Paul Blart: Mall Cop Information

Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American action comedy film released by Columbia Pictures. The film was directed by Steve Carr and co-written by Kevin James, who stars as the title character, Paul Blart. Filming began in February 2008 with most of the shooting taking place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts. The film opened in the United States on January 16, 2009.

Despite receiving generally negative reviews, the film went on to become a box office success. Created on a relatively small budget of $26 million, it grossed $31.8 million in its opening weekend and finished with a domestic gross of more than $146 million and a worldwide total that exceeded $183 million.

Plot

Paul Blart (Kevin James) is a middle-aged, single dad who lives with his teenage daughter, Maya (Raini Rodriguez), and elderly mother, Margaret (Shirley Knight), who helps raise her. He's a mild-mannered, yet overweight security guard who takes his job at the fictional West Orange Pavilion Mall in New Jersey very seriously. He aspires of becoming a member of the New Jersey State Police, but due to his hypoglycemic medical condition, he tends to collapse and fail the admissions exams. Blart patrols the mall on his Segway, a two-wheeled transport vehicle that he takes pride in being able to masterfully maneuver. While on patrol at work one day, Blart notices a new kiosk in the mall selling hair extensions and is instantly attracted to its vendor, Amy Anderson (Jayma Mays). He is having a hard time finding the courage to speak to her, however. Meanwhile, Blart has been given the assignment of training a new rookie, Veck Simms (Keir O'Donnell), who unlike Blart shows very little interest in his new-found position as a mall security guard.

Blart eventually becomes acquainted with Amy, and one evening as he escorts her to her car, Amy invites Blart to join her and other mall employees at a party later that evening. Blart gladly accepts. During the event, things initially go well, but Blart eventually gets sidetracked from Amy by participating in a nacho-eating contest with an overweight friend, Leon (Jamal Mixon). The hot sauce used is more than Blart can handle, and he begins chugging alcoholic drinks around him in an effort to console the pain. As a result, Blart gets excessively drunk and incoherent, crashes the party, and makes a wild exit by falling through a window. The behavior temporarily stalls his relationship with Amy.

On Black Friday, a gang of criminals suddenly break through the service entrance at a bank inside the mall. Amy and other customers in line are taken hostage. Veck is revealed as the gang's leader, who plans to use credit card codes obtained from various stores around the mall to steal $30 million, while keeping the hostages as insurance to escape. The crew of thieves force shoppers to exit the mall and strategically place motion sensors around each entrance, apparently revealing the real reason Veck took the security guard position in the first place " to gather intel and find flaws with the mall's security. Blart, who was in a nearby electronics store playing a video game, Rock Band, doesn't notice what's happened.

As Blart leaves the arcade, he notices that the entire mall has been taken over and calls the police, who later show up outside the front entrance of the mall. Sergeant Howard (Adam Ferrara) instructs Blart to leave the mall immediately, but when Blart sees Amy's car in the parking lot, he realizes that Amy is still inside as a hostage, and decides to rescue her and the rest of his friends. A state SWAT team soon arrives and Commander James Kent (Bobby Cannavale), a classmate and bully from Blart's high school, takes control of the situation. Though vastly outnumbered and physically outclassed, Blart fights against the gang members through improvised measures. Maya shows up at the mall to bring Blart his dinner, but Veck's henchmen kidnap her and hold her hostage as well.

After detaining all of Veck's underlings, Blart attempts to extract the hostages by pulling them up via the airvent, but fails after Leon cannot fit. Veck enters the room, and Blart is captured. He forces Blart to give up the credit card codes and escapes, taking Amy and Maya with him at gunpoint.

As policemen swarm the entire mall to apprehend the criminals and rescue the hostages, Blart steals the mall's display minivan and joins Kent in pursuing Veck to the airport, where Veck attempts to escape in a Cessna Citation III business jet along with Amy and Maya. After a brief fight, Blart overpowers and handcuffs Veck. However, Kent pulls his gun on Blart, revealing himself as a mole in the SWAT team who had been working with Veck the whole time. Kent demands Blart to give him the phone containing the codes, but Blart refuses and smashes it on the ground. Before Kent can kill Blart, Chief Brooks (Peter Gerety), who had stayed at the mall with the other policemen throughout the standoff, arrives and shoots Kent in his arm; the police arrive at the airport, where Kent is arrested and Amy and Maya rescued.

The next day, Sergeant Howard offers Blart his job with the New Jersey State Police, but Blart decides that his place is protecting the people at the mall with Amy and the rest of his friends. The movie ends with Blart and Amy getting married in the mall and riding a Segway PT together.

