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“Avatar” Arrives
12 hours ago
Twentieth Century Fox will be opening Avatar on 3,124 3D screens in 2,032 theaters -- taking over virtually every 3D venue in the country -- plus 1,425 2D screens besides. In a few four- or six-screen theaters, the movie will be shown on every screen. Some analysts suggest that the movie could transform the movie industry, making 3D a standard and spurring the production of ultra-high-budget movies. (Estimates for Avatar's production and marketing expense range from $350 million to $500 million.) In an interview with today's (Friday) Washington Post, director James Cameron said, "Everybody at Fox is starting to relax a bit because people really are responding positively and the tracking is way up. ... I don't think this film is going to behave like Titanic, where it just defies gravity, but because of the 3D, we know historically 3D films tend to hold in and have legs." Cameron's Titanic was also released in December and had a modest opening. Nevertheless, it remained in theaters for 10 months and ranked No. 1 for 17 weeks. …
Movie Reviews: “Avatar”
12 hours ago
Even before it officially opened Avatar easily cleared one hurdle -- the movie critics. Critical acclaim may no longer be an important factor in the success of a film, at least not with the core audience of teens and twentysomethings. But it does often help determine whether older moviegoers turn up at the theaters, and they can sometimes determine whether a movie becomes merely a hit or a bona fide blockbuster. Several reviewers confess that they walked into the press screenings for Avatar with low expectations, expecting a film with lots of technical razzle-dazzle but little, well, soul. The Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert was one of them. But, as he writes in his review, Cameron "has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. ... It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation." Ebert concludes: "It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got reelected." Cameron has also won over the notoriously faultfinding New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who writes that Avatar reveals Cameron as "a filmmaker whose ambitions transcend a single movie or mere stories to embrace cinema as an art, as a social experience and a shamanistic ritual, one still capable of producing the big Wow." Equally impressed is Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. "Think of Avatar as The Jazz Singer of 3D filmmaking," he writes, referring to the 1927 movie that ushered in sound. "Think of it as the most expensive and accomplished Saturday matinee movie ever made. Think of it as the ultimate James Cameron production. Whatever way you choose to look at it, Avatar's shock and awe demand to be seen. You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else." Bottom line, Steven Rea indicates in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "For the folks who plunk down their dollars (and pick up the plastic 3-D glasses), Avatar delivers. Combining beyond-state-of-the-art moviemaking with a tried-and-true storyline and a gamer-geek sensibility - not to mention a love angle, an otherworldly bestiary, and an arsenal of 22nd-century weaponry -- the movie quite simply rocks." While there are no outright negative reviews for the movie, several critics show restrained enthusiasm. "Avatar isn't a perfect film -- and a few clichés short of a great one," Amy Biancolli writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. But, she writes, it is a "monumental feast for the eyes." Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune finds the first 90 minutes of the film "pretty terrific" but the other 72 minutes "less and less terrific." He continues: "If your exhilaration with the first half is undercut by an increasingly deflating pfffftttt sound, Cameron nonetheless has delivered the screen's most anticipated and persuasive blend of live-action and motion-capture animation to date. The movie really does look fantastic." And Rick Groen in the Toronto Globe & Mail anticipates criticism of the film from an unexpected source. Avatar, he writes, is "definitely a movie to boost our faith in movie spectacle, and to remind us that Cameron is that rare technocrat who knows how to tell a story. Ironically, a really old-fashioned story, in this case, and so steeped in liberal sentiment that our director, who has never been short of detractors, runs the risk of attack from a whole new direction. Damned if he isn't daring the Fox News crowd to brand him a tree-hugging pacifist." …
Movie Reviews: “Did You Hear About The Morgans”
