Box Office Hell — April 1

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Hop|25.8|n/a|24.0|28.0|23.0 Source Code |15.5|n/a|16.0|15.0|14.5 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules|11.5|n/a|13.0|12.0|11.3 Insidious|10.6|n/a|10.0|9.5|10.5 Limitless|10.0|n/a|11.0|10.5|10.2

Critics Roundup — April 1

Hop|||||Red Insidious|||Yellow||Yellow Source Code|Green||Green||Green Certifiably Jonathan (LA) |||Red|| Con Artist (LA) |||Green|| Elephant in the Living Room (LA) |||Yellow|| In a Better World (LA) |Yellow||Yellow|Green| Le Quattro Volte (NYC) |||Green|| Super (LA-NYC) |Yellow||Green|Green| Two Gates of Sleep (NYC) |||Green|| Trust (limited)|Yellow||||Green

The Weekend Report: March 27, 2011

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules! not only beats Sucker Punch, but moves over 25% ahead for the weekend. Strong holds for indies from Relativity and Lionsgate also lead the box office news, along with Rango and Just Go With It each passing $100m domestic. At the art house, Miral and Potiche are the weekend leaders.

Friday Estimates: March 26, 2011

The latest Zack Snyder CG epic takes on the sequel to the Wimpy Kid movie, which opened to almost the exact same amount last year. The battle continues today and Sunday. At the art houses, Miral and Potiche do decent, if not exciting opening day numbers on 4 and 8 screens.

Wilmington on Movies: Sucker Punch, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Monogamy

“Snyder has a very classy cast, but nevertheless, he dresses and photographs them most of the time like hookers and action-cuties, even in the thick of battle.”

“Let’s hope these kids stay happy and don’t start feuding, like Martin and Lewis.”

“This movie is too often reminiscent of other, much better films.”

Box Office Hell — March 25

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Sucker Punch|25.0|26.7|24.0|23.0|16.0 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules |22.7|19.6|18.0|22.0|20.0 Limitless|10.0|11.5|10.0|11.5|12.5 Rango|9.5|10.3|9.0|9.0|9.5 The Lincoln Lawyer|8.0|7.7|n/a|9.5|9.7

Critics Roundup — March 25

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules||||| Sucker Punch|Yellow||| Miral|Yellow||Yellow|Yellow| White Irish Drinkers||||Green| My Pere|||Green|| Bal|||Yellow|| Korkoro|||Green|| Potiche|Green|||| 5th Quarter|Yellow||||

Wilmington on DVD: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Tourist, The Twilight Zone Season Two, The Clowns, Exit Throught the Gift Shop, Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed.

Appropriately bracketed as a classic pick this week with Fellini’s I Clowns“ Alexander Kluge’s Artists at the Top of the Big Top: Perplexed is also a European art film about circuses and circus people. But this is a film in black-and-white, where the filmmakers would have answered the question Fellini dodged in The Clowns about symbolism, and then done something symbolic to illustrate the answer, and had an illustrated lecture on symbolism and the history of art, and the politics of circuses.

DVD Geek: Elia Kazan’s America America

As Kazan historian Foster Hirsch puts it on his commentary, “This is a film whose time has still not come. I’m hoping that the release of this DVD will change that.”

Weekend Estimates: March 20, 2011

Limitless|19.0||19.0 Rango|15.2|-33%|92.4 Battle: Los Angles|14.4|-60%|60.4 Paul|13.1||13.1 The Lincoln Lawyer|12.7||12.7 Red Riding Hood|7.3|-48%|26.0 The Adjustment Bureau|5.9|-49%|48.8 Mars Needs Mom|5.3|-23%|15.4 Beastly|3.3|-35%|22.2 Hall Pass|2.6|-48%|39.6

