MCN Weekend Archive for March, 2012
Friday Box Office Estimates: March 30, 2013
“The Hunger Games” is still eating everything in sight, tracking slightly ahead of the best of the “Twilight” numbers, meaning that $300m domestic is still in view. “The Titans” were willing to go up against Katniss’ wrath, but paid a price with less than half the first remake’s opening day numbers. And “Mirror Mirror” fits nicely on Relativity’s wall of mediocre launches.
Read the full article »Box Office Hell — March 29
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com The Hunger Games |64.5|76.8|69.0|70.0|72.0 Wrath of the Titans|40.8|35.8|36.0|36.0|37.5 Mirror Mirror |24.8|18.3|20.0|27.0|24.0 21 Jump Street|12.3|12.4|12.0|13.0|11.8 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax |8.0|7.7|7.0|7.5|7.8
Read the full article »Critics Roundup — March 29
Mirror, Mirror |Yellow|||| Wrath of the Titans ||||| The Island President (NY) |||Green|Green| Goon (limited) ||||| Love in the Buff (limited) |Green||||
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Dangerous Method, Broken Tower, Delta… More
The way Mátyás Erdély’s camera lingers on natural phenomena recalls the haunting imagery that distinguishes the Terrence Malick, Bela Tarr and Andrei Tarkovski. In Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s “Delta,” depictions of the area’s natural beauty run contrary to the ugliness of the local male population, whose only mission in life appears to be diminishing the potential for happiness in others.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Extremely Loud & Incrdibly Close
EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Stephen Daldry, 2012 (Warner Bros.) I don’t want to come across as mean and heartless here, but, though there were parts of it I liked a lot, the movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close affected me something like a persistent urchin…
Read the full article »The Weekend Report: March 25, 2012
The Hunger Games set a slew of records and debuted to a jaw dropping estimated $153.6 million. Nuff said. The competition decided there was little point to even consider a counter-programmer. But in the niches Bollywood offered Agent Vinod that bowed to an OK $440,000 at 121 venues.
Read the full article »Weekend Estimates: March 25, 2012
The Hunger Games|153.6 (37,130)|NEW|153.6 21 Jump Street|20.4 (6,550)|-44%|70.2 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax|13.0 (3,540)|-43%|177.3 John Carter|5.0 (1,570)|-63%|62.4 Act of Valor|2.0 (910)|-46%|65.9 A Thousand Words|1.9 (1,050)|-40%|14.9 Project X|1.9 (920)|-53%|51.7 Safe House|1.4 (1,020)|-50%|122.5 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island|1.3 (1,000)|-44%|97.1 Casa de mi Padre|1.0 (2,170)|-55%|3.9
Read the full article »“The Hunger Games” only leaves you hungrier – and that’s the point
“This is the time to show them everything. Make sure they remember you.” These words of advice given to Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) right before she’s introduced to the enthusiastic fans of the upcoming televised death match, might also have been whispered to director Gary Ross, he of Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. Taking on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy is certainly no small feat. Capturing the complex allegorical themes depicted in Collins’ book, portraying the anguish and ambivalence experienced by its heroine, doing justice to the impersonal elitism as well as the very personal violence and horror of this story: These would be enormous challenges for any director.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Friday Estimates: March 23, 2012
No one’s going hungry at Lionsgate this month, as Katniss & Co take “go big or go home” to the extreme. The $66.3m is the biggest opening day of a non-sequel in history and #5 all-time without qualifiers, almost doubling the opening day of the first Twilight.
Read the full article »Review: The Hunger Games
I’m not going to dissect the similarities and differences between The Hunger Games and Battle Royale, Koushun Takami’s 1999 Japanese pulp novel (adapted a year later into one of my favorite violent, equally pulpy moves of all time), which had a similar storyline about teens forced to battle to the death. Suffice it to say that yes, the general ideas and underlying themes of the two are similar, but while Battle Royale is good bloody dystopian fun, I think The Hunger Games has a better, more completely drawn story and interweaving of theme. And it has Katniss Everdeen, who’s a completely kick-ass female protagonist.
