MCN Originals Archive for March, 2014
The Weekend Report
Liberty, mostly in terms of historic fact, could not withstand the charge of 300: Rise of an Empire as it debuted at the top of the charts with an estimated $44.9 million. The frame’s other incoming national freshman Mr. Peabody & Sherman received the bark of approval in second spot with $32.3 million. But the big noise among new entries belonged to The Grand Budapest Hotel that bowed with $828,000 on just four screens following last weekend’s potent international debuts in France and Switzerland.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
300: Rise of An Empire opened strong to $17.3 million, which is the best opening day of 2014, even better than The Lego Movie. But Lego went on to a $30m Saturday and 300-2 should be expected to drop to about $15 million on Saturday and $11m on Sunday for an opening in the mid-40s for the 3-day. Still a strong opening. Also opening is Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which should hold the family trajectory, landing in the mid-20s for the weekend… a bit of a disappointing number for DreamWorks Animation.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: 300: Rise of an Empire
It may be preposterous–hell, it is preposterous–but it’s never boring.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs: Breathless; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
A guy named Michel Poiccard steals a car, drives from Marseilles to Paris, ecstatically sings of a girl named Patricia (“Pa-Pa-Pa-Patricia!“), finds a gun, shoots and kills a cop on the road, tries to cash an uncashable check, stares at and mimics a Bogart still in front of a cinema, finds Patricia hawking New York Herald Tribunes on the street, goes to her room, bandies with her about love, art, philosophy and William Faulkner (“Between grief and nothing I will take grief“)…
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup
12 Years a Slave, Grandmaster, Hunger Games, New World, Free Fall, Chicken Wings, Fox Archive and more.
Read the full article »The Torontonian Reviews: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Having continuously refined his style to the point where it is now immediately identifiable, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel sees the American auteur’s signature meticulousness at its highest level of detail and affectation, and fans of his work will know that that is a very good thing.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »48 Weeks To Oscar: Reviewing The 2014 Oscar Show
The best thing I can say about this year’s Oscar show is that there isn’t a whole lot to say. Ellen was good. Someone on Twitter found exactly the right note… it was like a sleepover. The only real downside is that only about a dozen people in the room were really included. Meryl Streep and Brad Pitt were at the center of it all. Kevin Spacey was the camera hog who found a way into every picture. Lupita Nyong’o’s brother was the kid from another school who found a way to fit in. Ellen didn’t dance. Smart.
Read the full article » 14 Comments »Gurus o’ Gold: Final Picks In All Categories
In case you need help with your Oscar ballot, here are the picks of the best 15 Oscar watchers in the business…
Read the full article »20W2O: Rebooting The Independent Spirit Awards
There was nothing really wrong with the show yesterday. But with due respect to some lovely moments with some lovely talent, to call the show “vanilla” would be an insult to vanilla. Really, the show jumped the shark over three years, 2008 – 2010…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »The Weekend Report
Industry trackers generally gave the edge to Non-Stop though frankly seemed adrift about how to gauge the opening appeal of Son of God. The high-flying tale of an air marshal pitting wits against a mysterious killer eight miles aloft seemed an ideal fit for the macho appeal of Liam Neeson and performed slightly better than anticipated.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Non-Stop
If you’d like to fly but you’re not in the mood for the aeronautical poetry of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises, if that’s just too arty and ambitious for you, there’s another airplane movie around now that, compared to Miyazaki‘s, is so non-artsy, so action-packed, so super-clichéd and so mind-bogglingly illogical, that it‘s almost entertaining.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
Liam Neeson beats the Son of God into submission on a Friday. But which one will win Saturday… and then Sunday? Lego looks to cross the $200m mark before the Oscars start. Arthouse action is led by The Bag Man, a Cinedigm release with DeNiro and Cusack looking at about $15k per-screen on 2 for the weekend.
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