Author Archive


Name: John Cairns
Location: Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada
Reject Since: April 2007
Email: jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com

Bio: John Cairns has a wide and varied background in journalism in Canada. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario and gained considerable on-air experience on TV in the greater Toronto area, including internships at two major TV networks in Canada. He’s done news and sports reporting and now is taking a stab at entertainment writing. He credits his stint as a volunteer at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival as the spark for his interest in pursuing film writing. He recently moved out of Toronto, back to his hometown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he hopes to pursue radio and TV opportunities. He can also be read at his blog, The Cairns Blog (http://johncairns.blogspot.com/).


Posts by John Cairns:

The Reject Report Sings a Christmas Carol, Stares At Goats

The Reject Report Sings a Christmas Carol, Stares At Goats

As you can tell it’s November, Halloween is now over and Christmas is right around the corner. How do we know this? Because the Christmas movies have started with A Christmas Carol. We also have the horror flick The Box, the thriller The Fourth Kind, and the Oscar season movie The Men Who Stare at Goats.

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For Michael Jackson, This Was It… Sort of

For Michael Jackson, This Was It… Sort of

Well, so much for all the lousy hype about how great that Michael Jackson movie would do. Michael Jackson’s This Is It made only 21 million on the weekend, and with its $3.7 million Thursday haul and $7.4 million Wednesday haul, its grand total is $32.5 million. Big deal!

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The Reject Report Believes This Is It

The Reject Report Believes This Is It

Welcome to another edition of the Reject Report, and there is one movie, just one movie, that anyone really is focusing on this weekend. It is Michael Jackson’s This Is It, and it goes wide into 3,481 locations on Wednesday.

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Paranormal Activity Cuts Saw VI Down, Wins Weekend

Paranormal Activity Cuts Saw VI Down, Wins Weekend

The big shock is how easily Paranormal Activity won the weekend. It hauled in $22 million, compared to only $14.8 million for Saw VI, which was itself only barely ahead of Where the Wild Things Are.

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The Reject Report Anticipates a Box Office Saw-off

The Reject Report Anticipates a Box Office Saw-off

The winning Paranormal Activity continues to roll, and Saw VI will be rolling out, as well as Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and the reissue of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas (in limited release). And we also have Astro Boy.

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Where the Wild Things Are Begins With a $32 Million Rumpus

Where the Wild Things Are Begins With a $32 Million Rumpus

Where the Wild Things Are was the weekend’s big winner, with an opening haul of $32 million. Frankly, though, I thought there was no way this movie was going to do a worse opening than Couples Retreat last week.

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The Reject Report Goes Where the Wild Things Are

The Reject Report Goes Where the Wild Things Are

This weekend we look forward to the much-anticipated Where the Wild Things Are, based on the best-selling children’s book. Also rolling out is The Stepfather and Law Abiding Citizen, plus we have a Paranormal Activity update as well.

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Scary Good Box Office for Couples Retreat, Paranormal Activity

Scary Good Box Office for Couples Retreat, Paranormal Activity

The numbers are in from a surprising weekend at the theaters, with two movies outperforming a lot of the expectations out there by a considerable margin. Seven million for Paranormal Activity? Thirty-five for Couples Retreat? Are you kidding me? No.

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The Reject Report Heads Off on a Couples Retreat

The Reject Report Heads Off on a Couples Retreat

Well, it makes it really easy to do a Reject Report column when only one new movie rolls out in wide release. It’s called Couples Retreat and it is the movie we will preview in this week’s box office report.

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Zombieland Takes Over the Box Office

Zombieland Takes Over the Box Office

It’s $25 million dollars this weekend for the hit Zombieland, proving that the zombie movie genre is alive and well. As for the other movies — all I gotta say is where the hell ARE you people?

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The Reject Report Heads West into Zombieland

The Reject Report Heads West into Zombieland

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is still in theaters making money, but it sure looks as if the defending champ could fall victim to a concerted attack by the zombies and other things.

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Box Office ‘Cloudy’ For a Second Consecutive Week

Box Office ‘Cloudy’ For a Second Consecutive Week

It was once again Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which dominated the weekend box office, with all the new releases Surrogates, Fame, Pandorum and all the rest coming up well short

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The Reject Report Seeks ‘Fame,’ Forecast Still ‘Cloudy’

The Reject Report Seeks ‘Fame,’ Forecast Still ‘Cloudy’

This week, we have three movies in wide release — Fame, Surrogates and Pandorum rolling out, and they stand the best chance of knocking off Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Or they may not.

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Reject Report: Megan Fox Drowns in Meatballs

Reject Report: Megan Fox Drowns in Meatballs

I often say it is “feast or famine” at the box office, and as has been the custom for the past several weeks, the trend held true as Cloudy with a Chance of Meetballs won the weekend with a healthy $30.1 million haul.

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The Reject Report Takes a Bite Out of Megan Fox

The Reject Report Takes a Bite Out of Megan Fox

We’ve got some heavy A-list talent on hand this weekend at the theaters: Matt Damon! Jennifer Aniston!! Megan Fox!!! And in the end these folks may all end up losing at the box office to 3D CGI spaghetti and meatballs.

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Box Office: Tyler Perry Does $24 Million All By Himself

Box Office: Tyler Perry Does $24 Million All By Himself

It was the most predictable first place finish ever this weekend, as Tyler Perry continued his usual domination of the box office against all the usual September also-rans and flops. Such is life in September at the theaters.

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Reject Report: Tyler Perry Does Box Office All By Himself

Reject Report: Tyler Perry Does Box Office All By Himself

All I gotta say is thank you very much Tyler Perry for making I Can Do Bad All By Myself. You have made my decision about who finishes first at the box office a whole lot easier.

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Box Office: Moviegoers Take Labor Day Weekend Off

Box Office: Moviegoers Take Labor Day Weekend Off

As expected it was a dead weekend at the theaters this Labor Day weekend — so much so that The Final Destination ended up winning the box office with a haul of only $12.4 million!

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The Reject Report Controls It’s Gamer

The Reject Report Controls It’s Gamer

If you are going to the movies this weekend, there will be less lineups to navigate and more of a chance you’ll get a good seat, far away from other noisy and annoying theater patrons. And maybe you’ll be able to watch Gamer, All About Steve and Extract in relative peace.

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Box Office: The Final Destination Kills the Competition

Box Office: The Final Destination Kills the Competition

It turned out my premonition about who would finish first at the box office this weekend was pretty accurate, as The Final Destination took the top spot with a haul of $28 million.

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