Read the full article » 8 Comments »Box Office Hell — March 22
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com The Hunger Games |124.8|133.4|125.0|130.0|125.0 21 Jump Street|19.5|19.8|20.0|20.0|21.0 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax |12.5|12.3|13.5|13.0|14.0 John Carter |6.0|5.7|7.0|7.0|7.0 One Thousand Words|2.0|2.1|n/a|2.0|2.1
Read the full article »Critics Roundup – March 22
The Hunger Games |Yellow||Green|Green| The Raid: Redemption |||Green|| The Deep Blue Sea (NY, LA) |Yellow||Green|| Musical Chairs (NY) |||Green|| October Baby |||Red|| Free Men |Green||||
Read the full article »DVD Geek: World on a Wire
Way, way before The Matrix, before Blade Runner and before umpteen Japanese anime tales, Fassbinder not only understood the epistemological paradoxes of cyberworlds, he understood how to communicate those paradoxes to viewers in an entertaining and engrossing manner.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Carnage, Louder Than a Bomb, Dragon Tattoo, Gainsbourg… More
Say what you will about Roman Polanski, the man can still direct movies.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. On the Bowery
On the Bowery is Lionel Rogosin’s legendary 1956 documentary about men who drink, set in the derelict bars, flophouses and missions of New York City‘s Bowery in the ’50s. Now beautifully restored in 35 mm by Milestone Films, this black and white film chronicle of a short season in hell below the 3rd Avenue El, is an almost unbearably honest film.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. The Sitter, Louder Than a Bomb, Hop
Well, I’ve had it. After defending David Gordon Green for making Pineapple Express, a controversially violent stoner comedy that I think is well-acted, well-directed and hot-damn funny, I find myself confronted with this silly-ass comedy and harebrained Jonah Hill vehicle The Sitter, a movie that tries to stuff the white-boy car-crash raunch of The Blues Brothers and the paranoid comedy of After Hours into the kids-out-all-night plot of Adventures of Babysitting, and comes up with something just this side of Adventures in Idiocy or maybe Francis the Talking Mule Goes to a Swinger’s Club or maybe Plan 9 from a Night at the Roxbury.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Muppets
Rooney Mara is no Noomi Rapace. At least when it comes to playing superpunk, black-jacketed, neo-noir heroines with burning eyes, pierced eyelids and deadly temperaments. But she’s close.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Weekend Estimates: March 18, 2012
21 Jump Street|34.7 (11,120)|NEW|34.7 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax|23.2 (6,150)|-40%|158.8 John Carter|13.4 (3,580)|-55%|53.1 Project X|4.0 (1,380)|-64%|48.1 Act of Valor|3.7 (1,350)|-47%|62.4 A Thousand Words|3.7 (1,960)|-40%|12.1 Safe House|2.8 (1,460)|-42%|120.3 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island|2.5 (1,280)|-31%|95.1 Casa de mi Padre|2.2 (5,710)|NEW|2.2 This Means War|2.2 (1,310)|-42%|50.6
Read the full article »The Weekend Report: March 18, 2012
The reinvention of the bygone TV show was the sole new wide release while other freshmen aimed for niche crowds in hopes of building to bigger platforms. However, the prospects for expansion weren’t bountiful for either the comedic spin on Latin machismo in Casa de mi Padre or the sophisticated slackerisms of Jeff Who Lives at Home. The former grossed $2.2 million at 382 locations while the couch potato mashed $820,000 from 254 ovens.
Read the full article »Friday Estimates: March 16, 2012
21 Jump Street |13 |3121 |NEW |13 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax |6.7 |3769 |-30% |143.3 John Carter |3.8 |3749 |-61% |43.5 Project X |1.5 |2922 |-63% |45.6 Act of Valor |1.1 |2765 |-44% |59.8 A Thousand Words |1.1 |1895 |-43% |9.4 Safe House |0.8 |1920 |-41% |118.3 Casa de mi Padre |0.75 |382 |NEW |0.75…
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