The DVD Wrapup

Cloudburst, G.I. Joe, Bronte Sisters, Dahmer, Di Leo, The Fog, Whistleblowers, Shameless, Demented… and so much more.

The Weekend Report

It was clear sailing for The Wolverine as he clawed to the top of weekend moviegoing with an estimated $54.3 million. With but a single new national release the field was wide open for niche players to get a toehold in the marketplace. Coming-of-ager The To Do List ticked off $1.5 million in a limited wide opening. Blue Jasmine received “money” reviews and that translated into gold for the bespectacled filmmakers’ spin on “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The vet has emerged as the surprise summer alternative hit -aker and with some careful massaging his new effort could well emerge as one of his highest-grossing efforts.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The Wolverine slices off a big opening, though after a lot of hype, the number is going to be between The Great Gatsby and World War Z, in the “successful but not mega-opening” category. Two limited releases had strong launches. The To Do List will gross about $1.5m on 591 screens. And the new Woody, Blue Jasmine, is looking in the $80k+ range on just 6 screens. But perhaps the most impressive number, on the edge of wide release, is Fruitvale Station, which is over $3.5 million and will end the weekend over $5 million, expanding to 1064 screens.

Wilmington on Movies: The Wolverine

The Wolverine was directed by the almost bizarrely versatile James Mangold and the script is credited to a gifted threesome that includes Christopher McQuarrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank—and their show pours on the action and the production values. But it also ladles out the personality, and emotion that these kinds of movies often skimp on—and even throws in some humor. It’s a good show, full of zip and style—maybe not as good as I may be making it seem. But you can’t say this film doesn’t do what it’s meant to do, or that it doesn’t joyously exceed some of the usual parameters. Man of Steel, eat your heart out.

Wilmington on Movies: The To Do List

The movie is cute and so is Aubrey Plaza—though, with her pouty, sexy, full-lipped looks, I don’t know if she ‘s the right actress to play an all-time valedictorian, or a virgin. (An Ellen Page type might have been better.) On the other hand, if Plaza had played the bad sister Amber, she probably would have stolen the movie, as Bilson almost does.

DVD Geek: The Killing

More and more, movies seem like short stories and TV shows seem like novels. It took two ‘seasons’ (actually, each is a half-length season) for the murder mystery program, “The Killing,” to reach its highly satisfying conclusion. Set in Washington State, it is stocked with more red herrings than Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market, and there are rumors of fans having to buy new shoes and new televisions each week for having tossed the one into the other at the end of each episode.

Wilmington on DVDs: The File on Thelma Jordon; Adua and her Friends; Bullet to the Head

Recent birthday girl Barbara Stanwyck, one of the smartest and toughest of all the classic Hollywood femme fatales, was terrific at playing earthy babes who knew their way around a bedroom—and sometimes a courtroom or an insurance claims office as well,

Wilmington on DVDs: Band of Outsiders (Bande à part)

Avec

Pulp.

Poetry.

Politics (Peut-etre).

Two Guys, A Girl and a Gun.

Robbery

Murder

Wilmington on DVDs: Gate of Hell

There were two great gateways to the international movie houses of the post-war world for 1950s Japanese cinema. The first was Rashomon. The second was Gate of HellMost of us remember the former—Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 period masterpiece about four conflicting views of a rape and murder in the woods—and we can recall easily, intensely, rightfully. The latter, the much lesser known writer-director Teinosuke Kinugasa, is another period film, gorgeous almost beyond belief, and once widely hailed as the most beautiful color film of all time.

The DVD Wrapup

Beyond the Pines, Silence, Vanishing Waves, Twixt, Trance, Babette’s Feast, Starbuck, New World … and so much more.

The Weekend Report

Spooky The Conjuring became the weekend favorite with an estimated $41.4 million debut. Three other new films vied for eyes, including the animated Turbo, which bowed to $21.5 million; the aging spies of RED 2 grossed $18.1 million; and the men in long coats of R.I.P.D. took up the rear with $12.8 million. There was no paucity of exclusive newcomers with only the nonfiction entries Blackfish and The Act of Killing showing signs of ongoing life. The former grossed $58,500 at four tanks while the latter had a $31,400 count from three initial recreations.

Friday Box Office Estimates

There will be only one happy new movie on a weekend of 4 new wide releases. The Conjuring got some nice notices and now it’s doing some nice box office, though given the genre, the weekend total may juts be in the mid-30s. Less happy is Turbo, which will probably go in the opposite direction as the horror film for the weekend, but still is not getting out of the 20s. Red 2isn’t going to equal the original’s opening weekend, but it could be just as leggy and the real hope will be for a sequel bump internationally. And almost as though they were partying away their sorrows, Universal gave a raunchy bash for Kick-Ass 2 at ComicCon last night, putting RIPD behind them even before it had been open for a full day.

The DVD Wrapup

Jackie Robinson, Venus & Serena, Bullet to the Head, Wild Bill, White Frog, Damages, Jaglom, Street Trash, Downloaded… and so much more.

Wilmington on DVDs: Our Man in Havana; Evil Dead (2013); The Evil Dead

Like The Third Man, the plot plunges a naïve but imaginative amateur into a political game that turns deadly serious in a city that is dark and corrupt and filled with criminals and deceptions.

Wilmington on DVDs: 42

These Dodgers were among the elite units in baseball, but they were also cursed with their own share of prejudice (Walker was among the players who circulated a petition against Jackie), yet also blessed with tolerance and anti-bigotry as well.

The Weekend Report

Despite formidable competition Despicable Me 2 eked out ahead of the pack to top the weekend chart with an estimated $44.7 million. Close to the Minions were a pair of newcomers. Comedy ensemble Grown Ups 2 bowed to $42.7 million while science-fiction spectacle Pacific Rim opened with $38.2 million.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Adam Sandler tells the critics to grow up to the tune of a 13% opening day-increase over the first Grown Ups. Pacific Rim opens to $14.4m, which suggests an opening in the high 30s, though no one actually will know enough to estimate properly until Saturday night. And Despicable Me 2 will clearly leapfrog Monsters vs Robots but could also end up of top of the weekend again, depending on how well Grown Ups 2 holds today. The Lone Ranger‘s unhappy start has been compounded with a big Friday-to-Friday drop. And Kevin Hart should pass $25m with his concert film this weekend, edging closer to the Big Three of comedy concert grossers, but already the biggest one in the last dozen years.

Wilmington on Movies: Grown Ups 2

Sandler’s humor is often rough, if a little Jerry Lewis-ishly sentimental by the end, but Grown Ups, which was about infantile guys reliving the past but also growing up a little, was both congenial and even a little sweet—and it mopped up at the box-office, while displeasing many critics (who don’t pay for their tickets anyway), me included. Now comes the sequel—minus Rob Schneider. (I‘m not saying this is a loss comparable to the disappearances of Richard Castellano and Robert Duvall in the sequels to The Godfather, but Schneider should have done the movie.)

Wilmington on DVDs: Spartacus; Backdraft; Spring Breakers

Who needs school? Who needs life? Harmony Korine’s movies are outlaw pictures and weirdo comedies about people who don’t want to grow up.

The DVD Wrapup

Spring Breakers, Host, Vixens of Kung Fu, Gatekeepers, How West Was Won, Orphan Black.. And so much more…