Friday Estimates by Klady – March Fifth, Two Thousand Eight
What’s there to say?
Fox has a hard time getting a handle on live-action family fare… nothing new. But they keep trying.
Paramount had nothing but crap to try to sell from in-house and tried to off-load it to the geeks as best they could… nothing new. But they keep trying.
And Universal had a near impossible sell, a male lead who is beloved but doesn’t open to huge numbers and a female lead with an Oscar an no box office following at all. Usually, with projects like this they at least find a strong urban hook. But there won’t be a Black or Hispanic man admitting they saw Leatherheads in this century… teens and kids have no interest in ye olde stuff… older women hate football… and that leaves… people who will go see Clooney in anything. And really, a $13 million opening is quite positive for this one. There was no more in the pot. But they keep trying.
Horton Hears A Who has fallen behind the pace of all the other Fox CG animated hits… except Robots, whose ass it is kicking. Look for a landing around $150m, which is enough to put it in the Top 20 CG Animated features of all time… but there are only about 50. Still, it keeps in it the right neighborhood.
And congrats to 21, for selling what looks to end up being about $60 million worth of tickets domestically for something that is not Shinola.
1:45p – Correction With Apologies – I just saw The New York Times and an ad for The Ruins, which is a DreamWorks movie and amazingly, did not have a single mention of Paramount in its entire display ad… not in the credits, not on the ad. Wow! That is a story in and of itself. If someone doesn’t get an answer as to how and why that happened before I get back to L.A. next week, I will pursue, because it must be an interesting story. In any case, apologies to Paramount for the extra kick.
“But there won’t be a Black or Hispanic man admitting they saw Leatherheads in this century…”
Er, David, don’t you think this could be read as a tad… Oh, never mind. I’m just glad you’re not running for public office, or repping a Presidential candidate, right now.
I very much enjoyed your descriptor “not Shinola.”
Every horror fan I’ve heard from who’s seen The Ruins says it’s pretty good. I won’t have time to see it this weekend but I am looking forward to doing so eventually if it doesn’t vanish from theaters immediately.
Well, lessee here. Buncha hot-but-stupid twenty-somethings in an exotic locale are told not to go somewhere, go there anyway, and get gruesomely picked off one by one. Oh, yeah, I can’t wait.
Lordy, I hated “The Ruins”!
A David Cronenberg movie minus Cronenberg’s genius is merely repulsive, and “The Ruins” thoroughly sickened me–but not in a good way like, say, “Salo” or a great Cronenberg flick.
That’s really a shame, too, because it’s not badly directed and the performances are better than average for “this” type of film.
Seeing Ben Stiller’s name listed as one of the producers may be the single freakiest thing here.
Didn’t hate “Nim’s Island”–it’s too mediocre to get worked up over–but it’s a total flat-liner that deserves to die a quick death (though it won’t because kid movies, even really bad ones, rarely do). Gerard Butler should avoid taking any roles in the future that require an “American” accent because he simply cannot do one. Every time he opened his mouth (while playing Nim’s dad rather than his second, “normally-accented” character) my ears began to bleed. And I rather liked the director(s) first film, Fox’s charming, if barely released “Little Manhattan.”
Totally dug “Leatherheads” which should be doing at least as well as “21.”
Once question, though: since Clooney seems to be doing a remarkable job of following in Warren Beatty’s footsteps, was this his attempt at making his own “Heaven Can Wait” (the whole screwball/football thing)?
“HCW” it ain’t (I happen to think that that Beatty-Buck Henry-Elaine May classic is one the last great “Hollywood” movies, comedy or otherwise), but I had a damn good time. It also proves that Krasinski–“License to Wed” notwithstanding–may indeed have a future in movies after all.
Caught the trailer for Eddie Murphy’s “Meet Dave” for the first time yesterday (it was attached to “Nim’s”), and was kind of surprised/impressed. The thing might turn out to be terrible (Murphy’s track record isn’t the best), but it could also be brilliantly inspired a la “Bowfinger.” If nothing else, it definitely looks unique: that should help distinguish it from about 90% of Hwood’s upcoming summer releases.
That Rolling Stones docu isn’t exactly busting the charts. Not a good thing on which to sell a pic when the band hasn’t had a genuine hit since Reagan time.
Also, “The Ruins” is a DreamWorks title.
“What’s there to say” is a template thing, right?
The Ruins was the scariest horror film since The Descent. Ben Stiller produced the film because he was supposed to direct A Simple Plan right after Reality Bites. He “taught” Scott Smith how to write screenplays. Smith brought him The Ruins before it came out and blah blah blah…
What evidence is there that Clooney is “beloved”?
He’s George Clooney. There’s evidence right there. Woo!!! Thank goodness we are under a month til the beginning of the Summer and IRON-MAN! These week ass box office grosses are getting on my last nerve :D!
Unless it’s a mistake, someone will have to explain “March Fifth” in the post title to me.
Sorry to see that “Blueberry Nights” didn’t open better.
But considering its near “Southland Tales”-like reception at last year’s Cannes Film Festival (and its lengthy interment on Weinstein’s shelf), it isn’t really much of a surprise.