12 hours ago
As if opening against Avatar weren't bad enough, Did You Hear About the Morgans? starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh Grant, Mary Steenburgen and Sam Elliott, is receiving one of the worst critical receptions of the year. "The world would be a happier place if we'd never heard about the Morgans," Claudia Puig concludes in USA Today. Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News writes that the film's "loping pace, inconsistent tone and lack of imagination are all deadly." How deadly? Mick Lasalle in the San Francisco Chronicle writes. "Sometimes it's unpleasant, sometimes it's insincere, and for long stretches it's boring." Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer calls it a "mirth-free comedy." And Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe comments: "Most bad comedies plod from scene to scene. This one plods from sentence to sentence." …
Harry Swoops Up To First Place On DVD Charts
12 hours ago
As expected, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made its pre-Christmas debut on DVD last week and instantly bounded to the top of the Nielsen Edi VideoScan sales chart. (Early in the week it was reported that the movie set a first-day sales record in the U.K., where 840,000 copies were sold in 24 hours.) Somewhat surprisingly, the film, which earned $302 million in theaters, placed second on Home Media magazine's rental chart, beaten out by the Johnny Depp gangster movie Public Enemies, which earned $97 million in theaters. (Enemies placed second on the sales chart.) Other top sellers: 3. Julie & Julia (New); 4. Star Trek (fourth week); 5. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (fifth week). …
Warner Bros. To Package All Videos In One Box
12 hours ago
Given several studies indicating that consumers who have not yet purchased high-definition TV sets or Blu-ray players have been holding off purchasing home video titles until they do, Warner Bros. announced Thursday that it plans to make all their video releases "combo packs." Beginning February 23, all new movies will come with a Blu-ray version of Warner's films, a standard DVD version, and a digital version for playing on computers and mobile devices. And, in an initiative to make its older releases more attractive, Warner plans to offer several of its classic films packaged with their sequels for $24.95. They will include: Dirty Harry/Magnum Force, Analyze This/Analyze That, Presumed Innocent/Frantic, Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 and Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men. …
Actress Jennifer Jones Dies At 90
13 hours ago
Jennifer Jones, one of the classic and classiest movie stars of the 1940s and '50s, died in her home in Malibu, CA Thursday of natural causes at age 90, the Associated Press reported. She was nominated four times for the best-actress Oscar, winning in 1943 for her role in The Song of Bernadette. She also was nominated for a best-supporting actress Oscar. She married three times -- to actor Robert Walker, producer David O. Selznick, and industrialist Norton Simon. After Simon's death in 1993, she took charge of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Despite her enormous celebrity, Jones shunned publicity, often refusing to promote her own movies. In the A.P. obituary, she was quoted as having said in 1957: "Most interviewers probe and pry into your personal life, and I just don't like it. I respect everyone's right to privacy, and I feel mine should be respected, too." …
SAG Honors Its Own
17 December 2009 12:53 PM, PST
What several critics regarded as movies with the showiest performances received the most nominations for Screen Actors Guild awards today (Thursday). Inglourious Basterds, Precious, An Education, The Hurt Locker and Nine were nominated for outstanding performance by a motion picture cast, the guild's counterpart to the best picture award. Nominees for best actor included Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). Nominees for best actress included Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia). …
Nine-month Probe Bags “Wolverine” Pirate
17 December 2009 12:51 PM, PST
Demonstrating the determination of the FBI to hunt down video pirates who post incomplete workprints of movies online, the bureau announced Wednesday that after a nine-month investigation it had arrested a New York man who they said had posted an unfinished print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on the website Megaupload.com last March, more than a month before its theatrical release. However, the arrest of Gilberto Sanchez at his home in the Bronx does not close the investigation, the bureau said, indicating that while Sanchez may have posted the video online, it was not yet known who removed it from the studio (or one of its processing labs) to begin with. The print was lacking several effects scenes and included temporary music tracks. Fox claims that the video was downloaded 15 million times. The film nevertheless earned $363 million worldwide. …
