Why was I not surprised when I checked the Google Entertainment News Wire, only to find that the latest Will Ferrell movie has suffered one of the worst opening weekends for a Ferrel movie, ever. In spite of topping the weekend box office so far, Semi-Pro has brought in just a measly $5.45 million for Friday, February 29th, with an estimated $15 million in revenue for the entire weekend. Quoting Reuters:

That would make it his worst opening since the $13.4 million start for the quirky black comedy “Stranger Than Fiction” in November 2006. But that movie opened on 2,264 theaters, while “Semi-Pro” is in 3,121 theaters.

“Blades of Glory” earned $33 million during its first weekend, and “Talladega Nights” $47 million. Both those had teen-friendly “PG-13″ ratings, while “Semi-Pro” was hampered by an “R” for language and some sexual content.

I guess it’s easy to just blame this low viewer turnout on a high MPAA rating, but I think that’s just a cop-out. I think the truth of the matter is that people are getting tired of Will Ferrell. Here’s an actor who has starred in a dozen-or-so films, yet he has played the same character in each and every one: that of an 8-year-old. And you can only watch Will Ferrell act like an 8-year-old so many time before it just isn’t funny anymore.

I have no doubt that Ferrell is just being typecast by the studios at this point. But maybe it’s time for him to fight back and stretch his abilities in a more challenging role. We don’t need another 8-year-old adult trying to entertain the audiences. That’s my job.

With NBC having already pulled their shows out of the iTunes store, they are now planning to provide downloads of their popular shows, free-of-charge on their website. This is all well and good, but as with so many good things, there is a catch.

The catch? Shows will be downloaded with commercials in a proprietary player that will disallow transfer of the show between computers and will delete the file after seven days. If all goes well, NBC plans to unveil a service that will allow customers to buy episodes individually with the ability to transfer files between computers with a system that mirrors iTunes.

Make what you will out of that news. While I don’t agree with NBC’s decision to pull their programs out of iTunes, I have no problem with NBC wanting to work on their own terms. What I do have a problem with is that Jeff Gaspin, the president of the NBC Universal Television Group, blames iTunes for problems with episode piracy:

“But, Mr. Gaspin said, ‘piracy was and is our No. 1 priority.’ He said that the music industry had been devastated by the free exchange of music, much of it facilitated by iTunes.”

If you think that iTunes is the problem with piracy, you’re going to have much more to worry about than how much you’re going to charge for your shows. Like, how are you going to stop the scores of computer nerds who will likely find a way to hack the proprietary software. And you know they will. Then, how will you keep the shows from being distributed through other means, like BitTorrent?

No, NBC, you left iTunes for the money. Just admit the reason. You know very well that the iTunes store is one of the safer ways to protect your property. If you’re trying to protecting your property on the basis that iTunes is facilitating piracy, you will not get very far in your own efforts.

I blow my nose at you, so-called NBC. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry!