• Clerks II scored a healthy 9.6 million dollars at the box office this weekend to open things up — Even cooler, it took the 4th spot by per-screen averages given it’s lower screen count, and even beat the MUCH higher budgeted, PG-13 rated “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, despite that film’s much higher production cost and higher screen count. Clerks II was only slightly edged out by two other comedies, “Little Man” and “You, Me and Dupree”, but both of those films suffered heavy drops — We’re expecting Clerks II will drop much less next weekend due to strong word of mouth and repeat business. A commentary track that will for the first time allow fans to listen to a director’s commentary IN A THEATER via their MP3 player should be available via this site and all our sites sometime this week (Friday at the latest).

The full details are available in this Yahoo Movies chart:

Overall, Clerks II is the big success story of the weekend, by far earning a better return on investment than any other flick that arrived. Both Lady in the Water and Super-Ex are considered dead-on-arrival flops. We’ll keep you posted on the box office as we learn more. Thanks to all who saw Clerks II this weekend. We hope you’ll go back and urge others to do the same this week and next weekend!

• As if you didn’t need yet ANOTHER reason to see Clerks II, if you see the film and bring your ticket stub into Stash East (Red Bank, NJ) we’ll hook you up with a free View Askew T-Shirt! How cool is that? The official word from Ming:

And hey, just look how happy Chris’s Dad looks in HIS Clerks II shirt, fresh from the Stash! (Note: Free t-shirt is not a Clerks II shirt, just a shirt from the inventory).

• As we’re cleaning out the inbox in the next few days, we’ll likely run a review or article on Clerks II here and there, just to complete our coverage and make sure we’ve got it all in the archives. We hope you’ve been enjoying our extensive looks at press and reviews from around the web:

• Due to incredibly popular demand, the Eninburgh Film Fest in the UK has added a THIRD Clerks II screening, 22:30 on August 18th. Tickets go on sale TOMORROW (Monday).
• Unfortunately some crazy traffic situations and a busy schedule had some reshufflings yesterday regarding Kevin’s appearances — Last we heard the con panel was moved to a later time in the day, and one of the San Diego Clerks screenings had their audience back for a later Q&A session. We hope you all were able to track Kevin down, and do apologize for the confusion yesterday — There’s just nothing that can really be done about 10/20 MPH traffic in California backups.
• Movies.Go.Com allows critcs, site visitors, and moviegoers to review films themselves and give them a rating. Clerks II was BY FAR the best reviewed of the weekend, with an “A” grade across the board!
• Check out a new radio call-in from Brian and Jeff on morning show “The Rise Guys” via YouTube. This was conducted on Thursday last week, just before the film was released. It runs about 7 minutes and is audio-only.
• For those of you who enjoyed hearing Soul Asylum back on the new Clerks II soundtrack, take note — The band released a new CD two weeks ago, their first studio record in 8 years. The new CD is the first release since the death of bassist Karl Mueller last year who features on four tracks. Soul Asylum was featured on the Clerks and Chasing Amy soundtracks as well.