MCN Originals Archive for January, 2011

The Weekend Report: January 9, 2011

Times were darn good for a man who eats grits as the season’s surprise hit True Grit edged out Little Fockers for the top slot in weekend movie sales. The films had respective three-day box office of $14.8 million and $13.7 million.

With final numbers for 2010 finally tallied, results (see chart) were marginally better than initial projections. The year finished at $10.63 billion and a slim 0.4% decline from 2009.

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Friday Estimates: January 8

True Grit leads the awards contenders as we head into the weekend. Black Swan performs a grand jete with a 24% increase for Friday’s numbers, with The Fighter neck-and-neck, while The King’s Speech pulls in the highest per-screen boasting rights. Meanwhile, kiddie flicks falter.

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Pride: The Best Of 2010

THE TRUE MOVIE OF THE YEAR is a movie that is not a movie, that is not a script, that is not an idea, that is not even yet a flicker in the filmmaker’s mind, and that movie, of course, would be the one not yet imagined by Jafar Panahi, yet sensed by those who…

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MW on Movies: Season of the Witch and Country Strong

How are we supposed to handle the idea that Cardinal D’Ambroise, faced with a decision that he thinks might actually end the Black Plague, recruits as the witch’s main guards to her trial, two deserters who don’t believe in witches? And then backs them up with a swindler, a wispy priest and an altar boy who wants to be a knight?

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Box Office Hell: January 6

True Grit and Little Fockers appear perched to duke it out for the top slot this weekend, while our pundits disagree somewhat on the power of Nic Cage to turn Season of the Witch into box office gold. Meanwhile, good-hearted Country Strong looks to squeak through the weekend with fair-to-middling numbers.

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8 Weeks To Oscar: It’s Getting Serious

Oscary History Shock,
The Contenders Chase The Clock.
Eight Days, They’re Done,
Phase II Begun!
Oscary History Shock

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Gurus o’ Gold: The Holiday Is Over! (Jan 5, 2011)

The Gurus welcome you to 2011! The long-ranking Top 2, Social Network & King’s Speech, are now in a dead tie on top. But Rooster, Mattie &
LaBoeuf are chasing, as True Grit leaps from #7 to #3 this week.

We also ask, how many of these major guild nominations might translate into Oscar nods?

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MW on DVDs: Howl, Doctor Zhivago, Gone with the Wind, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, The Quintessential Guy Maddin

The movie is about art and society, but also about how the American justice system is supposed to work — how it’s meant to protect the rights of all, and to balance opposing claims: in this case, the rights of the public not to be disturbed, against the rights of a great poet to disturb them. One leaves Howl inspired by both the spectacle of the trial of the poet and the uncommon poetry of the trial.

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The DVD Wrap: Machete, Dinner for Schmucks, Easy A, Howl … and more

Machete In this insanely hyperactive action flick, Robert Rodriguez delivers on the promise made in the faux “Mexsploitation” trailer that accompanied Grindhouse. It would be folly to attempt any synopsis of Machete, except to recall that Danny Trejo’s character is a former Mexican federal agent, seeking to exact revenge on the American druglord (Steven Seagal)…

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Digital Nation: DVDs, VOD and HD: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Almost all of the news emanating from last year’s Consumer Electronics Show pertained to the imminent arrival of HD3D television and Blu-ray 3D. Hardware and software manufacturers had just come to an agreement on tech standards and the leading firms seemed ready to pounce on the Next Big Thing.

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The Top Tens: January 3, 2011

While The Social Network stays put, True Grit and The Fighter are slowly working their way up the chart. More lists still to come.

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Frenzy on the Wall: Looking Forward to a New (Hopefully Better) Year

2010 was not my favorite year at the movies. There were certainly films that I enjoyed and ones that I expect to own and revisit more than a few times, but there wasn’t a single film that made me shudder or give me goosebumps or to even make me gasp aloud. In other words, while…

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Top 10 2010: Part Two – The 10

My Top Ten starts out pretty funny… but it gets darker. Some of these movies, most MCN readers will have already seen. But some may not have been on your “Must See” list. But if you have missed any one of them, you’ve missed the movie history of 2010, whether you love them as much as I do or not.

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Top Ten 2010: Part One – The Second Ten

One good Top Ten deserves another. So here are ten more films that didn’t make the 10, but were good enough to seriously consider for inclusion.

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Weekend Box Office Report –January 2

Adult/awards fare, which includes The Fighter, Black Swan and The King’s Speech — all likely Oscar contenders — held their own with the holiday frivolity. That still leaves seven slots for films as diverse as Toy Story 3 and Blue Valentine in year that most film reviewers have characterized as overall sub-par.

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2010: The Major Studios

How did the majors do this year… and what’s coming up in 2011? Here are some answers. And a lot of question marks.

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Top Tens: January 1, 2011

More lists .. and True Grit moves up into the top ten. While most of the rest of the chart remains the same, there are more than 150 titles on the list .. proving that almost every movie has someone out there who loves it.

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Friday Estimates — January 1

As we wind down the new year, TRON: Legacy, Yogi Bear and Narnia benefit from a bit of a “last weekend of the winter break” bump. Gulliver’s Travels, though, fails to impress kids and parents and does not perform spectacularly. Meanwhile, True Grit leads a strong showing by the arthouse set.

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MCN Originals

Leonard Klady's Friday Estimates
Friday Screens % Chg Cume
Title Gross Thtr % Chgn Cume
Venom 33 4250 NEW 33
A Star is Born 15.7 3686 NEW 15.7
Smallfoot 3.5 4131 -46% 31.3
Night School 3.5 3019 -63% 37.9
The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls 1.8 3463 -43% 49.5
A Simple Favor 1 2408 -50% 46.6
The Nun 0.75 2264 -52% 111.5
Hell Fest 0.6 2297 -70% 7.4
Crazy Rich Asians 0.6 1466 -51% 167.6
The Predator 0.25 1643 -77% 49.3
Also Debuting
The Hate U Give 0.17 36
Shine 85,600 609
Exes Baggage 75,900 62
NOTA 71,300 138
96 61,600 62
Andhadhun 55,000 54
Afsar 45,400 33
Project Gutenberg 36,000 17
Love Yatri 22,300 41
Hello, Mrs. Money 22,200 37
Studio 54 5,300 1
Loving Pablo 4,200 15
3-Day Estimates Weekend % Chg Cume
No Good Dead 24.4 (11,230) NEW 24.4
Dolphin Tale 2 16.6 (4,540) NEW 16.6
Guardians of the Galaxy 7.9 (2,550) -23% 305.8
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4.8 (1,630) -26% 181.1
The Drop 4.4 (5,480) NEW 4.4
Let's Be Cops 4.3 (1,570) -22% 73
If I Stay 4.0 (1,320) -28% 44.9
The November Man 2.8 (1,030) -36% 22.5
The Giver 2.5 (1,120) -26% 41.2
The Hundred-Foot Journey 2.5 (1,270) -21% 49.4