MCN Originals Archive for December, 2013

Wimington on Movies — The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Books were my first love, movies my second. Yet, someday, I may get around to reading Suzanne Collins’ mega-selling young adult novel “Catching Fire,” for the moment the big-money blockbuster movie adapted from it—The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—will have to suffice.

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Wilmington on DVDs: Taken/Taken 2: We’re the Millers

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20W2O: Episode 12 Wks to Go – The Desolation Of Smog

Next time you read, “X has happened and it’s changed the race dramatically,” take a deep breath and think. If the race has been between the same 15 movies and the same 35 actors, etc, for months already, does any one event really change… or even suggest anything changing amongst 5800 people who are, mostly, not voting for any of the prior awards?

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Gurus o’ Gold: After SAG & Golden Globes Nods

The Gurus speak on how they see the SAG and Golden Globe nominations affecting the Oscar race. Rough day for Walt & Marty.

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The DVD Wrapup

Mary Poppins, Despicable Me, Adore, Vic, Jump, Jane Mansfield’s Car, Gundown, Doctor Who, Mitty, Berberian Sound Studio and so much more.

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Gurus o’ Gold: After Awards Week One

There’s been a lot of hardware being thrown around in the last week, so The Gurus decided to meditate on the Best Picture race and to answer the questions; who was helped, hurt, or unaffected by this week of furious activity. Look for a special Gurus update late Thursday/early Friday with reactions to both SAG and the Golden Globes nominations.

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The Weekend Report

Not unexpectedly, a Friday lead for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was not nearly enough to hold off family-friendly Frozen for the 3-day weekend.

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Friday Estimates

Fire still burns while Frozen yearns.

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DVD Geek: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

One of the greatest aspects of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies was the astounding sweep and gripping nature of its action scenes. They were stupendous, as great as anything ever created for the cinema, and nothing in An Unexpected Journey comes close. There are many smaller moments that are joyful, and several scenes that are legitimately thrilling, but the movie is missing the tentpole moments that made the other three films so exceptional.

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The DVD Wrapup

F&F6, Wolverine, City of Bones, Mandy Lane, Inch’Allah, Red Obsession, Mr. Angel, Saturn 3, Carmen Jones and more.

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20W2O: Oscar III (Legit Awards So Far, 1)

Now is the spring of our discontent
Made hideous summer by this board of Review;
And all the artistic ambitions that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the award season buried.
Now are our favorite films bound with victorious wreaths;
Filmmakers’ bruised souls hung up for monuments;
Their stern pretensions changed to merry overlong meetings…

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Gurus o’ Gold: Welcome To December!

The Gurus welcome you to the awardy month of December, where nominations and critics award dreams come true and Top 10 lists sprout like weeds of love. This week, it’s Best Picture and all four acting categories, where the fast risers are American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street.

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20 Weeks To Oscar: Spikin’ It

There is a difference between what the why and the why is here. There is why there hasn’t been a greater embrace… and that’s because Spike won’t give his voice in support of his films, except in the most Spike-ian ways. I don’t think this is a “f— you” to Oscar, award season, or the industry. But it might be. I can’t answer the question because of the other “why.” That is Spike’s true why… and he’s not really sharing.

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The Weekend Report

It was a rewrite for the record books weekend as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set a new benchmark for the Thanksgiving holiday with an estimated $75.2 million.

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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