Wong Kar-wai still remains (to me anyway) today’s greatest living filmmaker.
Nice opening–relatively speaking–for “Flight of the Red Balloon,” however. Even with Binoche and a French language soundtrack, I still can’t imagine this ever having much commercial life outside staunch bastions of “film culture” like New York or LA.
As much as it pains me to admit it, Hou Hsiao-hsien will never be a household name in North America the way similarly “difficult” foreign directors like Antonioni and Bergman were forty years ago.
Same for Wong, alas, and his films aren’t nearly as difficult to parse as Hou’s; at least for (hopefully) cine-literate arthouse devotees.
THE RUINS (LEXG REPORTS…)
I’m just kind of baffled by THE RUINS; The novel is allegedly quite good, I was super-stoked for this based on the presence of JENA MAL-OWN… some decent young actors who’ve been good elsewhere…
But watching it was a dull, stagnant experience. It’s paced very oddly, with no sense of urgency, little intensity or sense of fear. Amusingly, it starts out with 20 minutes of the EXACT SAME EXPOSITION as TURISTAS, but despite the beautiful Darius Khondji cinematography, nothing here even approaches the level of B-movie craftsmanship John Stockwell brings to the table.
20 minutes in, the five protags find the giant pyramid/temply thing, get chased up there by some frightened locals, one of their number gets a broken back, then…. er, they just kinda hang out up there, with no suspense, no tension, every 10 minutes or so some excuse arises for them to climb down into a hole and get chased around by vines… then they return to the surface, some more HAUNTED VINES squiggle around, more time is wasted, and people start hacking themselves up.
I kept thinking matters would be improved 100% if DANIEL PLAINVIEW showed up down there, since it LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE HIS SILVER DRILLING HOLE at the beginning of TWBB.
DON’T TELL ME HOW TO RAISE MY SON BITCH.
If it had included Plainview (since, curiously, the film stock sheen is ALSO IDENTICAL TO TWBB), it would’ve been a masterpiece.
Shy of that, it even manages to bungle its WACK AS HELL stinger final shot, which is so lame and low-energy. Dull as it was, I’m almost tempted to go back, because sort of like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, I can’t believe talented people could so thoroughly bungle material that exploitation hacks have done in their sleep for 40 years.
Was like a reel of exposition missing or something? Not that the plot is even that complex, I just can’t BELIEVE how ill-developed it is, how dull and generic the characters are. I’m mystified that by the standards of this genre, it’s getting less-negative-than-usual reviews, since it’s gorier than HOSTEL and less accomplished than the average J-Horror remake.
Just over the wires that Chartlon Heston has died.
Fuck opening weekend.
How about that premiere of BSG?
Sorry to see Chuck go. Rest easy, Moses.
BSG’s premiere was pretty good, though not spectacular. next week will probably be better (just a guess).
Meet Bill… Meet Dave…
If the Weinsteins would get around to released that extended Kill Bill thing then it’d be really bizarre.
The Weinsteins don’t have anything to do with Kill Bill anymore, they left it behind when they left Miramax.
really? I coulda swore they said they were going to release it when they got The Weinstein Co off the ground (and then just never did, unsurprisingly).
Camel. I agree with you on this one. I could have sworn that the Weinstein Company has “THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR” and were planning it at some point in this freakin decade. If that DVD is still a part of Miramax. This may explain the whole drag-assing in terms of releasing that DVD.
I even remember them saying it would be their first release, and then it just never came to fruition. I’m still not sure why it hasn’t been released on the big box set that they promised.
Maybe in 2013 for the ten year anniversary then?
Does anybody know how Harold and Kumar 2 is tracking yet?
Did anyone else think the trailers for The Ruins were particularly bad. Like, especially bad? I can’t believe it’s supposed to be pretty good because the trailers were so shoddily put together.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m itching for summer movie season. With the new AMC 24 in downtown Toronto opening up literally two blocks from me I want to start taking advantage of their free small popcorn deal (kidding!), but there’s just nothing to see!
Last weekend I resorted to 21, and later went to Stop-Loss, which I really wanted to see. But now there’s nothing. Half of their theatres are filled with has-runs like 27 Dresses, The Eye and Cloverfield. I want movies!
Here’s a radical idea. Do something else with your time!
This weekened, instead of wasting my time and money on movies I don’t want to see I:
a) Went on a quasi-date
b) Watched a Margaret Cho DVD
c) Cooked home made pizzas
d) Read the newspaper
e) Wrote some music reviews (for my job)
f) Hung out at a mate’s place
g) Discovered a whole bunch of amazing Kylie Minogue b-sides online
h) etc
Meanwhile, I guess you were seeing 21.
Oh and I discovered Juliette (Lewis) & the Licks are performing the day of my brothers wedding and spent roughly 45 minutes sulking that I couldn’t go. There’s a multitude of things to do instead. I’m going to watch This Filthy World right now. Something I actually want to watch!
Well I saw 21 because my friends wanted to go. As for the date, food, reading and Kylie — I’ve done all those. I just wanted to go to the new theatre!
Surely we haven’t all finished every movie in the Criterion Collection yet.