MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Klady By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

I Heart Presidents

February 15, 2010 It was candy and roses for Valentine’s Day as it ascended to the top of long weekend viewing with an estimated four-day box office of $66.2 million. In a bountiful frame two other freshmen entries followed. The youth targeted Percy Jackson and the Olympians bowed to $38.9 million and the revived The…

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The Weekend Report: February 14, 2010

February 14, 2010 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Weekend Estimates: February 12-14, 2010 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume Valentine’s Day WB 51.8 (14,140) New 3665 51.8 Percy Jackson & the Olympians Fox 31.4 (9,370) New 3356 31.4 The Wolfman Uni 30.5 (9,460) New 3222 34.7 Avatar Fox 22.2 (8,260) -3% 2685…

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Love Letters

February 7, 2010 Romance trumped visceral thrills as the three-hanky Dear John debuted at the top of weekend viewing charts with an estimated $32.7 million. The session’s other new national premiere From Paris with Love settled into position three with $8.1 million. Regional openers saw a solid bow of $232,000 for Les Sept jours du…

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HE-dge of Darkness

January 31, 2010 Avatar continued to steam along with a sixth weekend estimated gross of $30.1 million. Its incoming competition (combined) grossed roughly the same amount. The Mel Gibson thriller (his first screen role in seven years) Edge of Darkness struggled to $17 million while the programmer romantic comedy When in Rome did a passable…

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You Can’t Take the Na’vi

In its sixth weekend in release Avatar slipped a modest 15% and left the competition in the distance with an estimated $36.2 million. Three films bowed nationally during the frame with the sci-fi adventure Legion the best grosser with $17.9 million that ranked it second. The other wide debuts included the family fantasy The Tooth…

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King of the Box Office

Avatar continued to fend off all contenders as b.o. champ with an estimated $54.1 million over the four-day Martin Luther King holiday stanza. Its closest rival was the incoming science-fiction allegory Book of Eli that racked up an impressive $38.3 million. The session’s other national debut was the Jackie Chan action comedy The Spy Next…

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On a Tar

Avatar continued to dominate domestic sales with a fourth weekend estimated gross of $46.5 million that most films would envy as an opening stat. The film’s $427 million now ranks it second only to Titanic as all-time domestic box office grosser. With the holidays consummated a new spate of films debuted with the chiller Daybreakers…

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Boffo!

The opening shot of 2010 began with the biggest first weekend of any year ever with box office expansion of 46% from last year alone. And with audiences in a spirited holiday mood the last few weeks of 2009 provided a tremendous closing surge. Initial estimates peg domestic revenues at just shy of $10.7 billion…

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The Game’s Afoot

T.S. Elliott be damned, the movie going world is finishing the year not with a whimper but a bang. The fortuitous Friday positioning of Christmas proved to be a nice asset with the weekend generating close to $275 million in ticket sales that establishes a new three-day weekend record. Avatar once again took bragging rights…

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Eyktan Kifkeyä (King of the World Na’vi-Style)

Inclement weather aside in the American Northeast, Avatarsoared to an estimated $72.5 million domestically and added an additional $232 million from international markets in its debut round. The frame’s other national newcomer was the comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? that ranked fourth with an uninspired $6.7 million. The session was also rife with…

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Old Croaks at Home

Following two weeks of exclusive engagements The Princess and the Frog migrated to the big pond and led weekend ticket sales with an estimated $24.8 million. The session’s sole national newcomer was the upscale Invictus that ranked third overall with an OK $9 million. In limited wide release Larger Than Life 3D failed to live…

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The Weekend Report: December 6, 2009

Weekend Estimates: December 4-6, 2009 Title Distributor Gross (avg) % change Theaters Cume The Blind Side WB 20.3 (6,110) -49% 3326 129.2 Twilight: New Moon Summit 15.5 (3,760) -64% 4124 254.4 Brothers Lionsgate 9.7 (4,660) New 2088 9.7 A Christmas Carol BV 7.6 (2,970) -52% 2546 115.1 2012 Sony 6.8 (2,110) -61% 3220 149 Old…

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Gobbling to (Ex)Success

It was the biggest Thanksgiving box office ever with last weekend’s leaders continuing to lead the way. Twilight: New Moon added an estimated $43.1 million to its burgeoning larder and The Blind Side was close behind with a $40.2 million tally for the three-day portion of the holiday carving. The five-day frame generated revenues of…

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Green Moon, Emerald Moon

Wow! Twilight: New Moon set a clutch of records as it rocked weekend movie going with an estimated $141.6 million debut. It was the biggest fourth quarter debut of ALL-TIME. In what ranks as the second biggest grossing weekend box office EVER, there was also a potent second place bow for the inspirational race drama…

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Not with a Whimper … but a Bang!

Critics were derisive of 2012 but the new age apocalyptic disaster saga was warmly embraced by the public to an estimated debut of $63.7 million. The competition largely steered clear of the cinematic tsunami though the oft-delayed rock valentine Pirate Radio went limited wide to OK returns of $2.9 million. The frame also saw a…

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Hmmmm Bug

A Christmas Carol gave cheer as the weekend box office leader with an estimated $30.7 million. However, it was the cumbersomely titled Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire that had industry heads spinning. The well-received, unblinking urban drama grossed $1.88 million from a mere 18 screens for a jaw-dropping theater average of $104,810….

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Confessions of a Festival Junkie …

Despite avid research I’ve been stumped. The wag who observed that when one receives something for free, the value is commensurate with the cost (or words to that effect) appears to have been lost to time. I’ve certainly employed that theorem over the years and it’s something I’ve believed/experienced without exception. So, the first blush…

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Dis and Dat

Michael Jackson’s This Is It led weekend ticket sales with an estimated $21.1 million. It was the only wide release for the frame and as it fell short of out-sized predictions, business experienced a sharp downturn from seven days earlier. The limited release of The Boondock Saints II proved unexpectedly strong while neither of the…

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Saw-ed in Half

The little chiller that could — Paranormal Activity — ascended to the top of the movie-going charts with an estimated $21.6 million. That was bad news for the launch of the latest installment of the Saw horror franchise with its sixth installment drawing less than half the box office of the prior edition with $14.8…

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Law Abiding Wild Thing

The weekend surprise was not the estimated $32.6 million grossed by Where the Wild Things Are that led ticker sales but the torrid $21.4 million debut of the legal thriller Law Abiding Citizen, which had high end expectations of a $15 million bow. The session’s third national launch generated a respectable $12.2 million for the…

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Klady

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon