Men in Black 3 Opens at Number 1 Spot, Grosses P68.73-M

ANILA, May 28 – Alien-hunting black-suited secret agents have invaded the top of the box office.

Columbia Pictures' sci-fi action comedy “Men In Black 3” starring Will Smith opened at No. 1 in the Philippines, amassing a nationwide gross of an out-of-this-world P68.73-million for the five-day opening weekend May 23-27 frame. This was announced today by Victor R. Cabrera, managing director of Columbia Pictures Philippines.

Men In Black 3's” first weekend haul in the Philippines is the second best opening of 2012 for a foreign movie, behind only “Marvel’s The Avengers” and beating the bows of “Wrath of the Titans” (P62.5-million), “The Hunger Games” (P62.3- million) and “Battleship” (P46.3-million).

In the U.S., the sequel which reunited Smith with co-star Tommy Lee Jones and director Barry Sonnenfeld, effectively wrestled away the box-office crown from “Marvel's The Avengers” which has dominated the North American tills for the past weeks. "Men in Black 3" debuted as the No. 1 movie over the Memorial Day holiday weekend with $55 million. Distributor Sony estimates that by the end of the four-day holiday weekend Monday, "Men in Black 3" will have pulled in $202 million worldwide.

Men in Black 3 Review

The Men in Black are back for a third big screen outing in Men in Black 3 with the three main individuals back in the saddle (director Barry Sonnenfeld plus actors Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones).

The new movie brings s back Agent J and Agent K in a new case against an alien with a grudge against K (Jones). Things would have been a lot more simple if not for the alien getting his hand on some time-travel tech which screws up the time-space continuum. Agent J follows the intergalactic perp to 1969 to try to foil the assassination. 

Okay here’s my take:

MIB 3 is one of the best movies so far in the series. I’d like to say that while the original MIB was great and MIB II was so-so, MIB III took some initiatives in fleshing out more details about both J and K.

Josh Brolin also plays the role of the Young Agent K. You have to admit that the resemblance between Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin share an uncanny similarity in this movie. This is also the second movie where the two topbill but are never seen together on screen. More on Brolin’s acting later.



Boris (the Animal) is also an intriguing and menacing character. I thank Executive Producer Steven Spielberg for adding a really good nemesis in this outing. Don’t get me wrong the first movie had Edgar who was more creepy and disgusting rather than scary. Lara Flynn Boyle’s Serlina looked great on screen but she was never MIB-villain material. Truth be told, Ben 10’s alien villains had a lot more screen formidability compared to the MIB II baddies. Again Boris is a visual creep so it adds a lot of meat into the material plus Jermaine Clement's take on this vile creature was also thumbs up.