Cast and characters

• Kevin James as Paul Blart, the security officer at the mall and main protagonist of the film.
• Jayma Mays as Amy Anderson, Blart's love interest who works at a kiosk within the mall.
• Keir O'Donnell as Veck Simms, a thief and the film's main antagonist who is disguised as a security officer in training as a way to gather intel and find flaws within the mall's security.
• Bobby Cannavale as Commander James Kent, a SWAT officer and the film's secondary antagonist who is later revealed to be in cohorts with the primary antagonist, Veck Simms.
• Raini Rodriguez as Maya Blart, the daughter of Paul Blart.
• Adam Ferrara as Sergeant Howard, the hostage negotiator.
• Peter Gerety as Chief Brooks, Blart's superior officer and mentor.
• Stephen Rannazzisi as Stuart, the film's tertiary antagonist who acts unkindly towards Blart.
• Jamal Mixon as Leon, a kid at American Joe's who competes with Blart eating nachos and peppers.
• Adhir Kalyan as Pahud, an egocentric teenager whom Blart befriends via cellphone.
• Erick Avari as Vijay, an aging man who sells cellphones.
• Shirley Knight as Margaret Blart, Blart's elderly mother.
• Allen Covert as Jerky Security Guy
• Bas Rutten as Drill Instructor
• Jason Ellis as Prancer
• Natascha Hopkins as Vixen
• Mike Escamilla as Blitzen
• Rick Thorne as Cupid
• Mike Vallely as Rudolph
• Gary Valentine as Karaoke Singer
• Victor T. Lopez as Donner
• Jackie Sandler as Sales associate at Victoria's Secret store

Production

The film began shooting in late February 2008 in Boston. Principal shooting took place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts after being denied a permit from Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey. From late February until mid-April, the mall and its stores were decorated with Christmas decorations, and there was a large prop ball-pit in the main foyer of the mall near the Sears branch, and a Santa's Village at the opposite end near the Macy's branch where the mall usually puts its own Santa's Village. Interior filming took place mostly at night. Some of the aerial stunts, such as Blart being attacked in the scenic elevator, were performed at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, MA, as the Burlington Mall's construction did not allow for some of these stunts.

Release

Critical reception

The film received mixed to negative reviews from movie critics, although it was a box office success. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "Rotten" rating of 33%, based on 111 reviews. Metacritic gives the movie a low approval rating of 39 out of 100, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews", based on 24 reviews from mainstream critics. Though most critics panned the film, one notable exception was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.

Box office

Paul Blart: Mall Cop became a hit at the box office. The film ranked number one at the domestic box office with $9,791,368 from 3,144 theaters for an opening day average of $3,105. During the film's entire three day opening weekend, the film remained at number one, grossing a total of $31,832,636, with a per screen average of $10,125, outgrossing its $26 million budget. It grossed $39,234,238 over the entire four day MLK weekend, for a four day average of $12,479. The film was the second best opening of all-time for the MLK weekend, behind 2008's Cloverfield. The film stayed at number one in its second weekend, grossing another $21,623,182, dropping just 32%, and boosting the ten day income to $64,923,380. In its third weekend it dropped to second place with $13,872,751, a 36% decline from the last weekend, for an average of $4,327 from 3,206 theaters, bringing the seventeen day gross to $83,247,655. In its fourth weekend, it dropped to fifth place with $10,884,825, a drop of 22% from the last weekend, for an average of $3,435 from 3,169 theaters, and bringing the 24-day tally to $96,886,687. In its fifth weekend (President's Day weekend), it dropped to sixth place, making another $10,983,319 over the three day span, actually increasing 1%, for an average of $3,704 from 2,965 theaters, and bringing the 31-day total to $109,787,819, having broken the $100 million mark on Friday February 13. Over the four day President's Day weekend, it made $13,574,027 for an average of $4,578, and bringing the 32-day cume to $112,388,524. The film closed on Monday, May 25, 2009, with a final domestic gross of $146,336,178, with the three-day opening weekend making up 21.75% of the total gross (26.81% for the four day opening weekend). The film has also so far made $36,625,591 internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $183,293,131, against a modest $26 million budget.

Home media

Paul Blart: Mall Cop was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and UMD on May 19, 2009. The DVD sold 1,817,747 copies, making US $29,411,146 for the week of May 24, 2009, having only been out for six days, and it ranked number one for DVD sales that week as well. For the week of May 31, 2009, it again made number one on the US DVD Charts as it sold an additional 553,681 copies and making US $9,921,964 for a total of 2,834,826 units sold with earnings of US $46,676,902 as of November 1, 2009. Combined with results from the Box Office and total DVD sales as of November 1, 2009, the film has earned a total of US $227,126,523.