Box Office Breakdown: The Golden Compass Lacks Luster
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, Disney, MGM, New Line, Paramount, Warner Bros, Weinstein Company, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Animation, Drama, Family, Horror, Music, Romance, Comedy, Thrillers, Box Office, Lists, New Releases,
A Narnia-esque adaptation partnered with a holiday release date and an A-list cast should have conjured box office magic for The Golden Compass. Surprisingly, this weekend’s release from New Line Cinema brought in barely enough money to cover the film’s catering budget.
Compass, based on Philip Pullman’s children’s series His Dark Materials, was Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig’s second disappointing collaboration this year (the first being The Invasion). While it was enough for a first place finish, the $25 million debut was hardly impressive given the film’s $180 million price tag.
In other news, holiday flick This Christmas remained in third place while the critically-panned Fred Claus bumped up two spaces from last week. Meanwhile, Juno and Atonement did well with their very limited releases.
Be looking for the highly-promoted I Am Legend (and Alvin and the Chipmunks) to enter next week’s charts.
Click to continue reading Box Office Breakdown: The Golden Compass Lacks Luster
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Box Office Breakdown: Jessica Alba Can’t Keep Audiences Awake
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, Disney, MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros, Weinstein Company, Action, Adaptation, Animation, Drama, Family, Horror, Romance, Comedy, Thrillers, Box Office, Lists, New Releases,
There’s nothing like a good snub to restore your faith in moviegoers.
Although Awake was the only new wide release this past weekend, discerning audiences kept it from succeeding by default. (NOTE: Cute squirrels will always trump Jessica Alba.) The movie, also co-starring Star Wars’ Hayden Christensen, opened with a dismal $6 million - less than half of what Alba’s last stellar film, Good Luck Chuck, did. (The latter opened at $13.7 million.) I wonder if this currently makes Jessica Biel the most successful Jessica out there.
Aside from Awake’s entry, the rest of the Top Ten changed very little from last week. Enchanted refused to budge from its perch and earned another $16 million over the past three days. Meanwhile, Beowulf surged back up a notch, trading spots with holiday flick, This Christmas.
Although the box office numbers were unspectacular overall, we can expect big changes in just a few days; that’s when New Line’s The Golden Compass makes its debut.
Click to continue reading Box Office Breakdown: Jessica Alba Can’t Keep Audiences Awake
Box Office Breakdown: Audiences Enchanted With Disney
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, Disney, MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, Adaptation, Adventure, Animation, Drama, Family, Horror, Music, Romance, Comedy, Box Office, Lists, New Releases,
Throw comedy, drama, animation, romance, sci-fi, hunky actors, pretty actresses, singing, dancing, kids and cute animals all into one film and you’ll get Enchanted. You’ll also have Disney’s latest holiday success.
The film, starring Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams, grossed nearly $50 million over the 5-day weekend ($34 million from Friday-Sunday). Enchanted’s take places it behind 1999’s Toy Story 2 - the film with the largest Thanksgiving debut ever ($80.1 million).
Last week’s champion, Beowulf, fell into 3rd place right behind another holiday opener, This Christmas. The movies took in $23.3 and $26.3 million, respectively, during the long stretch.
Although the sappy August Rush opened in a disappointing 7th place, the DVD release of Waitress this week should make actress Keri Russell - and her fans - feel a bit better.
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In Theaters This Holiday Weekend (11/21)
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, Disney, MGM, Sony, Warner Bros, Weinstein Company, Yari Film Group Releasing, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Animation, Drama, Family, Foreign, Horror, Music, Period, Comedy, Thrillers, Lists, New Releases,
Here are some possible suggestions for your holiday enjoyment:
- August Rush (PG): starring Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard (directed by Kirsten Sheridan)
- Enchanted (PG): starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon (directed by Kevin Lima)
- Hitman (R): starring Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko (directed by Xavier Gens)
- No Country for Old Men (R): starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin (directed by Joel Coen)
- Stephen King’s The Mist (R): starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden (directed by Frank Darabont)
Click to continue reading In Theaters This Holiday Weekend (11/21)
‘Hitman’ Video Game Comes to Big Screen
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: 20th Century Fox, Action, Adaptation, Casting, Upcoming Releases,
It’s been done with Broadway plays, popular novels, comic books…even commercials. It’s adaptation, and it helps Hollywood keep churning out those hits. Hitman won’t be the first video game to be pushed from gaming into ticket sales; it won’t even be the first film to feature a cool-as-ice assassin. It will be though the first flick to be produced by Adrian Askarieh—the Hollywood newcomer who also plans to release a film adaptation of Spy Hunter in 2009.
Hitman will come to theaters later this month with Timothy Olyphant in the lead as Agent 47. Askarieh, a former entertainment attorney, admits that he is a gamer. He’s also a businessman and sales for Hitman suggest success beyond the gaming consoles; in the last 7 years, 10 million copies have been purchased worldwide. The game developers aren’t involved in the movie, however, and Jans Peter Kurup (a developer on all four Hitman games) is reserving his opinion until he sees the film. The movie plot is derived from all four Hitman games according to Askarieh.
Hollywood Reporter
Update: ‘Hitman’ to Remain R-Rated?
Posted by Johnny Mercedes Categories: 20th Century Fox, Action, Adaptation, Religious, Thrillers, Rumors, Upcoming Releases,
Yesterday, we reported that the upcoming Hitman film, based on the eponymous videogame franchise, was to be re-cut and cleaned up to achieve an MPAA rating of PG-13. Well, it looks like the folks over at TwitchFilm have received an official response from a PR representative over at Fox.
It seems that, while Nicholas De Toth has been brought in as a consultant on the film, director Xavier Gens is still involved. Fox also assured us that Hitman will remain R-rated, despite the rumors.
It would be nice if Fox just came out and told us what exactly is going on, but let’s face it—Hitman is based on a violent videogame, and Fox would probably do well to give people what they expect. And besides, I’m already tired of this story …
Read More 
| TwitchFilm
R-Rated ‘Hitman’ to be Sanitized
Posted by Johnny Mercedes Categories: 20th Century Fox, Action, Adaptation, Religious, Thrillers, New Releases, Rumors, Upcoming Releases,
CHUD is reporting that the Hitman movie, based on the popular videogame series and starring Timothy Olyphant as divinely inspired assassin Agent 47, will be recut to achieve a PG-13 rating. Allegedly, Twentieth Century-Fox believe the film to be too violent and have removed director Xavier Gens and brought in Nicholas De Toth to oversee the new cut.
In an emerging pattern, De Toth also stepped in to censor the recent Live Free or Die Hard, which, as you may know, was the first of the franchise to obtain the lower rating (note to self: go back and watch anything edited by Nicholas De Toth and consider what it could have been).
With little over a month before its release, a rushed Hitman could—if in fact it was kick-ass—become another videogame adaptation that just isn’t as kick-ass as its source material (see Mortal Combat and Street Fighter).
UPDATE: New information has surfaced regarding this issue.
Read More | CHUD
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