MCN Weekend Archive for October, 2014
Wilmington on Movies: Gone Girl

Even if you’ve never read the book or seen the movie (which may well be the case), you probably think you sort of know what’s going to happen next. But you probably don’t. Gone Girl, which Flynn has cunningly imagined and craftily, stunningly wrote, and which Fincher has visualized with all the eerie expertise which usually marks his high-style crime movies (including Fight Club, Se7en, The Game, Zodiac, Panic Room, and even The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), is, like many another thriller of its type, dependent on how far we’re willing to suspend disbelief. But, in the realms of bestseller-turned-moviedom, Gone Girl is a cut or two above and definitely better than most — full of not always guessable tricks and twists, told in a tense, taut, racy, mostly engrossing style and boasting a lot of tangy, sharply drawn characters, very well played by a very good cast.
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Audiences proved game for Ouija and placed it at the top of the charts with an estimated $20.1 million. That left the session’s other incoming wide release, actioner John Wick, with the consolation prize of $14.2 million. In regional release, inspirational high school football yarn 23 Blast failed to score with a $347,000 tally from 617 scrimmages. Another flood of incoming exclusives provided a few encouraging (and better) results including Swedish Oscar submission Force Majeure that entered with $23,400 from two screens. The American indie comedy Laggies also opened well with $81,700 at six sites and the Edward Snowden affair provided Citizenfour with an excellent $117,000 box office from five engagements.
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Ouija will probably be the sole $20m-grosser for the weekend, though it is possible—as is often the case with horror films—that it drops so quickly that it comes up short. Good holds for Gone Girl And Disney’s Alexander, etc. Nice expansion for St. Vincent. And strong exclusive launches for Laggies and Citizenfour.
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The Second World War thundered into multiplexes in the form of Fury and topped the charts with an estimated $23.6 million opening salvo. The two other national bows included Guillermo Del Toro-produced animated fiesta The Book of Life slotting third with $16.9 million and three-hankie The Best of Me striking few Sparks, remaining a few sniffles behind at $10.2 million. Platformers ranged from a drop dead $310,000 result for Jason Reitman’s sixth moral tale, Men, Women & Children, at 608 theaters to a tempo-setting $202,000 bounce for percussive stamina test Whiplash at 21 venues.
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Fury rolls out to $8.8m on Friday, including over $1m on Thursday night. The two other openers are soft, though Book of Life could get a boost to a near-$19m weekend as family audiences land on Saturday. And Birdman soars on 4 screens, looking at $100k+ per-screen for the weekend. Also pulling more than $10k per screen for the weekend in exclusive release are The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Listen Up Philip.
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Despite considerable heat from new releases, Gone Girl held onto the top spot for the current frame with an estimated $26.8 million. Four new films entered the marketplace with Dracula Untold coming closest with $23.4 million. The remaining trio included family-friendly Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day that grossed $18.9 million, courtroom/bedroom drama The Judge at $13.3 million and the steamy Addicted fogging up an impressive $7.5 million.
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Drac takes a bite out of Amazing Amy with an Untold $8.9 million to Gone Girl‘s $8.1. Sundance fave Whiplash brings the tempo with over $6,000 per at six jazz rooms. Feel-good pop-doc Meet The Mormons makes a surprising entry at number 10 with a $1.2 million gross.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Million Dollar Arm, Edge of Tomorrow, Million Ways to Die, Sleeping Beauty, To Be Takei, Zappa, Dusk Till Dawn, Hemlock Grove, Houdini … More

Because of baseball’s unique learning curve, Million Dollar Arm probably could have been set in any country where cricket, soccer or, even, camel racing are king. The only thing known about baseball by the boys who participated in the contest is that it requires a player to throw an orb covered in horsehide toward an opponent with a bat in his hand, pretty much like cricket.
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“Amazing Amy” manages to stay just a cool-headed million ahead of wicked doll Annabelle, taking $38.1 million versus $37.1 million ahead of the Haunting.
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Annabelle breaks out of the box with a $2.3 million Friday lead on Gone Girl, but history tells us that a horror movie will stall as the weekend progresses while a drama will stay strong, if not get stronger… so look for Gone Girl to win the weekend. Even with 2 strong newcomers, the holdover business is good, with The Equalizer down only 55% Friday-to-Friday, suggesting a hold in the high 40s for the weekend. There are also 2 weak mainstream newcomers; Freestyle’s Left Behind and a 17-screen launch of Men, Women & Children from Jason Reitman and Paramount.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Transformers, Are You Here, Sordid Lives, American Muscle, Last of the Unjust, Ida, Lucky Them, Hellion, Wolf, Ivory Tower … More

In this way, Age of Extinction is the cinematic equivalent of a really explosive fireworks display on the 4th of July. Lots of things sparkle and go “boom,” but nothing lingers for very long. In addition to returning to Chicago for a while, Bay takes us to Hong Kong, Beijing, Monument Valley, Iceland and Detroit, which was redressed to fill in for other locations.
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