Friday Estimates: March 19, 2011

Limitless|6.5|2756||6.5 Battle: Los Angles|4.5|3417|-67%|50.5 Paul|4.4|2408||4.4 Rango|4.2|3843|-23%|81.5 The Lincoln Lawyer|4.0|2707||4.0 Red Riding Hood|2.4|3030|-53%|21.1 The Adjustment Bureau|1.8|2660|-48%|44.6 Mars Needs Moms|1.4|3117|-18%|11.5 Beastly|1.1|1810|-36%|20.1 Hall Pass|0.8|1905|-47%|37.8 Also Debuting|||| Lord of the Dance 3D|.093|536|| Win Win|.038|5|| The Music Never Stopped|.019|32||

The Weekend Report: March 20, 2011

The erosion of the under 25 crowd continued this week with only Paul registering a 50/50 split for that line in the sand according to exit polling. Limitless was 56% attended by plus 25s and The Lincoln Lawyer had a staggering 85% older audience – 49% of which was 40 years old or greater.

Critics Roundup — March 18

Limitless|Green||Green|| The Lincoln Lawyer||||Go Paul|Green|||Yellow|Yellow The Music Never Stopped|||||Yellow Win Win|||Green||Green Desert Flower|Yellow|||| Bill Cunningham|Green||||

Box Office Hell — March 17

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Battle: Los Angeles|17.0|16.1|18.0|18.0|16.0 Rango |14.6|14.3|15.0|12.0|15.0 Limitless|13.7|16.7|14.0|16.0|16.5 The Lincoln Lawyer|11.5|9.2|12.0|10.0|9.5 Paul|10.8|9.5|12.0|13.0|11.5

Digital Nation: Going Medieval for Real in ‘Black Death’

Finally, from England comes a movie that can be enjoyed by history buffs and zombie aficionados, alike. Christopher Smith and Dario Poloni’s “Black Death” recalls a time when the dead – or very near dead, anyway – haunted villages, cities and thoroughfares from China to Great Britain, awaiting their turn to be thrown into a…

Wilmington on DVD: The Fighter, Hereafter, Last Tango in Paris, TCM Greatest Classic Legend John Ford Westerns

“Bale looks and acts something like a Dead End Kid on crack, an elongated mix of Huntz Hall and the younger Mean Streets De Niro, oscillating frantically between the goony and the near-tragically self-destructive.”

“What’s most impressive about Hereafter is, first of all, that Eastwood had the guts to do it.”

“The torrid memento of a time — post-Sexual Revolution, pre-herpes outbreak, pre-Aids plague — when quick anonymous sex between partners who barely knew each other.”

“He was John Ford. He made Westerns.”

Wilmington on DVD: Inside Job, Senso, TCM Greatest Classic Legends: Jean Harlow & more…

“Inside Job is an essential movie. It shows, pretty conclusively I think, why documentaries are such an important cinematic and journalistic form these days. After you see this picture, you won’t be able to say you weren’t informed, won’t be able to see you weren‘t warned. You’ll know, if not the whole story, a big important part of it.”

The Weekend Report — March 13

The fears that a depressed marketplace would take its toll on Battle: Los Angeles proved unfounded as the sci-fi extravaganza easily took weekend honors with an estimated $36.2 million. However, the frame’s other two national releases seriously underperformed. The visual flamboyant fairy tale Red Riding Hood trudged through the woods with $14 million in its basket to rank third and the family targeted Mars Needs Moms received a resounding audience “no” with $6.8 million.

Friday Estimates – March 11, 2011

Battle: Los Angeles|13.4|3417|NEW|13.4 Rango|5.4|3923|-43%|51.1 Red Riding Hood|5|3030|NEW|5 The Adjustment Bureau|3.4|2847|-49%|30.4 Mars Needs Moms|1.7|3117|NEW|1.7 Beastly|1.6|1959|-55%|12.5 Hall Pass|1.5|2555|-45%|31.3 Just Go With It|1.2|2398|-39%|91.2 The King’s Speech|0.95|1768|-43%|126.4 Unknown|0.95|2303|-50%|56 Also Debuting| Jane Eyre|48,900|4

Critics Roundup — March 10

Battle: Los Angeles|Red||||Red Red Riding Hood|Yellow||||Red Jane Eyre|Green||||Green Mars Needs Moms||||Yellow|Yellow Monogamy|||||Green Certified Copy|||||Green