British Studio Sets Sights On Malaysia
17 December 2009 12:50 PM, PST
Britain's Pinewood Shepperton studios will lend its name and expertise to a $120-million studio complex in Malaysia, backed by the Malaysian government, it said Wednesday. The studio will be called Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios and will be built on an 80 acre site in the south of the country. Last June Pinewood Shepperton announced plans to expand its current site to include, among other things, new permanent sets for movies set in New York, Paris -- even Venice, Italy. That project has run into solid opposition from local government leaders who say that the proposed studio expansion would adversely affect the overall environment of the area. It was not known whether Pinewood might shift its building plans to the Malaysian site. …
Lucas Loses Battle Over Stormtroopers Helmets
17 December 2009 12:49 PM, PST
Lucasfilms has lost its legal battle against the maker of replica Stormtrooper helmets who created the originals for the Star Wars movies. "It's taken five years but I think this should be just about the end of it," Andrew Ainsworth told today's (Thursday) London Times. He said that he made the originals for Lucas in 1976 "on spec. I didn't even know it was a for a film to begin with." On Wednesday a British court ruled that the models were not artistic sculptures but instead industrial designs that allowed copyright protection for just 15 years. Lucasfilm, which won a U.S. lawsuit filed against Ainsworth, said that it will appeal. …
Another Robin Williams Movie Goes To The Dogs
16 December 2009 12:54 PM, PST
The failure of Disney's Old Dogs, which co-starred Robin Williams, has resulted in the cancellation of another Williams co-starrer, Wedding Banned, by Disney, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Wednesday). The trade publication said that Disney Studios chief Rich Ross put the project into turnaround -- essentially abandoning it and allowing other studios to pick it up -- after Old Dogs collected just $35 million since its opening last month. Diane Keaton was to have co-starred with Williams in Wedding Banned, about a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter on her wedding day in hopes of preventing her from making the same mistake that they did when they married. Production was to have begun in early 2010. …
More Media Consolidation: Rentrak Buys Nielsen Edi
16 December 2009 12:53 PM, PST
Media consolidation took another step forward Monday as Rentrak Corp. acquired Nielsen Edi for $15 million in cash. Both companies track sales of movie tickets internationally. Both companies also track sales of DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and videogames but Nielsen's home video data service was not included in the deal. In an interview with today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times , Ron Giambra, executive vice president of theatrical worldwide for Rentrak said: "We are now the sole provider. ... That was the reason for this purchase." It was the second major divestiture by Nielsen in a week, following its sale of a number of trade publications, including the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, to an investors group. …
Blu-ray Players Replacing Settop Boxes
16 December 2009 12:52 PM, PST
It could just turn out that Blu-ray disc players may end up providing movies to viewers even when the discs themselves become obsolete. According to research from The Diffusion Group and reported on Home Media magazine's website, Blu-ray players capable of accessing the Internet are gradually replacing several set-top boxes to bring movies from Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster and other video sites to viewers. The research indicated that other settop boxes from Roku, Yudu, Boxee and others will become non-existent by 2014. The players are also regarded as an alternative to premium-priced high-definition TV stations that have web access built in. …
Roy E. Disney Dies At 79
16 December 2009 12:19 PM, PST
Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney and a behind-the-scenes power at the Disney studios for more than three decades, has died of stomach cancer in Newport Beach, CA. He was 79. Disney twice led successful shareholders battles against the heads of the movie company -- in 1984, when he succeeded in replacing Disney’s son-in-law, Ron Miller, as chairman of the company with Michael Eisner, then again 20 years later when he turned against Eisner. In the 1980s, as chairman of the studio’s animation division, he turned the unit around and oversaw a string of hit films, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. …
Movie Reviews: “Crazy Heart”
16 December 2009 12:04 PM, PST
Just weeks after drawing ecstatic reviews for his screen-stealing performance in The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jeff Bridges is again being acclaimed for his latest role in Crazy Heart, with several critics suggesting it could earn him an Oscar. "Some of Mr. Bridges's peers may have burned more intensely in their prime, but very few American actors over the past 35 years have flickered and smoldered with such craft and resilience," writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times. Claudia Puig in USA Today calls Bridges's performance "incredibly good, perhaps the best of his career." Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News says that Bridges is "crazy great. ... This is Bridges' show, and he's as Best Actor-worthy as he's ever been." As for the movie itself, critics are suggesting that it's the equal of Bridges's performance. "The story has its little clichés, yet it never succumbs to them, maintaining a sense of the unexpected," writes the Associated Press's David Germain. Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times agrees, writing that the plot "has a familiar and formulaic feel, like something we've seen before, but at key points Crazy Heart displays a welcome integrity and resists choosing the easiest paths." And Kyle Smith in the New York Post concludes that the movie is "humbly radiant, a small thing gracefully done." …
Golden Globes Nods Rev Up “Up In The Air”
15 December 2009 11:42 AM, PST
Up in the Air, already the recipient of several awards from critics groups, received six Golden Globe nominations today (Tuesday), the most for any film. The George Clooney starrer was joined in the best dramatic film category by Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Precious. The musical Nine received five nominations and was joined in the best musical or comedy category by (500) Days of Summer, The Hangover, and two films with Meryl Streep in the lead, It's Complicated and Julie & Julia. (Streep also found herself competing against herself in the best actress category for those two films. Sandra Bullock was also nominated twice, for The Blind Side in the drama category and The Proposal in the comedy/musical category.) Other nominees for best actress (drama) included Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria), Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious). Besides Bullock and Streep for best actress (comedy or musical), other nominees included Julia Roberts for Duplicity and Marion Cotillard for Nine. Best actor (drama) nominees included Clooney (Up in the Air), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), and Tobey Maguire (Brothers). Best actor (comedy or musical) nominees included Daniel Day-Lewis (Nine), Matt Damon (The Informant), Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days of Summer) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man). …
“Frog” Jumps -- Down
15 December 2009 11:39 AM, PST
Significantly fewer people went to see Disney's The Princess and the Frog on Sunday than the studio had estimated. Official figures put the weekend total at $24,21 million, down from the studio's estimate of $25 million. (Studio estimates released on Sunday include actual figures for Friday and Saturday and educated guess for Sunday.) The result could be a source of concern for Disney since Sunday is usually a big day for films aimed at family audiences, who are strongly influenced by word-of-mouth. Clint Eastwood's Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon also came in notably below the studio's estimate of $9.1 million, already regarded as a disappointment.. It actually wound up with $8.6 million. Opening in limited release in nine theaters, A Single Man, starring Colin Firth, collected $217,332 -- a huge $24,148 per theater. Playing in three theaters, Paramount/DreamWorks' The Lovely Bones took in $116,616 or $38,872 per theater. And expanding into 72 theaters, Paramount's Up in the Air, starring George Clooney nearly made the top ten as it amassed $2,4 million, or $33,255 per theater. The top 12 films grossed $87.31 million, up 8.6 percent from the comparable weekend years ago. The box-office nudged closer to $10 billion for the year, standing now at $9.79 billion.
