of it all. It was as if I was on the runaway train myself. It was truly a total 95-minute adrenaline rush !
There was only one thing to do after all of that intense action – EAT !
BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD: … And so I did just that – right there at the mall at the Buffalo Wild Wings. I discovered this jumpin’ joint up on International Drive In Orlando about 5 or so years ago when I used to hang out up there on a regular basis. I was so happy when they opened up a location much closer to home. If they were located in Homestead then I’d be there every week enjoying my usual meal of 12 traditional wings spun in Honey BBQ sauce, a regular order of potato wedges, celery sticks with blue cheese dressing, and Coca Cola Classic. Yeah ! Come On !
BUDDY DAY PHOTO OPPORTUNITY OF THE MONTH CLUB: Buddy Roosevelt Day is my brother‘s dog. He bought him from a pet store in Orange Park Florida right around ‘9-11’ in 2001. He went to the pet store, saw Buddy, took an instant liking to him, and then walked away from him. He got in his car, and he drove away from the store. After getting a couple of miles away he made a u-turn and returned back to the store. He bought and adopted Buddy right then and there. Today Buddy is about 9½-years-old. I refer to him as ‘Old Man Buddy’. This picture was taken this past Halloween.
Buddy - The Day Family Canine
THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:
BLATANT PROMOTION:
At this time next Friday night I’ll be settled in at my brother’s and sister’s-in-law home sweet home in Allen Texas, as we enjoy 8 days and 8 nights together as a family celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas combined (our annual feasting and gift-giving tradition). I’m looking forward to it. This will be my first visit to Texas since the 4TH Of July holiday weekend. I left there just 13 days before my Dad passed on. I’ll be tweeting all throughout my upcoming holiday vacation, so you can always follow me to see what I’m up to out west. I’ll also be blogging next weekend with an all-new ‘Blast-Off’ on Friday and ‘Retro’ on Saturday. Tomorrow night on the 107TH edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I’m flashing back 6 years ago to 2004. Until we meet again my friends have yourself a safe, productive, and fun November weekend. Make it memorable.
CountUp 