The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. The Princess and the Frog, Disney, $24,208,916, 3 Wks. ($27,088,786); 2. The Blind Side, Warner Bros., $15,055,258, 4 Wks. ($149,816,797); 3. Invictus, Warner Bros., $8,611,147, 1 Wks. ($8,611,147); 4. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Summit, $7,960,394, 4 Wks. ($267,320,977); 5. Disney's A Christmas Carol, Disney, $6,833,190, 5 Wks. ($124,426,097); 6. Brothers, Lionsgate, $5,014,426, 2 Wks. ($17,416,217); 7. Old Dogs, Disney, $4,409,772, 3 Wks. ($39,996,273); 8. 2012, Sony, $4,351,565, 5 Wks. ($155,288,405); 9. Armored, Sony, $3,504,374, 2 Wks. ($11,750,895); 10. Ninja Assassin, Warner Bros., $2,707,470, 3 Wks. ($34,304,761). …
U.K. Movie Reviews: “Sherlock Holmes”
15 December 2009 11:36 AM, PST
The British have had a first look at Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's reimagining of their countries most famous and beloved fictional detective, played -- egad, Watson! -- by an American, Robert Downey Jr. The verdict of film critic Marc Lee in the Telegraph: "It is undeniably a rollicking romp, an all-action blockbuster," he writes. "Doubts about the casting of Downey in the title role are dispelled from the start. He is engaging and convincing within the role (the accent is spot-on), although whether this is a character Conan Doyle might have recognized is another matter." David Hayle in the London Times referred to the many "delicious scenes" in the film, while the trade publication Screen Daily forecast that the movie, which had its premiere in London Monday night and will open in the U.S. next week, "seems poised to become a sizable hit." An altogether different verdict is delivered by Catherine Shoard in the Guardian, who calls the movie a "high-end hack work." As for Downey, who plays Holmes, and Jude Law, who plays his sidekick Dr. Watson, "they're both a pain: the former a cartoon with darting eyes rather than a brain, the latter just a blank." …
“Frog” Arrives -- Warts And All
14 December 2009 1:13 PM, PST
The Princess and the Frog may have reigned supreme over the weekend, but box-office pundits were keenly divided over whether Disney’s hand-drawn animated feature produced magic or croaked. According to early estimates, the fairy-tale film took in $25 million in ticket sales. It was, several reports noted in their lead paragraphs, the most any animated film had ever earned in a December opening. “People just fell in love with it,” Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane told the Hollywood Reporter, which headlined “Disney’s ‘Princess’ Charms Weekend Moviegoers.” Daily Variety splashed on its front page “Frog Hops to Top of Box Office.” The French news agency Agence France-Press trumpeted, “Big U.S. Box Office Kiss for Disney’s ‘Frog Princess’” And Britain’s Screen Digest said in its lede “The Princess and the Frog struck a blow for the 2D animated musical.” And indeed, the film did marginally outperform Disney’s last “princess” movie, 1998’s Mulan, which opened with $22.7 million. However, other writers pointed out, that was in 1998, when the average price of a movie ticket was less than $4.50. Mulan reportedly cost $70 million to make; Princess, $105 million. While the consensus among box-office forecasters was that it would overwhelm competing films by earning more than $30 million this weekend, Princess only managed to perform on par with Disney’s last two non-Pixar animated features, Bolt, which opened with $26 million, and Meet the Robinsons, which opened with $25 million. Analysts have described those films as financial disappointments for Disney. “This frog’s going to need legs,” commented today’s (Monday) Los Angeles Times. Other print and online publications also noted that Disney appears to be hoping that by opening the movie before school lets out for the holidays, it will generate sufficient positive word-of-mouth to attract big crowds and repeat business in the coming weeks. …
“Invictus” Disappoints
14 December 2009 11:52 AM, PST
Most box-office experts had predicted that the Clint Eastwood-directed Invictus would open with around $10-15 million, despite boasting strong performances from its stars, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, and overall critical applause. It opened just below that forecast, with an estimated $9.1 million. Several movie mavens blamed the marketing campaign for the disappointing opening, suggesting that it looked like something created for a History Channel biopic. Moreover, the inspirational rugby movie was going head-to-head against an inspirational American football movie, The Blind Side, arguably the biggest sleeper hit of the season, which added another $15.5 million to its winnings that now stand at $150 million. Still, Clint Eastwood-directed films generally start slowly but persistently plod ahead while rivals run out of steam. "It'll have great word of mouth and long legs through the holidays," one Warner Bros. executive told the Los Angeles Times.
The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. The Princess and the Frog, $25 million; 2. The Blind Side, $15.5 million; 3. Invictus, $9.1 million; 4. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $8 million; 5. Disney's a Christmas Carol, $6.9 million; 6. Brothers, $5 million; 7. 2012, $4.4 million; 8. Old Dogs, $4.39 million; 9. Armored, $3.5 million; 10. Ninja Assassin, $2.7 million. …
20 articles
